Identical
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Beneath their perfect family façade, twin sisters struggle alone with impossible circumstances and their own demons until they finally learn to fight for each other in this poignant tour de force from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.
Sixteen-year-old 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. Underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. What really happened in the car accident that Daddy caused? And why is Mom never home, always running far away to pursue some new dream?
The girls themselves have become hopelessly divided over the years. Sick of losing Daddy’s game of favorites, Raeanne turns to painkillers, alcohol, and sex to dull her pain her anger. Kaeleigh tries to be her father’s perfect little flower, but being the misplaced focus of his sexual attention has her seeking control anywhere she can—even if it means cutting herself and unhealthy binge and purge eating.
Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept—from each other or anyone else. Before long, it's obvious that neither sister can handle their problems alone, and one must step up to save the other, but the question is…who?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Using free verse as her vehicle, Hopkins (Crank, Glass) takes readers on a harrowing ride into the psyches of 16-year-old identical twins Kaeleigh and Raeanne, both of whom are racing toward self-destruction. The girls' family appears picture-perfect. Their father is a prominent judge, their mother is running for Congress, and both girls do well in school. But ever since an accident, "Mom doesn't love anyone./ She is marble. Beautiful./ Frigid. Easily stained/ by her family. What's left/ of us, anyway. We are corpses." Raeanne seeks escape in sex and drugs; Kaileigh binges and cuts herself. Brief, gutsy confessions reveal a history of sexual abuse and emotional neglect, and it's not clear that both girls will survive it. Hopkins's verse is not only lean and sinuous, it also demonstrates a mastery of technique. Strategically placed concrete verse includes a poem about revenge shaped like a double-edged sword; in another, about jealousy, the lines form one heart reflecting another, until a rupture breaks the symmetry at the bottom. Often, the twins' entries mirror each other, on facing pages: although used differently in the two poems, the same key words are set off in corresponding stanzas ("think./ How/ different/ life./ could be" reads one set of key words). Those for whom Uncle Vampire means something will anticipate the still-breathless climax; all others, including most of the target audience, will be shocked. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
Well..damn..
I'm really not sure what to say about this book, or what to rate it..
It's definitely not a feel good story, and it's the first book I have ever read (and I do love Ellen's other books) that I wanted to put down, even wanted to delete and forget about it; that genuinely made me feel uncomfortable.
I do believe this book should have a bit more of a warning before reading. It contains tragic and somewhat graphic father/daughter sexual scenes, that are delved into several times and make up, basically, the plot of the book.
I have read the crank series several times, and several of her other books, but this is the first I would never read again. It is certainly a hard and very different read..