Identical

Identical 

By: Ellen Hopkins

Published: Aug. 26, 2008

Pages: 565

 Rating:

Summary: 

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?- GR

Review:

"1 egg 1 sperm, but how many souls?"  Once I read the first couple of pages there wasn't any going back, only forward. Raeanne and Kaeleigh were brought into this world by monsters. Their Mother and Father are to blame, ever since this horrible car wreck their family was never the same. At first it seems that Raeanne is the bad one of the family, but no matter what she does it will never compare to what her mother and father did.  Kaeleigh was just a child, she was to young, but did that stop her father from doing things we all know is wrong , NO! He took advantage of his own daughter, used her. Kaeleigh just wanted to make her dad happy, that's what he told her, that she was making daddy happy. You see daddy plays a game of favorites, and Kaeleigh doesn't have to cheat to win. Kaeleigh is more like her mother and Raeanne is more like her father, I'm still trying to figure out who is worse. 

Bruises. That's what Kaeleigh showed her mom, bruises that daddy gave her. Kaeleigh tried to reach out to her mom, only to be shut down. Her mother turned the other cheek, she looked away and let a monster run wild. Its not her fault what her husband did, but it is her fault that he wasn't stopped right then and there. But stopping her husband would lead gossip and a smear of the Gardella name. 

Raeanne was always second in her fathers eyes, she was never good enough for him. All she wanted was his affection, the affection that he gave Kaeleigh. The problems she has wont go away, they follow her everywhere she goes. Not only does mom and dad know about the abuse but so does someone else. We all have secrets and problems but the ones theses two girls carry on their backs is to much for anyone to handle. Their lives with rip at the seems, but the question is who will be left standing and who will just fade away.