About the Book

Identical by Ellen Hopkins is a book about identical twins, Kaeleigh and Raeanne. Their father is a district-court judge and their mother is running for Congress. Both girls do well in school. Kaeleigh is a typical daddy's girl, but Raeanne is the opposite. Raeanne and her father don't get along even though she would love to have the attention that Kaeleigh gets. What Raeanne doesn't know is that her father is sexualy abusing Kaeleigh.

Kaeleigh

Kaeleigh is afraid to love because her father sexually abuses her. Her best friend Ian is in love with her and she wants to love him back but she can't. She feels as if she can't trust any man because of what her father does to her. When her mother comes back home from her campaign she tries to get closer to her mother. She wants to tell her mother about what is happening to her but she just can't tell. She volunteers at a nursing home and that's where she meets Gretta. Gretta is like a grandmother to Kaeleigh. Gretta has an idea of what Kaeleigh's father does to her because the same thing happened to her when she was younger.

Raeanne

Raeanne is outgoing and would do anything for her father's love. Her father is the only person she wants to get close to. Raeanne is bulimic because she wants to look perfect for her father and because she wants to feel like she is in control. She thinks that as long as she is in control that everything will be alright. She usually just pretends that she doesn't need any affection, but after a while she realizes that she does need it. That is when she turns to drugs and sex.

The End

In the end of the book we find out that Raeanne died in a car accident years before. Kaeleigh sees a shrink while she is at the hospital and learns that she has Dissociative identity disorder. Her alter is her twin sister Raeanne. The reason that her father abused her was because her mother moved away after the accident and her father needed someone to 'love'. Kaeleigh moved in with her grandmother and her father went into rehab to try and get a 'straight' head.