The ice twins the book

The book The ice twins, written by S.K Tremayne is a very moving and powerful story that had me guessing and asking myself many questions throughout. It follows the story of a ‘perfect family’ who’s worlds are flipped upside down when one of their beloved twins falls of the balcony, and the 6 year old died. This story tells of how trauma affects families and communities and how justice is seeked when the truth is needed.

After 6 year old twin Lydia falls of the balcony at Sarahs grandparents house and dies, the lives of Sarah, Angus and Kirstie Moorcraft are changed instantly and dramatically. Sarah believed they constituted a perfect family as she had been exposed to plenty of dysfunctional family stories throughout her career. Their perfect family was instantly torn apart where they were left crumbling under the pain and loss. Traumas so severe as death cause detrimental affects on a persons mental and physical states. These effects are most often negative and take a dramatic effect on someones well-being. For Sarah Moorcraft this put her in a state of deep depression, and Angus to become very unstable, causing him to lose his job as a result of hitting his boss. For all of them, there are too many painful memories attached to the house and the town, so one year later they take their surviving daughter Kirsty to a Scottish island in the middle of nowhere. Trauma and death is something that effects every person different but takes a toll on a persons haoura no matter what. This novel taught me a lot about trauma, death and the affects it has on people, as I had never really experienced something like that until my cat passed away in May this year. For some people losing a pet, a cat, seems like a joke, but for me I had grown up with sox ever since I moved to Wanaka when I was 5 up until 6 days before my 17th birthday. I remember coming back from Nepal after being away for a month and coming home where my dad told me ‘we no longer have a Sox’. At this instant I knew what it was like to lose someone who meant so much as I instantly broke down, something that had never happened before. After reflecting on this moment I understand the significance of losing someone important to you, where the pain never goes away, you just eventually learn how to cope with it that little bit more. For Sarah and Angus Moorcraft they lost a daughter, a child who meant so much to them, where now they are left with the scar of pain that will last a lifetime.

The novel takes a dramatic turn when just before they get ready to move, Kirsty announces that she is actually Lydia. “Why do you keep calling me Kirsty, Mummy? Kirsty is dead. It was Kirstie that died. I’m Lydia”. Hearing the words that you could have gotten the wrong twin who died brought all repressed trauma crashing back down on Sarah and Angus. At this instant I can imagine that a thousand questions would be racing through their minds like ‘did we get it wrong?’, ‘what is she saying?’, ‘how could this have happened?’, ‘she must be making this up, right?’. At this moment a need for the truth comes about, where Sarah needs justice for not only herself but for the daughter that died. Justice is defined as “the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness”. Knowing which one of your twin daughters is something you must know, something that must have justice brought to it, for your own peace of mind and for the sake of both daughters.

“It’s not so much my own death that is intolerable, it’s the death of those around me. Because I love them. And part of me dies with them. Therefore all love, if you like, is a form of suicide.” This quote from The Ice Twins highlights to me how powerful love is, where the death of a loved one can feel like the death of yourself. These emotions are so powerful that traumatic events like this can have a lasting impact on your life. Its almost as if when you lose someone you love, you lose a part of yourself with it. I think this links to the justice you would want from the loved one you lost.