Identical- Book Review

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? (review from goodreads.com)

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I don't want to say that  a lot of books are predictable, because they're not, but I do think it's safe to say that in many books these days (maybe with the exception of mystery novels) but by the middle of a lot of books that I've read I have a good idea of what's going to happen at the end, who may die, who the killer is, who dates whom, and so on and so forth. 

There was no way I could see the end of this book coming. The entire book bounces back and forth the opinion of Kaeleigh and Raeanne, Kaeleigh is the more timid of the two sisters. She feels trapped in the life that her family has created around her having, taking control in only in her stress binging, and finding her escape in school and the boy her loves her, Ian.

Raeanne is the bad girl who sneaks out in the middle of the night hook up with guys for drugs and other "recreational" activities. She finds way to rebel in any and every situation and looks down on her sister for her "weak" behavior and giving in the want to their dad. Raeanne can't understand why
Kaeleigh wont tell someone what their dad does, or fight against him, and she tries to set up situations where Kaeleigh could tell someone her secrete.

In the end it turns out that Raeanne had died in the car accident caused her family to spiral out of control. To deal with the insanity that was her life, it appeared that Kaeleigh had developed a personality disorder becoming her dead sister Raeanne whenever she needed to draw out a misguided form of strength. 

This is the first book that I've read by Ellen Hopkins and I can't wait until I can find time to read more of them, the twist at the end of the book was crazy because Raeanne and Kaeleigh were two distinctly different characters and the fact that one person could portray both personalities is a fantastic idea.

Five stars to Hopkins.