Identical [Hardcover]

Ellen Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2008

Do twins begin in the womb?
Or in a better place?

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family -- on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that's where their differences begin.

For Kaeleigh, she's the misplaced focus of Daddy's love, intended for a mother whose presence on the campaign trail means absence at home. All that Raeanne sees is Daddy playing a game of favorites -- and she is losing. If she has to lose, she will do it on her own terms, so she chooses drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept -- from each other or anyone else. Pretty soon it's obvious that neither sister can handle it alone, and one sister must step up to save the other, but the question is -- who?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—Identical teen twins Kaeleigh and Raeanne share a picture-perfect California life that is rank with dark, dangerous secrets under its surface. Their mother, who is running for Congress, leaves them at home with their father, a district court judge who is addicted to liquor and OxyContin. Daddy regularly molests Kaeleigh, using her as a stand-in for his absentee wife, and controls every aspect of her life. Raeanne sees every detail and reacts to her father's favoritism by acting out sexually and getting high on pot whenever possible. Written in free verse from alternating viewpoints, Identical tells the twins' story in intimate and often-graphic detail. Hopkins packs in multiple issues including eating disorders, drug abuse, date rape, alcoholism, sexual abuse, and self-mutilation as she examines a family that "puts the dys in dysfunction." The tension builds slowly and subtly, erupting in a shattering climax of psychological disintegration and breakthrough that reveals the truth about the twins and their father's own childhood secrets. Gritty and compelling, this is not a comfortable read, but its keen insights make it hard to put down.—Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Identical twins Kaeleigh and Raeanne alternate their stories in this tale of family secrets and self-destructive behavior. Their campaigning-politician mother is largely absent from their lives, and their father, a renowned judge, sexually abuses Kaeleigh and ignores Raeanne. The twins fight their demons in various destructive ways, including drug and alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, and eating disorders. Flanagan reads the parts of both girls—a great choice for identical twins who appear as mirror images of one another. Raeanne’s jaded, harsh tones are in stark contrast to Kaeleigh’s dreamy little-girl voice. The free-verse construction of the novel is especially suited to audio, with Flanagan bringing forth the drama and timing of the poems. Though the content of the book—especially scenes of incest—makes for uncomfortable listening, this is a powerful interpretation of an emotional story. Grades 9-12. --Heather Booth --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (August 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416950052
• ISBN-13: 978-1416950059
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (113 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was adopted at birth and raised by a great, loving older couple. I grew up in Palm Springs CA, although we summered in Napa and Lake Tahoe, to avoid those 120 degree summers. After my adopted parents died, I did find my birth mother, who lives in Michigan with my half sister.

I studied journalism in college, but left school to marry, raise kids and start my own business--a video store, before the mega-chains were out there. After a divorce, I met my current husband and we moved to Tahoe to become ski bums and otherwise try to find our dreams. At that time, I went to work for a small alternative press, writing stories and eventually editing.

When we moved down the mountain to the Reno area, I started writing nonfiction books, many of which you can see here. The rest are viewable on my personal website. I also continued to freelance articles for newspapers and magazines.

All that has changed, with the publication of my novel, CRANK, which has led to a valued career writing YA novels in verse, all of which explore the more difficult situations young adults often find themselves in. Will I ever write one in prose? No doubt! But, for the moment, writing novels in verse fulfills two needs: writing poetry and writing fiction. The combination is so interesting!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I try not to look at the girl in the mirror as I pass by", October 19, 2008

By 

Linda Bulger (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Identical (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical twins, 16 years old, mirror images; physically alike but in personality very different. They are half of a deeply dysfunctional family. Their mother, a politician running for office in Washington, has left them in every way possible; their father, a judge, numbs himself with whiskey and pills before coming to one daughter's bed while the other alternately hates him for it and longs for his love.

Kaeleigh, soft-centered, binges and cuts herself, can't feel worthy of the young man who loves her; and finds her only common ground with an 80-year-old woman who lives in the residential center where she works part-time. Raeanne, on the other hand, is tough and cold, has sex with dangerous boys for drugs, steals booze and oxy from her father, and purges to free herself from the venom of her past.

The unbearable events that poison the twins' present are rooted in the past, but just how far back? The car accident when they were eight years old, or further back in their parents' youth? The foreshadowing is woven through the present story, and even if the reader glimpses the truth before full disclosure, the book's worth rests not in its revelation but in the escalation of pain resulting from the family history.

I had not read any earlier books by author Ellen Hopkins so I was unprepared for the highly original design concept of this book. Done entirely in free verse in the alternating voices of the sisters, the words on the page are arranged in patterns that reflect the tone of the story. Letters, hearts, teardrops; tight intense verses; jagged word explosions on the page; and most interesting of all, where the story transitions from one twin to the other, the words on the facing pages mesh together like the teeth of a zipper. I found it literally impossible to put this book down and read it in one long session. The originality of design hooked me, but the intensity of the story delivered a punch that will stay with me for a long time.

In publisher-speak, the category "Young Adult" refers to readers approximately 12 to 18 years old. Identical would be better suited for the more mature reader toward the upper end of that range, having explicit scenes involving sex, alcohol and drug abuse, purging and cutting. Any adult wanting to understand the pressures and realities of teen life will find this book enlightening, and for everyone else it's a fast, riveting read; dark, but beautifully paced and crackling with painful truth. Five stars at least.

Linda Bulger, 2008

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book dealing trauma and brokenness, December 22, 2011

By 

Tiffany A. Harkleroad "Tiffanys Bookshelf" (Kittanning PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Identical (Hardcover)

Raeanne and Kaeleigh are identical twins. Identical on the outside, at least, but inside, the girls could not be more different. Kaeleigh harbors a secret, Raeanne harbors one as well. As Kaeleigh deals with her fathers unwanted affections, Raeanne pines for them. As Kaeleigh binges, Raeanne purges. As Kaleigh pushes boys away, Raeanne juggles multiple partners. What happens when all the secrets bubble to the surface?

I have read many of Ellen Hopkins' young adult books, but this was, by far, the most powerful of them all. This book focuses on trauma, and the effects it can have on the lives of everyone involved. Trauma spanning generations, states, political affiliations. There is also an emphasis on seeking wholeness in unlikely and unhealthy ways. We see brokenness in nearly every character in the book, each of them using different means to feel whole again.

I thought the character development was so incredibly done, particularly once the secrets are all revealed. This is one of those books that, once you know the ending, you are compelled to go re-read it again, looking for all the hidden clues. And Hopkins is a master of hidden clues. I found this writing to be really brilliant, and it reminds me why I love novels written in verse form so much.

I know that books with tough subject matter are questionable for young adult readers, so parents should be fully aware of the content before allowing their children to read it. This book is probably most appropriate for young adult readers at the older end of that spectrum, late high school to early college age.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotionally impactful and gripping, August 28, 2009

By 

Vania Stoyanova "Reverie Media Book Reviews" (Atlanta, Ga) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Identical (Hardcover)

Ellen Hopkins's IDENTICAL is....WOW! I know that's not much of a review and if I could I would just leave it at that. The last book I felt such amazement for was WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson and although the two books are so different they both have one thing in common... they go for guts, gritty and dark. They go straight for the jugular sparing nothing and showing us the raw insides.
Hopkins is a master writer, lyrical and poignant, as she tells the story of twin girls, Raeanne and Kaeleigh. One who goes off the deep end in a self destructing manner and the other who hides it inside and takes the pain. The girls are troubled by sexual abuse, parents who busy themselves with life and ignore them, emotional and psychological pain that haunts and tatters them occasionally. Each girl battles her own demons in her own way and Hopkins does well to get us inside the battered psyche of the two troubled teens.
Even though I listened to this book the story was just as impactful and heart wrenching as the written, poem like pages might be. Hopkins story was gritty, messy, and painful to listen to but at the end still filled with hope. Point of the story... you always have a choice. I recommend this book to fans of dark and emotional themes.