Book Review: "Double Identity" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Bethany lives a relatively normal life with her two overprotective parents. That is, until they drive for days and drop her off with an Aunt she never knew she had. Her parents won't tell her why, but her mom has been breaking into tears for no apparent reason for a long time. And then there's the mysterious girl named Elizabeth. Who was she? Bethany is determined to find out.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Bethany is twelve year old girl from Pennsylvania. She is an only child, rather spoiled by her parents, but at the same time overly sheltered. She has never even spent a night away from them.

Aunt Myrie is the aunt that Bethany never knew she had. She is kind but rather hesitant. She seems to know an awful lot about what Bethany likes, considering they have never met.

Joss is Aunt Myrie's daughter. She is a pastor who is quite blunt and honest. She ends up telling Bethany all about Elizabeth.

PACING

The pacing is decent. We get thrown right into the story, starting with the drive and being left with Aunt Myrie. There is time in between investigating about Elizabeth, but we learn a lot about Bethany and her relationship with her parents. Haddix piles up enough questions where we keep wanting to learn more.

THEMES

A large theme of the book is the desire for freedom. Bethany feels trapped with her Aunt, unable to live her normal life. When new revelations occur, she no longer feels like she is her own person, with her own choices.

There are questions about morality in what her parents did, and her existence. The conversations Bethany has with Joss are nice, but lack depth. We may never know...so don't ask questions. Really? It's kind of a big deal. I understand the desire to forgive her parents, but morality is still an issue.

You can believe someone did something wrong and still forgive them. “Don't worry, be happy” is kind of vague advice from a pastor (I understand it about the-wondering why some die and others live-question). I was kind of expecting something deeper, maybe even biblical. It would have added depth to the story if Bethany came to moral conclusion about her parents' actions, and had to learn to forgive them and love them.

AWKWARD NARRATION

Haddix has the habit of trying to tie in past experiences to current events of the book. But this often comes off awkward, taking you out of the story to tell an anecdote that could easily be skipped.

Like when Bethany recalls a student who wrote a paper saying that teenagers aren't bad, it's just that parents are over-protective. It felt awkward and unnecessary. A paper? Why not just have Bethany realize that she was responsible and her parents never gave her credit. The idea that teenagers as a group are are well-behaved is silly. Teenagers are individuals. The whole point she was trying to make failed, simply because she reached too far.

Another time, when her mom calls her from a gas station, Bethany recalls a government intuitive to give cell phones to gas stations so anyone can use them. What? Whose heard of this? It was so random that it made me think, did that really happen? It pulled me out of the story. Why not just say she had a burner phone? An old pay phone? Something that everyone has heard of.

THIS NEVER HAPPENS

There are multiple times where she tries to reference Bethany's past to make it seem as though she is overly sheltered by her parents, but they don't seem to align with reality.

Because she was around her parents a lot, she never learned to lie? How does that make sense?

She wasn't allowed to trick-or-treat without a parent at twelve and younger? Neither were the rest of the children of America.

When she talks about bad parents she witnesses, she talks of parents smacking around their toddlers, and yelling at their teenagers to stop bugging them. Again, who see's these parents? I just witness kids having tantrums and parents' ignoring them or bribing them to stop.

Bethany never got a babysitter, because her parents were always around. Sounds terrible. She must have really suffered. I think I had a babysitter a whole four times in my childhood. I turned out okay.

There were enough instances where I was rolling my eyes, and thinking, “What is she talking about?”.

A VILLAIN?

The man who might be the villain is shown later on in the book, but it's so cheesy that it's hard to take it seriously. Van Dyne fired someone who spilled coffee? Bragged about firing a huge group of people on Christmas? Who does this? Is this “A Christmas Carol”? No one acts this way. Even when big corporations screw their employees, they don't brag about it. They coach it in fluffy language. They want people to work for them, after all, and to buy their products.

And then we get a quote saying that he loves adulation. Again, who talks that way? People who love attention don't go around saying “I love adulation”, anymore than jerks call themselves jerks. They say they “can be demanding” or they “are perfectionists.” They sugar-coat it. Just like their friends and family do.

CLIMAX-SPOILERS

Bethany's parents sound really screwed up. The more we learn about them the more we think that maybe they are nuts. Bethany says as much. But we never get a confrontation scene. This disappointed me. I wanted them to see how broken she was. But their relationship is only referenced after the story, in the epilogue. I like how she reveals the truth about herself in public in the climax, as if she is letting go of her anger, but I really wanted a scene with her parents.

CONCLUSION

Haddix creates an intriguing mystery with a decent main character, but unfortunately it's bogged down by awkward narration and some weird anecdotes that pull the reader out of the story. It would have been nice to dive deeper into issues of morality. I give “Double Identity” three stars.

What do you think? Did you read this book? Agree or disagree with me? Have any other points you think I missed? Please let me know!