Identical - Ellen Hopkins

There was so much talk throughout the semester about Ellen Hopkins' books, and I finally jumped on the train! Reading Identity was an awesome way to be introduced to the author. I'm still in awe of all of the concepts and style in this book, it was really incredible!
So I have to discuss this and in order to I have to throw some spoilers, BIG SPOILERS! So, skip this paragraph if you don't want to know! I knew there was something suspicious about Raeanne & Kaeleigh and the accident. My personal guess at first was that someone they knew was killed, then it developed into the thought that one of the sisters was dead. Once I noticed that the girls were never in the same place at the same time & never interacting, only speaking of the other (Raeanne of Kaeleigh), I knew I must be right and starting developing this theory that the sisters were one person! The further I got the more I picked up on clues and believed my theory! I was totally right! In the end we find out that Raeanne has died in the accident & Kaeleigh has developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. This plays perfectly with the connections of characters, small & big, Madison, the father, the mother, the grandparents. SOOOO much information is loaded out at the end of the book, and it was so unreal. Like I said, I had the prediction so I was not shocked or in awe, but it made me think the book was even more intricately written and created, which amazed me.

PHEW! Enough spoilers. Read the book, it's unreal! And it only takes a couple days!
I could not bring myself to have this book in my classroom or recommend it to students without truly considering all of the different elements to it. A student in a similar situation to Kaeleigh may or may not benefit from the text. The ending is hopeful and full of contentment, but it's still an incredibly strong text full of sexual abuse of family members, drug use, excessive alcohol use, explicit sex, language, and themes. It's rated R, in a lot of ways. I loved the book, some of it made me uncomfortable, but in my age group and generation, I am not unaware of these ideas, themes, awful happenings. Like I said, a recommendation would be incredibly difficult, but on some level it might be worth reading. Either way, the writing was brilliant, it was beautiful in verse I feel. I'm not sure I would have liked the story so much if it wasn't written in verse, it gave it a lot more emotion and a lot more dimension. Definitely a worthy read with a soothing ending! It gave me some good perspective on something my students might be going through and it made me feel lucky that my life has truly been comparatively simple, it made me grateful for that!