54 pages • 1-hour read
The Identicals
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Chapters 12-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, substance use, sexual content, emotional abuse, bullying, and physical abuse.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Ainsley”
On a Wednesday after school, Ainsley smokes marijuana, then goes to Eleanor’s house to steal vodka and gin. Alone in her room, Ainsley gets drunk.
The next day at school, a rumor circulates that drugs and alcohol have been found in Candace’s locker. A flashback reveals that Ainsley and her friend Emma framed Candace to punish her for her interest in Teddy. During a fire drill, Emma used a stolen list of locker combinations to plant gin and cocaine residue in Candace’s locker, after which Ainsley submitted an anonymous tip to the school administration. Later, Ainsley’s ex-boyfriend, Teddy, confronts her, physically menacing her, accusing her of framing Candace, and threatening to report her unless she confesses. Ainsley denies everything.
When Ainsley returns home, she discovers that Harper has arrived with her Siberian husky, Fish. As Harper cooks dinner and serves Ainsley a plate, Ainsley is overcome with emotion at being cared for by someone.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Harper”
Harper explores the Nantucket carriage house. In Ainsley’s room, she finds and discards a glass of vodka. While shopping, a man approaches her, mistaking her for Tabitha. He introduces himself as Ramsay, Tabitha’s recent ex-boyfriend.
Harper and Ramsay have lunch together. During their meal, Ramsay expresses concern over Ainsley, noting her lack of supervision and behavioral limits. Later that evening, Harper cooks dinner for Ainsley, who begins to confide in her about the situation with Teddy and Candace. Their conversation is cut short when Tabitha returns home, unexpectedly furious to find Harper there.
The argument between the sisters is interrupted by a phone call for Tabitha. Stephanie, Candace’s mother, accuses Ainsley of planting drugs and alcohol in her daughter’s locker. Stunned, Tabitha begins to reconsider her demand that Harper leave.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Tabitha”
Hanging up the phone, Tabitha accuses Ainsley of lying and Harper of meddling. Ainsley protests, insisting she needs Harper. The argument escalates, and a family goblet gets knocked over and shatters.
Tabitha reveals that Eleanor’s hip is broken, requiring her to be in Boston. Her frustration grows when Harper mentions having lunch with Ramsay, but Tabitha seriously considers Harper’s offer to stay and help with Ainsley, believing there’s no other option.
The sisters negotiate a deal: Harper will remain on Nantucket to care for Ainsley and manage the failing family boutique. In return, Tabitha will handle Eleanor’s needs in Boston and then travel to Martha’s Vineyard to manage the sale of their father’s house. Tabitha agrees to the deal, privately hoping to blame her sister for the boutique’s failure.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Harper”
The next morning, Harper finds a detailed note from Tabitha with instructions for managing the house and family boutique, along with cash. Harper feels “both elated and terrified” about taking on these new responsibilities (169). When she tries to wake up Ainsley, her niece complains of a migraine and refuses to get out of bed. Eventually, though, Harper persuades her to eat breakfast and Ainsley “grants her a smile” (171).
After driving a reluctant Ainsley to school, Harper ignores a call she initially thinks is from Tabitha, but is actually from Rooster, her former boss. Suspecting he might want her to return to work, she calls him back. He tells her that everyone knows she had an affair with Dr. Zimmer and that there are now rumors she’s sleeping with Brendan Donegal. He also says that Dr. Zimmer has left Sadie and taken a leave of absence from the hospital, with some speculating that he’s “on the lam” with Harper (175). Rooster then asks where he should send Harper’s final paycheck. She tells him to send it to her P.O. box but doesn’t reveal her current location. She then hangs up to take a call from the principal of Nantucket High School, who summons her to the school.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Ainsley”
Ainsley is called into a disciplinary meeting with the principal. Harper accompanies her, and they are met by Emma and her father, Dutch, as well as Candace and her parents. Emma immediately betrays Ainsley, blaming her for the entire scheme. Candace backs up the story, falsely claiming she had previously given Emma her locker combination.
Furious, Ainsley retaliates by accusing Emma of stealing the school’s master list of combinations and taking cocaine from her father’s supply. Dutch becomes enraged, but Harper intervenes. The principal disregards Ainsley’s side of the story and holds her solely responsible, assigning her a three-day in-school suspension and ordering her to write apology letters to both Emma and Candace. Ainsley serves her suspension in a windowless room.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Tabitha”
While Ainsley serves her suspension, Tabitha is in Boston caring for her demanding mother. Harper calls to inform her about Ainsley’s punishment, but insists Tabitha should stay in Boston and let Harper handle it.
Tabitha and Ainsley exchange a series of tense text messages, which leaves Tabitha feeling guilty. Her great-aunt, Flossie, arrives unannounced from Palm Beach to take over Eleanor’s care, leaving Tabitha free to deal with Billy’s house. Relieved, Tabitha packs her bags, deciding to drive to Martha’s Vineyard immediately.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Harper”
During the last week of school, Harper and Ainsley learn from the boutique’s pregnant manager, Meghan, that the store has a poor reputation and is losing money. At a pharmacy, they run into Ramsay, who comforts Ainsley and suggests Harper hire his ex-girlfriend, Caylee Keohane, to help revitalize the boutique. When they return home, they find the carriage house has been egged and a taunting message written on the driveway, which Ainsley immediately attributes to Emma.
Harper hires Caylee, who proposes throwing a promotional party at the boutique. The party is a success, transforming the store’s stuffy image. Ramsay stops by and makes plans for a beach day with Harper and Ainsley. The evening takes a tense turn when Emma and Candace appear at the store to taunt Ainsley. Before a confrontation can escalate, Meghan shouts that her water has broken in the middle of the crowded shop, diffusing the tension.
Chapters 12-18 Analysis
These chapters position the novel’s central premise—the island swap—as a transactional bargain between Tabitha and Harper born of converging crises: Ainsley’s delinquency, Eleanor’s injury, and the sisters’ mutual financial precarity. Tabitha’s internal monologue reveals her ulterior motive; she agrees to the plan in part because she believes Harper will fail at managing both Ainsley and the boutique. Her thought that “[t]here is no way her sister can handle it” (168) exposes a hope for her sister’s collapse, not her success, illustrating the depth of her pain, unhappiness, and resentment at the start of her arc. This initial antagonism establishes that reconciliation cannot be achieved through simple proximity. Instead, the narrative framework forces the sisters into roles that will compel them to develop greater understanding, highlighting The Role of Empathy in Reconciliation. Harper’s simple act of cooking a meal for Ainsley, which moves the neglected teenager to tears, points toward understanding and care as key ingredients for mending the family’s fractures.
The narrative uses Ainsley’s character arc to diagnose the family’s dysfunction, positioning her destructive actions as a consequence of parental neglect. Hilderbrand presents Ainsley’s decision to frame a classmate by hiding alcohol and cocaine residue in her locker as a bid for control in a life devoid of stable emotional guidance. Ramsay’s assessment offers a concise summary of her situation: “She’s a great kid […] [b]ut she’s been given no boundaries, so she pretty much does whatever she wants” (155). This lack of boundaries characterizes Tabitha’s parenting by absence and reaction rather than presence and guidance. Harper’s arrival on Nantucket introduces a different model of care. Where Tabitha responds to Ainsley’s cry for help with anger, Harper offers defense, advocacy at the school meeting and the stability of a home-cooked meal. The shattering of a family goblet during the sisters’ argument is a symbol for this dynamic, representing the fragile, inherited elegance of their family legacy, easily broken by their ongoing conflict.
The twins’ island swap directly engages the theme of The Power of Place in Shaping Identity, using Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard as symbolic extensions of the sisters’ personalities. The arrangement forces each twin to navigate the other’s world, disrupting their established identities and compelling adaptation. The family boutique becomes a key site for this exploration, functioning as a microcosm of the staid and financially unstable world Eleanor and Tabitha have built on Nantucket. Meghan’s blunt assessment that the store is failing because people find it snooty confirms that its identity is alienating and unsustainable. Harper’s takeover, spurred by the energy of the youthful Caylee, initiates a radical rebranding. The party they throw—with its updated music and inclusive atmosphere—is a direct assault on the boutique’s rigid, old-guard identity. This transformation mirrors the larger change Harper represents within the family: an infusion of warmth and pragmatism into a system choked by formality and old resentments. By reinventing the store, Harper begins to reinvent the possibilities for her own life, demonstrating that identity can be renegotiated through a change in environment.
Throughout these chapters, the recurring motif of mistaken identity functions as a critical narrative device, accelerating the plot and highlighting Hilderbrand’s thematic interest in The Struggle to Escape the Past in a Small-Town Community. When Ramsay approaches Harper, his error provides her with an unfiltered perspective on Tabitha’s recent life and relationship with Ainsley. This encounter circumvents the need for stilted exposition and plunges Harper directly into the social fabric of her sister’s world. Later, at the disciplinary meeting, the other parents direct their accusations at Harper under the assumption that she is Tabitha, forcing Harper to absorb the animosity her sister has accumulated. This conflation underscores a central irony: While the community sees the twins as interchangeable, the narrative emphasizes their profound internal differences. The motif highlights how public perception is constructed in these insular communities, often based on surface appearances. By repeatedly placing Harper in situations where she must answer for Tabitha’s life, the narrative forces her to confront the complexities of her sister’s existence, laying the groundwork for empathy.
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