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The Secret Twin
Noah has a secret unlike any other. . . . He is the rarest of humans. Noah was born conjoined, sharing a heart with his twin brother, but only he has survived. Thirteen years later, when his grandmother undergoes painful surgery, Noah finds himself in the care of Nurse Grace, who has a secret of her own. And when another stranger, a mysterious sniper, begins to terrorize their city, Noah and Grace must confront the extraordinary circumstances of their present lives and the possibilities of the unknown beyond. In spare, lyrical prose, Denise Gosliner Orenstein knits a powerful, unusual tale of two voices and a joint journey of separation, self-discovery, and forgiveness.
- GenresYoung AdultTeen
400 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2007
About the author
Denise Gosliner Orenstein
6 books20 followersDenise Gosliner Orenstein is a graduate of Bennington College and Brown University. Her career in education includes teaching at American University in Washington, D.C. as well as in bush villages thoughout the state of Alaska. Additionally, she has cooked for for an Alaskan village prison, worked as a PEN prison writing mentor, taught literature classes and assisted in a canine therapy program for inmates. Most recently, as head of a school for children with learning differences, she introduced a curriculum based on two rescued Shetland ponies. Denise is the mother of two daughters and lives in Northampton, MA with her dogs, Luke and Lily.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 6, 2010
Summary:
The "Secret Twin" by Denise Gosliner Orenstein is not a true story (fiction) about a boy named Noah and a woman named Grace. When Noah was little his parents got into a car accident and died leaving Noah with his grandmother. When Noah's grandmother is dying (Nurse) Grace comes in to help Noah, but Noah wants nothing to do with her. Noah's grandmother had a way of doing things, everything had to be perfect, white sugar wasn't allowed, and Noah was to perform as a mini adult, cleaning cooking, etc. When Grace steps in she feels as though Noah is not being well taken care of and starts to change things, like making Noah meals with sugar, disorganizing the house, and doing the chores around the house.
This story is told through both Noah's and Grace's thoughts. Noah feels as though Grace is a no good fat slob, but he doesn't know that Grace has a secret just like him. Grace's little brother died a year ago after a hit and run. Noah secret is he was a conjoined twin and his brother was sacerficed for Noah to be able to live. Throughout the story Grace and Noah also share an interest in the murders that have been mysteriously occuring around town.
Evaluation of Review:
I gave the book three stars beacuse I enjoyed reading it, but I felt like the book didn't focus enough on Noah and his conjoined twin that was dead.
I enjoyed reading both the view of Noah and Grace. It made the book very understandable and more interesting to read. At the beginning Noah and Grace had very different personalities, thoughts, and beliefs, but by the end of the book Noah and Grace were thinking very similarly, as if they finally understood each other. I can relate to this because my best friend and I started the same way as Noah and Grace. They hated each other, but then found thier commonalities and became best friends. I also enjoyed all the ways that Grace tried to get Noah to be friendly with her. They were very creative and tactful, like makeing delicous meals and playing scrabble with Noah. In the scrabble games Noah would almost communicate with Grace using words like HELP and LISTEN. I can also connect to Grace because I have a brother like Noah in the sence that he didn't like things changed. I try to work with him just as Grace did with Noah, but it takes a long time for him to change what he wants or thinks.
For a project I did recently, I studied conjoined twins. This book in my opion could be very confusing to a regular reader if they don't know anything about conjoined twins. Also I feel as though the book gives misleading facts about conjoined twins. Finally, the book referred to a game called tarot but never explained the significance of the game.
Quote:
"They say that newborns don't see, but I remember this:
Your eyelids were ruffled. I think you whimpered once, a crumpled cough, then opened your tiny mouth again dribbling pretty foam. Your breatgh was embalmed with milk: sticky sweet. You saw me too." (from Prologue: Noah)
Recommendation:
I would recommed this book to anyone who likes to see characters grow dramatically throughout a story. If you like seeing a character go through many conflicts, this is the book for you.
The "Secret Twin" by Denise Gosliner Orenstein is not a true story (fiction) about a boy named Noah and a woman named Grace. When Noah was little his parents got into a car accident and died leaving Noah with his grandmother. When Noah's grandmother is dying (Nurse) Grace comes in to help Noah, but Noah wants nothing to do with her. Noah's grandmother had a way of doing things, everything had to be perfect, white sugar wasn't allowed, and Noah was to perform as a mini adult, cleaning cooking, etc. When Grace steps in she feels as though Noah is not being well taken care of and starts to change things, like making Noah meals with sugar, disorganizing the house, and doing the chores around the house.
This story is told through both Noah's and Grace's thoughts. Noah feels as though Grace is a no good fat slob, but he doesn't know that Grace has a secret just like him. Grace's little brother died a year ago after a hit and run. Noah secret is he was a conjoined twin and his brother was sacerficed for Noah to be able to live. Throughout the story Grace and Noah also share an interest in the murders that have been mysteriously occuring around town.
Evaluation of Review:
I gave the book three stars beacuse I enjoyed reading it, but I felt like the book didn't focus enough on Noah and his conjoined twin that was dead.
I enjoyed reading both the view of Noah and Grace. It made the book very understandable and more interesting to read. At the beginning Noah and Grace had very different personalities, thoughts, and beliefs, but by the end of the book Noah and Grace were thinking very similarly, as if they finally understood each other. I can relate to this because my best friend and I started the same way as Noah and Grace. They hated each other, but then found thier commonalities and became best friends. I also enjoyed all the ways that Grace tried to get Noah to be friendly with her. They were very creative and tactful, like makeing delicous meals and playing scrabble with Noah. In the scrabble games Noah would almost communicate with Grace using words like HELP and LISTEN. I can also connect to Grace because I have a brother like Noah in the sence that he didn't like things changed. I try to work with him just as Grace did with Noah, but it takes a long time for him to change what he wants or thinks.
For a project I did recently, I studied conjoined twins. This book in my opion could be very confusing to a regular reader if they don't know anything about conjoined twins. Also I feel as though the book gives misleading facts about conjoined twins. Finally, the book referred to a game called tarot but never explained the significance of the game.
Quote:
"They say that newborns don't see, but I remember this:
Your eyelids were ruffled. I think you whimpered once, a crumpled cough, then opened your tiny mouth again dribbling pretty foam. Your breatgh was embalmed with milk: sticky sweet. You saw me too." (from Prologue: Noah)
Recommendation:
I would recommed this book to anyone who likes to see characters grow dramatically throughout a story. If you like seeing a character go through many conflicts, this is the book for you.
June 5, 2017
I feel that this book was definitely an interesting way to put things. it's such a simplified yet emotional story that it catches readers, like myself, that have a soft spot for such topics quickly. However, because there is underlying action that isn't the biggest part of the story, it might not resonate well with other audiences. Regardless, this story is worth the read if you are willing to read something with the slightly slower speed and less action than the summary entails.
Now, Noah was born with a conjoined twin and suffers from malnourishment due to poor care from his grandmother (whom he calls Mademoiselle). I feel like this would have been such a great thing to put more emphasis on than there was. I feel like simply doing that would have made it sit better with the audience. However, at times it seemed like it focused on Grace's past and personal experiences more than Noah's, when this is technically a story about him. That would honestly have to be my only real complaint.
That being said, this is still a wonderful story and I would definitely recommend it for people who enjoy emotional growth over action.
Now, Noah was born with a conjoined twin and suffers from malnourishment due to poor care from his grandmother (whom he calls Mademoiselle). I feel like this would have been such a great thing to put more emphasis on than there was. I feel like simply doing that would have made it sit better with the audience. However, at times it seemed like it focused on Grace's past and personal experiences more than Noah's, when this is technically a story about him. That would honestly have to be my only real complaint.
That being said, this is still a wonderful story and I would definitely recommend it for people who enjoy emotional growth over action.
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May 20, 2024good book
April 4, 2016
Noah has spent his whole life with a secret. Until recently that hasn’t been a hard thing to do. That is, until a murderer shows up in town and several sightings of this terrible person match up to the same height and build as the young boy himself. This worries him not because he is afraid of getting in trouble, but that his secret will come to light in this time of tragedy. Noah was born a twin, conjoined by the top half of their body, both sharing a heart. He worries that this killer is his twin incarnate and that once he is found out, he will have to suffer the consequences for the both of them. To top things off his grandmother, Mademoiselle, the only living relative he has left had just undergone an intense surgery and he is put under the care of Nurse Grace, a big lumbering woman who just does not know how to stay out of Noah’s personal life and business. Their two week journey together is something not to be missed!
What I thoroughly loved about The Secret Twin by Denise Gosliner Orenstein, besides it being completely different than then books I have read lately, was the element of surprise. With a lot of books the author almost guides you along with mysteries and the ending can be guessed long before anything actually happens. In The Secret Twin, this was not the case at all. This mist surrounding the lives of Mademoiselle, Noah, and Nurse Grace never thinned out until the very end of the book which made things very exciting and had me plowing through the book.
Each of the characters had such compelling backgrounds and unique personalities that you couldn’t help but become attached and worry for the eccentric young boy, just as Nurse Grace had. As the story progressed, Orenstein offers us piece by piece, the inner secrets of the past of each character. You get to find out why Noah is the way he is and why Grace is so large and so vulnerable. This is done partly by focusing in on what Noah and Grace are both thinking during the period of the first two weeks that the two are together which is interesting because you get to see the same situation through two different eyes.
Another aspect of the book that I liked was the use of tarot cards to help tell the story. The killer not only placed them on a few crime scenes, but they also separated the book into different parts. Just like some books have epigraphs, the tarot cards foreshadow what is to come. Even if the reader is not familiar with tarot cards, as I was not, Nurse Grace explains them to Noah, along with each one having their own description for the reader to ponder. The last one in the book, the Universe card, was my favorite because it represents the circle of life and how it represents the cycle of how we experience life and death along with success, failure, and an extensive amount of growth, which sums up the book greatly.
What I thoroughly loved about The Secret Twin by Denise Gosliner Orenstein, besides it being completely different than then books I have read lately, was the element of surprise. With a lot of books the author almost guides you along with mysteries and the ending can be guessed long before anything actually happens. In The Secret Twin, this was not the case at all. This mist surrounding the lives of Mademoiselle, Noah, and Nurse Grace never thinned out until the very end of the book which made things very exciting and had me plowing through the book.
Each of the characters had such compelling backgrounds and unique personalities that you couldn’t help but become attached and worry for the eccentric young boy, just as Nurse Grace had. As the story progressed, Orenstein offers us piece by piece, the inner secrets of the past of each character. You get to find out why Noah is the way he is and why Grace is so large and so vulnerable. This is done partly by focusing in on what Noah and Grace are both thinking during the period of the first two weeks that the two are together which is interesting because you get to see the same situation through two different eyes.
Another aspect of the book that I liked was the use of tarot cards to help tell the story. The killer not only placed them on a few crime scenes, but they also separated the book into different parts. Just like some books have epigraphs, the tarot cards foreshadow what is to come. Even if the reader is not familiar with tarot cards, as I was not, Nurse Grace explains them to Noah, along with each one having their own description for the reader to ponder. The last one in the book, the Universe card, was my favorite because it represents the circle of life and how it represents the cycle of how we experience life and death along with success, failure, and an extensive amount of growth, which sums up the book greatly.
November 26, 2012
Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com
Noah is thirteen. He is the only survivor of conjoined twins. When he was just a few weeks old he was surgically separated from his brother. He lived and his brother did not. Noah feels guilty. Why should he have lived while his brother, who he believes is still alive wandering the earth without a home, didn't?
When Noah was four his parents died in a car accident and he has to live with his paternal grandmother. Mademoiselle, which is what Noah calls her, provides a roof over Noah's head but not much else for a growing boy. Her house is freezing cold. It is all white and nothing is out of place. She never hugs or touches him and they eat very little.
Mademoiselle is also an alcoholic. Then she goes to the hospital for a face lift and Nurse Grace comes to take care of Noah. Nurse Grace is the opposite of what Noah has been taught about how polite society should operate. Grace is big, loud, sloppy, and full of love. Grace has a secret, too. Her little brother was killed and she is still suffering from the tragedy.
THE SECRET TWIN takes these two lives and creates a psychological healing between the two of them. It is told from alternate perspectives, first Noah's and then Grace's. We see all the events from both set of eyes.
When I started this book I wasn't thrilled, but as I got into the reading I became enamored with the writing and the story. This is a story of redemption, change, healing, and acceptance. I strongly recommend this book for readers who want to think and be changed themselves.
Noah is thirteen. He is the only survivor of conjoined twins. When he was just a few weeks old he was surgically separated from his brother. He lived and his brother did not. Noah feels guilty. Why should he have lived while his brother, who he believes is still alive wandering the earth without a home, didn't?
When Noah was four his parents died in a car accident and he has to live with his paternal grandmother. Mademoiselle, which is what Noah calls her, provides a roof over Noah's head but not much else for a growing boy. Her house is freezing cold. It is all white and nothing is out of place. She never hugs or touches him and they eat very little.
Mademoiselle is also an alcoholic. Then she goes to the hospital for a face lift and Nurse Grace comes to take care of Noah. Nurse Grace is the opposite of what Noah has been taught about how polite society should operate. Grace is big, loud, sloppy, and full of love. Grace has a secret, too. Her little brother was killed and she is still suffering from the tragedy.
THE SECRET TWIN takes these two lives and creates a psychological healing between the two of them. It is told from alternate perspectives, first Noah's and then Grace's. We see all the events from both set of eyes.
When I started this book I wasn't thrilled, but as I got into the reading I became enamored with the writing and the story. This is a story of redemption, change, healing, and acceptance. I strongly recommend this book for readers who want to think and be changed themselves.
June 3, 2008
This book is about a thirteen year old who had been a conjoined twin at birth. His twin died soon after seperation surgery, his parents died in a car wreck when he was 4, and then he went to live with his very elderly grandmother. The story begins just after his granmother has surgery, and a nurse moves in for a couple of weeks to help take care of him.
The point of view switches between the boy, Noah, and the home care nurse, Grace. Both of these characters are traumatized people. They exist in the same space, and Grace reaches out to Noah, but there is a chasm between them. They exist in their own heads much of the time and we see their past as they rethink their way through thier past traumas. There is a crime spree as a background mood maker, a reason for even higher anxiety. I enjoyed the read, but it was a sad book that ended with a shrug.
The point of view switches between the boy, Noah, and the home care nurse, Grace. Both of these characters are traumatized people. They exist in the same space, and Grace reaches out to Noah, but there is a chasm between them. They exist in their own heads much of the time and we see their past as they rethink their way through thier past traumas. There is a crime spree as a background mood maker, a reason for even higher anxiety. I enjoyed the read, but it was a sad book that ended with a shrug.
April 21, 2008
beautiful! This story is alternately told by Noah, a 13 year old boy who was cut from his conjoined twin at birth (the twin didn't survive), and Grace, a nurse who is staying with Noah after his grandmother's surgery. Both have fears and secrets and they are unlikely companions. A sniper is on the loose and Noah irrationally fears his lost twin could be the culprit. I was completely sucked into this story and couldn't put it down. 4 1/2 stars!
August 24, 2008
Noah is an undernurished, unloved 13 year-old boy who has had to care for his alcholic grandmother since he was very young. Sacrificing his needs and wants for his Mademoiselle (grandma) he has learned to bottle up his emotions and secrets inside of him. Not to mention thinking of food as optionary, which is unhealthy for any growing persons. Then Nurse Grace comes into his life, with a love for food and a secret to match his own.
October 13, 2008
Noah is a boy whose life has been filled with tragedy, and who fills his emptiness with the needs and directives of his caregiver grandmother, Mademoiselle. When Mademoiselle leaves for the hospital, another caregiver comes to live in the house with him and begins to unravel its obsessive tidiness, just as she unravels Noah. The Secret Twin, by Denise Orenstein, is a book that the reader can enter and be a part of.
May 2, 2013
This may not be to some other peoples liking but this book offers a lot of emotion in simplified text. The simplicity of the messaging is so powerful it resonates to whole new level of emotion.
I loved how she(the author) tactfully changes perspective from Noah to Grace and how she had creatively entangled two very different individual strangers who share an emotional connection due to their past experiences.
Its a very sad book that teaches very simple yet memorable life lessons.
I loved how she(the author) tactfully changes perspective from Noah to Grace and how she had creatively entangled two very different individual strangers who share an emotional connection due to their past experiences.
Its a very sad book that teaches very simple yet memorable life lessons.
September 8, 2016
At first glance, it might seem odd to compare Orenstein's prose to Hemingway's. Certainly the ethos of the two authors couldn't be more different; and yet the rather brilliant unassuming clarity of their prose seems (to me at least) unmistakably similar. But Orenstein with "The Secret Twin" goes one step further: she adds a sense of vulnerable solidarity to her text. She speaks of loss and unexpected connections, fear and hope. And she handles these themes with great heart and skill.
June 18, 2012
So very interesting and intricately written. It uses a very simple plot to convey so much. It has a bit of a John Steinbeck feel in way that the author takes the mundane and makes it special-almost sacred. The characters are fascinating and very real. Its not everyone's taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
August 21, 2008
this has an odd feel to it. the twin concept is somewhat interesting but the relationships between the characters especially the boy and his grandmother is a little too unbelievable to me. once i started it i ended up pushing through it to the end just to finish it.
July 29, 2011
meh. This book was ok. I've read worse. It started out with such promise, but by the end I was underwhelmed. I liked hearing the story from both points of view, but Noah's chapters were written in the 1st person and Grace's in the 3rd person. It was very jarring to start a chapter about Grace.
January 21, 2014
It WAS interesting at first BUT I just couldn't finish it. Maybe I'll come back when I have less on my plate (I'm reading 4 books and a couple mangas), BUT BUT in all I was a little tried of hearing about the main characters eating problems (binge eating, and anorexia).
June 2, 2008
Can't judge this one by its cover. It started off great but got boring about halfway in until it finally lost me altogether.
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June 2, 2023This book was a little slow moving but also strange it kinda had me hooked to see what would happen. Although it was sorta sad.
December 24, 2009
Felt like a very long walk when a car ride would have done just fine.
(read: 242)
(read: 242)
March 5, 2010
Watching Noah work through the reality of his situation was very gratifying. I liked the character of Grace, too. This was kind of an odd book, but interesting.
May 11, 2011
Couldn't finish reading it. Weird and didn't really go anywhere. Kept waiting for something to happen.
May 4, 2017
Not much action happens, but I think this book should be assessed in a psychological and symbolic aspect. It portrays everything it wants to portray very clearly. It is also a masterpiece regarding the creation of the two main characters.
At first I thought this book includes some fantasy elements, but it was interesting to find out that we are already fantastic beings stuck in our own reality.
At first I thought this book includes some fantasy elements, but it was interesting to find out that we are already fantastic beings stuck in our own reality.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews