Reading Response Four; Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical twins. They both look the exact same but on the inside they are completely different. Kaeleigh likes to excel in school and never really does anything to get in trouble. She tries to go to school and hide because she doesn't want to be noticed. Raeanne is the complete opposite. Raeanne does drugs, and tries to find attention it guys at her school. After a car accident when they were younger their father changed drastically. He started to drink and after he got drunk he would abuse Kaeleigh. During the story you realize how different the twins truly are. They are complete opposites with very little in common as they are often very jealous of each other. Raeanne is jealous of the attention Kaeleigh gets from the dad. The character that changes the most during the story is Kaeleigh. At the beginning of the story she is very innocent and focuses on school and excelling. She seems to have nothing holding her back from reaching her true potential. In the middle of the story she meets a guy and starts to have flash backs of her dad and her dad starts to abuse her again. This causes her to go into a downward spiral. She starts to experiment with drugs like her sister. She ends up having suicidal tendencies and at one point her sister Raeanne has to save her. "Happily ever after is a concept I'll never believe." This goes to show how unhappy she is with her life. At the end of the story she realizes that her life is a complete lie. She started to change reality to deal with the things she couldn't handle on her own. This causes her brain to make up things so her life will be more comfortable and it helps her escape from reality. You learn a lot about what is actually going on toward the end of the story. It causes you to rethink the whole book because there is a huge twist in the story that is very hard to pick up on. The picture that I used for this story is of identical twins. Although they make look the same on the outside it doesn't mean they are the same person. It is easy to look at someone and expect them to be something that they are not. The important message of the book is that not everyone is the same as their siblings or anyone else for that matter. Everyone is unique in their own way and share different beliefs and views of the world and it's easy to overlook that.