Today Marshmallow reviews Almost Identical, the 2012 book by Lin Oliver that starts the eponymous four-book series. This book series was recommended to the book bunnies by a reader of the blog: thank you, you-know-who-you-are!
Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like sweet stories that surprise you with their depth and potential significance to your own life, then this is the book for you!
Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Sammie and Charlie Diamond are identical twins. Though their names might not sound like it, they are both twelve year old girls (twelve years and three quarters to be exact!) Being identical twins, they’ve done everything together since birth. They are extremely good tennis players and compete constantly in doubles leagues. This is mostly due to their father’s desire to live somewhat vicariously through their success. He was set to become a professional player but was injured in a game and had to have a career-ending surgery. Now, he works as the athletic director at the Sporty Forty beach club in Santa Monica teaching tennis and supervising things in general.
Luckily, the family and GoGo (the girls’ grandmother) are allowed to live in the old caretaker’s beautiful bungalow for free by the beach. Unluckily, Sammie and Charlie’s mother is off in Boston at culinary school so she can start up a restaurant when she comes back. That means Sammie and Charlie are on their own to deal with their annoying older brother Ryan. They have plenty to worry about besides him though. Moving from Culver City Middle School to the more affluent Beachside Middle School is a bit of a jarring change.
One girl in particular–Lauren Wadsworth–is so rich and famous and smart and beautiful (allegedly) that they had heard about her before moving. The cool kids / jocks call themselves the SF2s because they are the second generation of the owners of the Sporty Forty (which is owned by several very wealthy families). Sammie and Charlie meet Lauren before school starts though as she is hosting her birthday party at the club; because she has a crush on Ryan, Lauren eventually invites all three of the Diamond children to the event.
This is the start of the end for Sammie. Before all of this, she was already being essentially attacked by her father and brother for being ‘too heavy.’ At the party, she is reminded yet again that she does not fit in as well as Charlie. Charlie is desperate to get in with the in-group and she does well, especially since Lauren can’t wait to get closer to the Diamond family (though she is mostly interested in a specific annoying eighth grade boy…cough, cough, Ryan).
Basically, Charlie fits in. Sammie, on the other hand, does not. She is uncomfortable around the girls and feels like she has to constantly be putting on a fake performance to hang around them. When she leaves to play Frisbee with the boys on the beach, she is quickly told that Charlie is “the hot version of you.” This feeling of growing alienation between Sammie and the SF2s and Charlie remains long after the party is over. Sammie feels most comfortable with the ‘weird’er kids, like Alicia whom she meets at the party. After immigrating from El Salvador at the age of three, Alicia’s family is integrated into the club in a different way from most of the party guests. Her mother works essentially as a maid while her father is the groundskeeper. She is similarly an outsider and the two girls click.
The only thing is that Sammie and Charlie no longer do. Like it says on the book’s cover, they are “growing up and growing apart.” Charlie is doing pretty well for herself in the cliquey SF2 group while Sammie is starting to embrace her more authentic, unique identity at a school club called the Truth Tellers (where students practice and perform stand-up speaking intended to reveal personal stories to the audience in a meaningful way). The two girls were always “two halves of a circle” but change is the only constant. Within three weeks, Sammie and Charlie slowly realize that they are more different than they thought; with new, growing identities, they are no longer almost identical.
Marshmallow’s Review: Almost Identical is so very well done! I think the author deserves a round of applause for handling a relatively overused trope with new nuance and depth. This was the first time I read a book about siblings or best friends growing apart in different directions and I felt like it was truly a detailed account of the storyline. Oftentimes, pre-teen books or teen books about growing up and change in middle school have to resort to the typical Mean Girls level of characterizing certain cliques. This book did also have the SF2s, which are somewhat similar. However, it felt a lot more realistic and less cartoonish. I really liked the Mean Girls movie, but Oliver’s novel is a lot more grounded in reality and speaks more to the true middle school experience than most other, more exaggerated accounts do.
Sammie is a very impressive young girl and seeing things from her lens is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. She definitely suffers a lot from body shaming as her father is determined to make her into the best possible tennis player. He believes she is too heavy and that her weight is slowing her down, despite the fact that she is not really overweight in the first place. Her brother joins in unhelpfully in the worst possible situations and his girlfriend-to-be a.k.a. Lauren soon follows suit. Within the first chapter, you develop a deep sympathy for Sammie and she is a very likeable protagonist.
I think the author was very smart to start the book the way she did as it curries favor with the reader to like Sammie almost instantly. This book–as it is told by her–portrays Sammie as the morally correct, wiser of the twins. However, Charlie’s growth is also portrayed in a relatively nonjudgmental light at the end. I really liked how the rapidly expanding rift between them is eventually accepted as separate paths that will define them as different people. This was handled in a very soft, beautiful way.
I feel like this story of struggling, navigating, and then willing letting yourself be taken by change is relevant to more than just middle schoolers. As a high schooler realizing that things are changing and will continue to change a lot more, I found this story very comforting. It gave me a sense of clarity that, despite continual change and occasional chaos, impermanence can lead to new places, perspectives, and people you had never considered before. That is a lesson I think we can all benefit from.
Given its accessible and entertaining prose, I think Almost Identical is a very sweet story that would be amazing for all bunnies. Of course, it is most important for pre-teens and teens to read about situations that most closely align with their own experiences. But adults shouldn’t scoff at the idea of reading this book either! Caramel and I aren’t twins, but I hope he reads this book too. Change is an undeniable, unyielding force in our universe, and reading these seemingly small works of human art can serve as a tether to what grounds us as the world seems to transform around us.
I would like to especially thank the reader who recommended that we read this book! Even though the author finishes this book in a satisfying manner, I look forward to reading the next book of this series!
Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.
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