Oh, do I love this book. It’s officially my new favorite book. I understand that on paper the plot doesn’t sound too amazing, but the way its written is absolutely enthralling!
I really enjoyed the plot twists, especially the fact that there was a third child… that made me put the book down and just absorb all that, but it really leaves the question of “which one is the good twin?”
And I really had trouble picturing Aurelius as a white man. Maybe its just how I think, but every time I hear of a Giant man, I think of Michael Duncan in The Green Mile.
What did you think about it?
Novel Dame and Pages Turned 
I loved this book, I want to re-read it at some point. I enjoyed every element of this book; the plot; the characters; the settings. I think it would make an intriguing movie.
So many novels were referenced in subtle ways, even at one point a hint at the game “Clue” was introduced. I had to go back and read the end several times before I came to my conclusion as to which sister survived. Oh the twists and turns produced by a master wordsmith.
Hands down this is my favorite read of the year and one of my favorite books of all time! I love a book that keeps me guessing and that could be interpreted in more than one (boring) way. This is a true book lover’s book. All the references to other books just makes it more fascinating. It was beautifully written. I can’t wait to read the author’s next book.
Is it fair to ask who you think died in the fire?
I think it is perfectly alright!
Because I noticed a drastic change in the behavior of both surviving sisters after the fire, I am led to believe that the “good” twin died. This assumption makes the novel all the more heartbreaking.
Ok guys, I need some closure. I just finished the book, within the last hour actually, and enjoyed it beyond anything I’ve read in a long time. I am totally perplexed, however, with a need to know which twin died in the fire. I decided, after rereading the chapter titled ‘The Fire’ three times, that I must have missed something elsewhere in the book. I’m so relieved to know that it wasn’t my 3:00am reading last night (this morning) that caused me to miss something, and that perhaps the author intended us to draw our own conclusions. I suppose it makes more sense and does indeed make it all the more tragic that Emmeline would have been the one to die in the fire. If she had survived, Vida may have lived a life of pain and regret, but would have had Emmeline, who in the end was the true love of her life. Why can’t I just be happy to draw my own conclusions and move on?
But but but can’t Vida recognize who she has saved from the fire, from the clothes she was wearing? I mean, Adeline and Emmeline can’t possibly wear the exact same dress that night, right? ._.
I think it was Emmeline who died in the fire. Margaret gives the urn of the ashes of the “unidentified” bones to Aurelius to bury because the ashes are the ashes of his mother. Also, when they do bury the ashes, on page 394, Maragret refers to “the coffin of the woman I knew as Emmeline.” This implies to me that the coffin really contains Adeline, and the ashes are Emmeline. But, I also believe that the identities are purposely left vague.
But if Emmeline died in the fire, why was Adeline living with Vida so many years later? It seemed as though Vida hated Adeline. The one thing that bothers me about the book is that it gives no explanation as to what happened to the girls after the fire. Where did they go? What did they do? Why didn’t Vida just refer to her as Adeline if she knew deep down Emmeline had died, and why did she take care of her for her entire life?
My other question is a bit ‘duh’ but I’ll ask it anyway … Did most people conclude that Charlie was the twins’ father and not Roland? I keep wondering that the girls were so strange, slow/wicked because of their incestuous roots (in addition to hopeless upbringing, but the book is pretty clear that the girls were strange from a very young age, and Vida herself grew up in the same environment).
They were living together because they were still sisters – regardless of which sister was alive, there is still a bond there that they both acknowledged. That being said, I still think it was the “evil” sister that survived since she was put in the house in the back instead of an adjoining room with Vida.
I loved this book.
I concluded that it must have been emmeline who died in the fire.. Why else would she reffer to her as the woman I knew as emmeline (about two-three times in the latter part of the book)? I also noticed something vida thought in the fire chapter. Something about that she didnt recognize the person laying on the grass and her being thrown into a deeper grief.. (my guess is she realized she saved adeline. And i think vida winter would have been more heartbroken if it really was emmiline who died in story (right after the return of the narrator returned)
I also belive charlie was the father of the twins. Firstly because it was implied in the beginning that the realationship between charlie and isabel was of sexual nature. Also because of how the mental health of the twins is. And mostly because of the comment the narrator gives when she watches a picture of roland trying to find some of the twins features in him. She says something like (i think this quote is really imperfect!): I gave up. Because deep inside I knew that I would never find simalarities between roland and the twins.
And also because of the way one person counted the months and it wouldnt ass up ( i dont think they reffered to if they were concieved before or after the marriage, but rather before or after roland and isabel had met)
I think that Emmeline definitely died in the house fire, and that Vida saved Adeline, and that Charlie was the father of the twins– not Roland. Vida lived with “Emmeline” AKA the real Adeline for so long, maybe, in hopes to right the wrong of passing the baby onto Ms. Love– and to maybe try and give her some love and family in her wicked life. Loved the book. I am a twin so it made the twists and turns so inthralling. I read the book in days; I couldn’t put it down!
I can’t decide. I want to believe that Adeline died in the fire (it makes me feel better), but I think that, whichever one actually survived, died in a way anyway. If Adeline survived, she was too shell-shocked from the loss of her twin to have ever recovered. And if Emmeline survived…well, same deal. She lost her child and her twin.
Which is really the saddest, for me, for Vida to have rescued Emmeline and lost her anyway.
I loved this book. A friend of mine recommended the audiobook, actually, so I picked it up and just could not stop reading.
I agree with the people who think that it was Adeline who survived the fire and that Charlie was the father of the twins. My question is, what were the clues for us throughout the book that were suppose to make us think there was a third sister? I can see that we may have gotten got one when Mrs. Maudsley saw the makeshift bed on the floor in the library and that Hester saw a “ghost” in the field with Emmeline that looked just like Adeline when Adeline was clearly at the Doctor’s house at the same time, but how were we supposed to know that the boy who helped John-the-Dig in the garden was actually a third sister? Are there any other clues I should have seen?
I just finished reading the book and after reading I was unsure as to which twin had died in the fire. Certain things implied that it was Emmeline who had died, but on one of the last pages it says that emmeline’s treasure box was saved from the fire, and I felt the author was trying to tell us that emmeline must have survived and taken her box with her. Did anyone else notice that?
In regards to who died in the fire, what about Emmelines Treasure box that was referred to at the ending of the book as being saved from the fire? Cant figure that one out.
And, why was the baby given away at all? Was it that Vida knew that it was Adeline who was alive and she was still fearful of her harming the baby so she knew she must keep him safe by leaving him on Ms.Loves doorstep?
Actually, Emmeline survived and Adeline died. After the fire, the town people assumed Vida was Adeline and she accepted it. And I think Charlie is the twins’ father.
Jazzy Jean commented that Emmeline was the plump one. When Adeline saw Emmeline getting larger with pregnancy, Vita comments that it was the first time Adeline over ate, trying to look more like her sister.
I loved this book. I think it was Emmeline who burned to death. Remember Vida saying she didn’t know and didn’t WANT to know which twin perished in the fire? She didn’t want to live with the fact that she might have killed Emmeline so she went on living hoping she had the right twin. Even if it was Emmeline in the end, she was practically catatonic and deformed so nobody could really know anyway. Did anyone else sense an incestuous undertone in the Adeline (Vida)/ Emmeline relationship? It might have just been a very unhealthy, co-dependent, intense sisterly love but I think it was a little more than that.
I believe it was Emmeline who died in the fire, for all the reasons mentioned above and I will mention that right after the fire, when the burned twin was on the ground, Vida Winter had realized the truth of who was beside her. With horror, she knew instantly that the baby had to be given away and she then started to refer to the the twin who was still on the ground awaiting medical care as “the girl” and no longer referring to her as Emmeline.
If Adeline was(unfortunately) the one saved from the fire, that might explain why she completely freaked out when Aurelius came in to her room.
By seeing him, she was reminded of the fire she set to initially kill him, but had instead killed her sister. Because if you think about it, if Emmeline was the one saved, she may be shocked from seeing Aurelius, but she would be happy. If Adeline was saved, she would be grief stricken and upset.