David Stahler hasn't hesitated to write matter-of-factly about ghosts in the Northeast Kingdom (A Gathering of Shades), or people who think being blind is normal (Truesight). In Doppelganger, he gets to an even creepier idea: that the bulgy-eyed, nasty-skinned grayish aliens people have sighted are actually a race of parasites called dopplegangers, living here on Earth, killing and taking over the bodies of unsuspecting humans. Talk about a gothic creep-fest!
     In a great twist away from the usual aliens-stole-my-body tales, Stahler rips into his young adult novel with a ghastly view of life from a teen-aged doppelganger's point of view. He's got to go out into the world (pretty much thrown out of the house by his nasty-minded mother) and find someone to kill, someone whose form he can take on. The lust for a human body is going to drive him from the not-so-bad kid who hides from his own parent, into a monster of sorts.
     And after a quick first kill of someone about to die anyway (an old hobo on a train car), the teen-age doppelganger -- the narrator of his own tale, nameless except as "I" -- when abused by a mean human teen, takes on that body. Oh man, the family life he steps into! A violent and angry father, a scared sister, a helpless mom. The only good part is, his teen "form" comes complete with a smart, pretty girlfriend, as well as being a hero on the football squad.
     For a doppelganger whose previous human experience has come only from watching TV shows, this breaks open a wild set of challenges. The family home he's suddenly part of is, well ... let him tell it: "There was a dingy feeling about the place, as if a layer of some kind of poisonous dust had fallen over everything in the house: invisible, but palpable. I don't know what I'd been expecting, but somehow the whole place seemed less real than the homes I'd gotten to know on all my favorite shows."
     How can he step into football without understanding the game? Where are the limits on the violence he's willing to commit and endure? And what about love, affection, touching -- can doppelgangers have relationships with real young women? Won't they kill the ones they love?
     "Chris," the borrowed name for this alien-in-young-man's-skin, hasn't got any answers. Meanwhile, his borrowed life is throwing at him opportunities for heroism (with all the pain involved) and cruelty right and left. Hardly any of it is predictable; suprise and shudders lie ahead.
     For the adolescent in your life (one who feels secure enough to cope with violent scenes), this is an intense read with plenty of rough reality in the plot and character. Tenderness and some kinds of redemption come along with the territory, but Stahler never cheapens his novel with misplaced humor, never steps out of character of this mixed-up and desperate youth. If you're not sure the teen in your life is ready for such strong action and streaks of horror, read it yourself first.
     But trust me: From ghost stories at sleepovers, to horror stories of vampires and death, most young adult readers enjoy a dark and bloody tale with plenty of suspense. In which case, Doppelganger is going to win you major points when you give it to your changing, questing, groping young friends.

Beth Kanell

Beth Kanell is co-owner of Kingdom Books, a mystery and poetry specialty shop in the Northeast Kingdom (www.KingdomBks.com).