The Strangers

Technology plays a central role in The Strangers. Like most 21st century families, it is integral to the Greystones’ daily routine. Kate designs websites, so she owns and uses several laptops; Natalie, like the teen cliché she initially is, rarely lifts her eyes from her phone; the kids are well-versed enough in technology that they can locate and decode their mother’s letter. Technology is the primary vehicle for communication, work, and information storage. While technology has undisputed benefits, it can fail individuals at the worst times. When Natalie, Chess, Emma, and Finn venture into the alternate world for the first time, Natalie can’t get a cell phone signal, rendering her digital lifeline useless. When Natalie uses facial recognition software to identify Kate Gustano as Kate Greystone, the technology, while functioning properly, gives them a false positive result. In the alternate world, technology is used for nefarious purposes. It instills fear in the citizenry, herding them like sheep into compliance. It attributes a false confession to Kate Greystone, implicating her in the murder of her husband and others. It propagates the lies of those in power, allowing them to hold on to that power without fear of consequences.

While Haddix keeps her characters fully immersed in the 21st century, she also suggests that there are some problems technology can’t solve. Both Finn and Emma use their own wits and cleverness to unravel their mother’s cryptic messages without relying on “codebreaker apps.” Emma’s formidable mind is nurtured not by video games or social media, but by books and her own imagination. When they must escape from the auditorium, Natalie uses face-to-face engagement to convince the guards to let her and the kids pass. The conspirators working against the authoritarian government communicate not through texts and emails but with the simplest of technologies, a hand-drawn symbol of a heart. To stay safe from the harmful consequences of technology, the novel argues, requires removing oneself from it completely.

The detrimental effects of technology have been widely documented, especially its effects on young, developing brains which include distraction, depression, and addiction. Thus, there is something refreshing about kids using their natural cognitive skills to find their way out of trouble. The Greystones are like tech-savvy Hardy Boys or Nancy Drews, adolescent detectives from a bygone era who relied on physical items—like a locket or a diary—to solve their mysteries. Haddix puts technology into an appropriate context: It is a tool, but like any tool, it cannot replace the human imagination. 

The Greystones have seen their share of trauma. Their father died before Emma or Finn could remember him, and Chess’s memories of him are sketchy at best. Their mother disappears with almost no warning and possibly forever, leaving them in the care of a total stranger. With no good options left open to them, they are forced to grow up too fast, face Herculean challenges, and save their mother’s life. Young adult literature is filled with stories of young boys and girls who are seemingly too young for adult responsibilities but who nevertheless rise to the challenge and mature into young adults in the process. Harry Potter, an orphan, faces the bewildering gauntlet of wizard school, life-threatening dangers at every turn, and even death itself at the hands of the evil Lord Voldemort in order to fulfill his destiny as the liberator of the wizarding world. In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the four Pevensie siblings must battle the White Witch and her minions in order to free Narnia from its endless winter. This trial involves real people—or, in this case, real creatures—and real death. The life skills these children gain in their fantasy world equip them for life in the real world. It is only by testing their mettle against life-and-death challenges, these stories suggest, that children can grow into resilient adults.

While YA literature continues to proliferate this idea of hardship being good for kids, some research suggests otherwise. Fiction is imaginary, and readers of young adult literature can usually anticipate a positive outcome, but in real life, hardship can have long-lasting and harmful psychological effects. Fear is, without doubt, necessary for survival, but “for some people, excessive fear and hyper-vigilance for threats can interfere with adaptive functioning, even developing into an anxiety disorder” (Compton, Rebecca. “Growing Up Too Fast? Early Adversity Affects Fear Responses.” Psychology Today. 2017). The stress involved in losing one parent to murder and losing another to arrest by an authoritarian government in an alternate universe would send any child to the psychiatrist’s couch for years to come, and it could adversely affect that child’s health far into the future. Harry Potter, the model of youthful resilience, survives death and reincarnation to become a happily married family man, but in the real world, the toll on his physical and psychological health would likely be enormous.