The second of four in the series, Stranger and stranger by Rob Reger and Jessica Gruner continues to document the life of goth teenager Emily the Strange. While it chronologically follows The lost days, this novel can be read also as a standalone since the most important details from the first are incorporated.
The overall themes remain the same between the two novels: exploring a new town, enjoying her hobbies (sewer and late-night exploring, skateboarding, experimenting), and emoting her gothic laissez faire attitude. More emphasis is given to her artistic and scientific sides in this novel, which brings out elements of her personality that were subdued in the first one.
The novel itself has the same format as a somewhat graphic novel written in a loose diary-style journaling with hand-drawn doodles and many 13 point lists. Considering her age, it works really well and makes the book more approachable. There’s also a consistency for the readers, if they have read the first one.
In Stranger and stranger, the main plot is Emily the Strange wanting to pull off the ultimate prank on the new town. Although still unknown, her mom periodically moves them to a new place for a fresh start. While the prank originally starts off as an ambitious duplication of everyone in town, she ends up replicating herself first by accident and must learn to live with a second Emily the Strange. At first, she’s not sure what to think but then it gradually becomes clear that the duplication also split certain parts into each Emily, so that their personalities and motivations are not identical like she originally thought. At one point, the girls accidentally swap journals and the Other Emily begins writing the story, sharing her side of things. Part of what’s interesting is the idea of what makes you, well, you. Emily the Strange and the Other Emily both are obsessed with who the “real” one is but in the end, it’s a matter of needing both of them to make up Emily the Strange.
Recommended?: Yes, for Emily the Strange fans and those who enjoy YA graphic novels/journal format. The novel is simpler than the first, since there isn’t a complex mystery; the story itself if more straight-forward even if it gets a little more complicated when they swap journals. If you’ve ever wondered what “typical” life is like for Emily the Strange, this is the one to read.
