What would it feel like to harbor a secret that could hurt another person should it be revealed? Both girls have an eating disorder, and as they spiral into more dangerous depths, the story takes a surprising twist. Their mother spends her time on the campaign trail their father lives at home where he drinks, abuses Oxycontin, and controls his daughters’ every move-from the clothes they wear to the places they go.

Torn apart by a tragic event, the twins’ parents hardly speak. Haunted by this, Kaeleigh has difficulty letting any boy close and deals with her pain by cutting. Kaeleigh is the quiet one, the one most like her mother, and the victim of her father’s sexual advances.

Raeanne is the aggressive twin, the one who is sexually promiscuous-giving sex in return for drugs she craves sexual attention from anyone, including her father.

On the surface they are the perfect American family, but beneath the façade lies a damaged family. Their father is a well-known district court judge and their mother a politician. Kaeleigh and Raeanne Gardella, identical twins, live in a posh California neighborhood. Reading Group GuideĪ Reading Group Guide to Identical by Ellen Hopkins How Kaeleigh and Raeanne figure out just what it means to be whole again when their entire world has been torn to shreads is the guts and heart of this powerful, disturbing, and utterly remarkable book. For Raeanne, she needs to numb the pain of not being Daddy's favorite for Kaeleigh, she wants to do everything she can to feel something normal, even if it means cutting herself and vomiting after every binge. But when the girls were 9, Daddy started to turn to his beloved Kaeleigh in ways a father never should and has been sexually abusing her for years. Kaeleigh always tries so hard to be the good girl - her father's perfect little flower. What really happened when the girls were 7 years old in that car accident that Daddy caused? And why is Mom never home, always running far away to pursue some new dream? Raeanne goes after painkillers, drugs, alcohol, and sex to dull her pain and anger. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for US Congress. 'Perfect on the outside, but behind the Normal Rockwell facades, each holds its secrets.

Identical ellen hopkins series