Identical is a book by Ellen Hopkins which is composed entirely of poems and alternates between the points of view of two identical twin sisters, Raeanne and Kaeleigh.
Raeanne
Raeanne describes herself as exactly like her sister. When she looks in the mirror, all she can see is Kaeleigh. At least, on the outside they are identical. Raeanne thinks Kaeleigh is the egg cell, since she is so much like their mother: cold and controlled. Raeanne is the sperm cell, just like her father: codependent and cowardly. They are complete opposites but exactly alike. They are one being, but how many souls?
Raeanne wonders this, thinking that since God inserts one soul instantly at conception, is the soul split in two, or does it clone itself? Or maybe God places two souls in a single cell, and that is the driving force behind twins.
In any case, the twins live in a valley in California. The valley is composed of three towns, all with different styles. Raeanne's family lives in the center of the triangle of towns, which has windmills, cobbled sidewalks, and perfect houses. But, like Raeanne and Kaeleigh, the houses hold dark secrets; some dark, untellable, and unbelievable.
Raeanne considers the idea of secrets. Telling a secret about someone you don't know causes people to listen but not believe you. Telling secrets about your friends makes people think you're messed up and distrust you.
Kaeleigh
Kaeleigh wishes she could tell someone, but she has no one to whom she can confess a secret. Her mother is never around, and doesn't have time to listen between campaigns. Kaeleigh says anyone would imagine that she'd like to know a secret in order to forewarn her, and wonders if her mother even knows that the family has secrets. But how could she not? The clues are everywhere.
Her father comes home every day and immediately turns to a tall amber bottle and shuts out the rest of his family. He appears to be a proud man, but he's really just a broken soul. He is a respected but not well-liked jurist. Part of Kaeleigh hates him, but another is still his little girl. He has plenty of secrets that Kaeleigh's mother should know about, but if she told on her father, she'd have to tell on herself -- how she's very antisocial and anxious about letting anyone see the real her.
They have a beautiful house, but with no family pictures. Kaeleigh finds it strange, but they never have any visitors who may question it. She has a nice room and very nice clothes, so to her, life really isn't so bad, is it?
It used to be so different. Kaeleigh's parents used to be madly in love, used to joke about their names (Ray and Kay), how fate must have wrote them in a poem together. Raeanne and Kaeleigh would beg them to tell the story of how they met, one more time. Kay was at college and had a terrible boyfriend who later got arrested. He was in Ray's courtroom, failing miserably at trying to come up with an excuse for drunk driving. Kay was sitting in the front row, hoping Ray would go easy on her boyfriend, but once she had a good look at him, she knew she was in love.
All that was before the day Ray's own drunk driving had shattered his family's world. He jerked into two lanes and head-on into traffic. A one-ton truck sliced open the passenger side, causing premature death, battered bodies, and scars. After that, Kay didn't love Ray anymore, even though he stayed by her side while she healed and promised to make it better. Since then, Kay doesn't love anything anymore. None of the neighbors suspect anything of her, that her motive for running for Congress is to escape her family. No one suspects Ray to beg to Kaeleigh to let him stay, to love him the way Kay used to.
Raeanne
Raeanne finds it crazy that Kaeleigh shuts out her father, when she craves his affection. She wonders why her father loves Kaeleigh so much when she is exactly identical. She wonders if he would do the same things to her if she was more like her mother, if he realized she wanted to love him like Kay used to.
Kaeleigh makes Raeanne mad, the way she hides in her own mind, hides from her father. Ray is the only one Raeanne wants to be close to, but he ignores her, forcing Raeanne to pretend she doesn't need to be loved. But sometimes the need overcomes her, and she turns to her boyfriend, Mick.
Her mother tells her that he's trouble, but Raeanne doesn't care what her mother thinks. Raeanne plans to take off from school with Mick during lunch, although she doesn't plan on eating much. If she does return to school after, her state will be altered. She blows through a history quiz, and her history teacher lets her leave after. She feels his eyes on her as she leaves with one final thought: "Men are so easy."
After Raeanne leaves the bathroom, where she redid her makeup, she hears the usual voices in the hallway. She constantly gets confused with her sister, which angers her. Although that's the consequence of sharing the same wardrobe, and the same face.
Mick never confuses her with Kaeleigh -- she would never go near him. Mick and Ray are too much alike. Mick is two years out of school and stops in the parking lot. Raeanne walks toward it, picking up speed when she thinks about what awaits her. Her life has gotten better since she met her friend, marijuana. She loves everything about it, especially the kind Mick provides her with. She's ready to pay Mick for the pot she will get, but not with money.
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