Identical (novel)

Ellen Hopkins' fifth novel, released in August of 2008.

Premise

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?

Main Characters

Kaeleigh Gardella is one of the twins. She is the 'good' girl who doesn't do drugs, drink, nor run around with a couple of different guys. She has only one close friend, named Ian, who loves her and she struggles to return his love. She struggles because of her father, who sexually abused her when she was younger, thus warping her views on sex and love. She also loves her mom a great deal, but her mother has become frigid and distant, seemingly using her politician status as a way to get away from her family. She is a binge eater and a cutter.

Raeanne Gardella is the other twin. She has always pined for her father's love, which she watched Kaeleigh receive again and again when the two girls were young. Because of what she witnessed, she turns to sex, drugs and alcohol, rather than be 'perfect' like Kaeleigh. She is bulimic and whenever she sees her sister binge, she has to go and make herself purge. She practically hates her mother because she is never around.