Sheilah Egan (Children's Literature)
Haddix is the queen of taking a basically simple storyline and creating an amazingly suspenseful book. Bethany Cole realizes that her parents have been extremely over-protective, but understands that as older parents they are a little different from her friends’ parents. As she approaches her 13th birthday, she has come to accept that they hover over her at all times and that her mother’s “crying” is increasing. Then in the dark of night her father bundles Bethany and her mother into the family car and they head off to an undisclosed destination. It turns out that Bethany’s mother had a living sister. “You’ll be fine with your aunt Myrlie.” says her father as he tells her that she will be “safe” with her aunt. Totally confused by being left with a relative that she has never even known existed, Bethany begins to try to piece together the things that she has overheard to try to understand why someone is following her and what is so unusual about her own identity. The whole story is leading up to the fact that Bethany’s older sister, Elizabeth, had been killed in an accident and that Bethany is her clone. The masterful writing style, fast pace, and intriguing premise keeps the reader enthralled even after Bethany’s origin has been revealed. Haddix has once again given us a page turner sure to be a hit with those who enjoy a ride perched on the edge of their seat. 2005, Simon & Schuster, $15.95. Ages 10 to 14.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 18))
Bethany's life has always been safe and protected; her parents comfort her, spoil her and spend frequent quality time with her. But one day, when she's almost 13, her parents bundle her into the car and drive her to Sanderfield, Ill., where they leave her with an aunt she never knew she had. Aunt Myrlie is kind, but nobody will tell Bethany where her parents have gone. Why do Myrlie, her adult daughter and the Sanderfield townspeople stare at Bethany as if she's a ghost? Who is this mysterious "Elizabeth" she keeps hearing about? As Bethany finds answers to some of her questions, a mysterious man follows her around town. Tough philosophical puzzles are raised here, though explored too lightly, as Bethany confronts identity, free will, ethics vs. law and whether parents should live vicariously through their children. A surprisingly comforting resolution concludes this safe but compelling thriller. Bethany's discovery of her own identity makes for a mystery well worth solving. 2005, Simon & Schuster, 224p, $15.95. Category: Science fiction. Ages 10 to 12. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, September 2005 (Vol. 39, No. 5))
Bethany’s weeping parents drop her off with an aunt she has never met, in a small Midwestern town. Slowly her identity, her double identity, is revealed to her and to her aunt and older cousin, Joss. Bethany is an apt name, since it is the town where Jesus brought back Lazarus from the dead; Bethany’s older sister Elizabeth died in an accident when she was just 13, and her parents found a way to bring Elizabeth back from the dead by cloning her to make Bethany. Joss was once Elizabeth’s closest friend and now is a minister, which helps in the discussion of survivor’s guilt, the ethics of cloning, and other themes implicit in the plot. Within several days of Bethany’s arrival, someone is stalking her. And her parents behave even more strangely, hiding their own whereabouts, sending $10,000 in cash for Bethany’s care. This book is for the youngest YAs, and Bethany’s courage and intelligence will win over readers; the suspense works too. Most gripping of all, however, is the contemplation of what it would be like to be a clone, especially the clone of your own sister whom you never knew. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: J--Recommended for junior high school students. 2005, Simon & Schuster, 218p., $15.95. Ages 12 to 15.

Catherine M. Andronik (Library Media Connection, April/May 2006)
Some parents are protective, but Bethany's are positively obsessive when it comes to their daughter. They hardly let her out of their sight, which can be uncomfortable for a nearly 13-year-old girl. Then, after Bethany's mother has been getting more and more forgetful and depressed, the family is suddenly shuttled off to visit an aunt Bethany has never even met. She's left with Aunt Myrlie, confused and abandoned. Piece by piece, Bethany learns the story of how she came to exist. After the tragic death of Elizabeth, her parents' first child, Bethany's scientist father managed to clone another daughter from Elizabeth's cells. The family has been hiding the truth ever since, but now Bethany's father's former employer has caught up with them, with a personal score to settle. Margaret Peterson Haddix raises provocative questions about personal identity: whether a clone is a recreation of another being, or an individual unto him/herself, and whether cloning can represent an attempt at redemption. The motives that drive Dalton, the unethical ex-employer, may seem incomprehensible and confusing to some young readers, but on the whole this is a timely thriller. Recommended. 2005, Simon & Schuster, 218pp., $15.95 hc. Ages 10 to 14.

Deborah Stevenson, Associate Editor (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 2005 (Vol. 59, No. 3))
Bethany’s overprotective parents have never even left her with a babysitter, so she feels abandoned as well as stunned when she’s suddenly dragged across country to the home of her aunt Myrlie, who has never even been mentioned to her before, and left there by her clearly frightened parents. In Myrlie’s small town, the distraught twelve-year-old finds more discomfiting surprises: people keep being struck by the obvious familiarity of her appearance and referring to “Elizabeth,” a name Bethany’s disoriented mother uses during confused phone calls to her daughter. Aunt Myrlie finally reveals to Bethany that Elizabeth was Bethany’s parents’ first daughter, who died at thirteen before Bethany was born; Bethany then uncovers the more startling truth that her grieving parents cloned Bethany from Elizabeth’s cells, and that they apparently defrauded a shady corporate CEO in the process. The commonness of asexual reproductive technology even now, let alone in the next-decade future wherein the book is set, makes Bethany’s visceral horror and her parents’ secrecy about her sister’s existence a little forced (since Bethany apparently came from a donor egg, she’s not even, with her differing mitochondrial DNA, as exact a copy as a frozen-embryo twin would have been), but the book is less about the technicalities than notions of identity and the pleasures of suspense. On those it delivers, capturing vividly the distressed confusion of a kid whose world has disintegrated virtually overnight, and cleverly upping the ante of adolescent questioning of selfhood with a high-stakes problem of differentiation as Bethany struggles with the fact that she’s essentially an attempt at reanimation. Readers will empathize with Bethany’s determination to discover her family’s secrets and to define herself even as they’re glad they’re not in her position. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2005, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, Simon, 218p, $15.95. Grades 5-8.

Diane Emge (VOYA, October 2005 (Vol. 28, No. 4))
Bethany's parents have smothered her with constant attention for all of her almost-thirteen years. So she is terrified and angry when they drop her off with an aunt whom Bethany never knew existed and drive off into the night with no explanation. To add to the mystery, Aunt Myrlie and her daughter, Joss, are shocked that Bethany so strongly resembles a girl named "Elizabeth," whom Bethany suspects is now dead. Bethany gradually uncovers information about her parents that reveal very different people from the ones she knows. When an ex-convict starts tailing Bethany and asking for her father's whereabouts, she realizes that solving the mystery may be a matter of life and death. Haddix is an old hand at creating suspenseful novels suitable for middle and junior high school readers-the Shadow Children series, The House on the Gulf (Simon & Schuster, 2004) and Escape from Memory (2003/VOYA October 2003). Bethany is a slightly spoiled preteen who finds the search for identity more complicated than most. She handles her frightening situation with a wry humor that is sure to appeal to 'tween readers. Set in the near future, the book alludes to the passT technologies of the present and hints at developments that might affect Bethany's very existence. While the science fiction elements of this book are loosely handled, the twisting plot and spine-tingling creepiness make it a sizzling recommendation for mystery fans. VOYA CODES: 4Q 5P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2005, Simon & Schuster, 224p., $15.95. Ages 11 to 15.

Molly Teague, Teen Reviewer (VOYA, October 2005 (Vol. 28, No. 4))
Double Identity is overall a good book. Being set in the future added another angle of interest to the book. But it seemed slightly unrealistic that such overprotective parents would leave their child in a foreign environment, even if it was for her safety. Also the ending was confusing when it discussed the cloning. The book was very interesting though. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2005, Simon & Schuster, 224p., $15.95. Ages 11 to 15.