Fantasy Book Club discussion

Who did you sympathize with more, Julia or Valentina? Did your sympathies change as the story moved on?

Jesi says....I know that, for the most part, I empathized much more with Valentina (maybe because most of my friends think of me as the "mousy" kind?) through the book, but I found myself repelled by the amount of sheer "brokeness" of both of the characters - I have to wonder, what made them act the way they did? I've known twins, and they certainly didn't act as ...involved.. with each other as these two did. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

It seems to me that there wasn't a single character in this novel who wasn't totally dysfunctional. I really didn't like either Julia or Valentina. I found them to be too childish. I wanted to smack them both and tell them to grow up for godsakes. Then, as I got to thinking about it, I really started hating Edie and Jack for how they raised them, especially Edie. They indulged them and allowed them to do everything together and to dress alike even through their teen years. Edie knew from firsthand experience what can happen when twins are too much alike and too inseperable. She should have been dressing them differently from the time they were quite young and encouraged them to develop their individual talents. She should have recognized that Julia was dominating Valentina and talked to the girls about it. She was in a unique position to help those girls grow up strong and competent, but she completely blew it.

I agree with wanting to smack the girls upside the head and tell them to grow up. But I think that Edie knew exactly what she was doing by not saying anything to them about dressing alike. I think that she was trying to get back what she had lost when her and Elspeth were lost to each other.

I, too, agree with wishing the girls would just grow up. Julie, you're idea that Edie was trying to get back what she lost with Elspeth by allowing the twins to remain so dysfunctionally inseperable gave me shivers down my spine. If that is the case, she certainly didn't learn her lesson, since no one ever found out the real reason Valentina died. It seems that not even Julia suspected, when she helped Valentina's ghost escape the flat.

I also liked neither of the girls, though I was rooting for Valentina to break free from Julia's overbearing control until she decided that death and resurrection would be the best way to do that.

I think that Julia did know what happened. They knew how to communicate at that point so she knew. But they were focused on getting her out of the flat by then. Basically accepted what had happened and were both moving on. Something they couldn't do when both were alive. But then again there was that scene when she chased Elspeth down the street. I'm not sure if she knew then or not of if the pregnancy kind of threw her off. Lot's of speculation there!