History AngstySurvivingTwin / Literature

* In the ''Literature/DickSimon'' duology, the [[MultiarmedAndDangerous four-armed]] Taya are almost always born with an identical twin. This has shaped their entire culture. Twins always marry other twins, even if they don't necessarily love their partner. Losing one's brother/sister, especially at an early age, is devastating, and can mean not being able to find a mate due to this. It happens to males more than females, as young males are expected to leave the peace of the villages and go to the lowland jungle to fight. The titular protagonist is a human, who was born on the human colony on Tayahat. When he was still a boy, his father sent him to a native friend to be educated in the ways of the Taya. While there, Dick fell in love with a Taya girl. Unfortunately, the girl had a twin sister, so they could never be together, and Dick was treated with the same kind of pity the Taya reserve for those whose twin has died, despite the reminders that humans are different.

** Meta-Example (sort of); the actor playing [[spoiler:George]] couldn't do more than a few takes of [[spoiler:pretending that his brother was dead]] as it was too much for him.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Katniss’s family friend Mrs. Undersee became a drug addict after her twin sister was killed in the titular games about 25 years before the start of the series.

* In ''Legion'', the book that ''Film/TheExorcistIII'' was based on, there is additional backstory for James Venamun, AKA The Gemini Killer, that shows he was one of these. He had a twin brother named Thomas whom his evangelist abusive father mistreated for his developmental disabilities, culminating in an incident where Thomas was left with an extreme phobia of the dark after the father threw him into the basement for a night. James [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes genuinely cared]] for his twin, so once Thomas finally died from a heart attack after a nurse switched the lights off in his room, James took revenge on his father by killing others in order to shame him. 15 years after his (original) killing spree ended, the Gemini Killer just wants to reunite with his brother in the afterlife and worries that he made Thomas upset with his crimes. The backstory with the twin was AdaptedOut and the Gemini Killer in the movie is overall much more [[AdaptationalVillainy gleefully malicious]] than his book counterpart, but a documentary shows it was at least considered to be included during the screenwriting phase.

* In ''Legion'', the book that ''Film/TheExorcistIII'' was based on, there is additional backstory for James Venamun, AKA The Gemini Killer, that shows he was one of these. He had a twin brother named Thomas whom his evangelist abusive father mistreated for his developmental disabilities, culminating in an incident where Thomas was left with an extreme phobia of the dark after the father threw him into the basement for a night. James [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes genuinely cared]] for his twin, so once Thomas finally died from a heart attack after a nurse switched the lights off in his room, James took revenge on his father by killing others in order to shame him. 15 years after his killing spree ended, the Gemini Killer just wants to reunite with his brother in the afterlife and worries that he made Thomas upset with his crimes. The backstory with the twin was AdaptedOut and the Gemini Killer in the movie is overall much more [[AdaptationalVillainy gleefully malicious]] than his book counterpart, but a documentary shows it was at least considered to be included during the screenwriting phase.

* Thomas Didymus, after the crucifixion of Christ, in ''Literature/DirgeForPresterJohn''.

* ''Literature/GalaxArena'': [[spoiler:Mariam, after Istar dies in the arena.]]

* The heroine of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_%28novel%29 Lightning]]'' by Creator/DeanKoontz meets a pair of identical twin orphans, Thelma and Ruth. Later on, Ruth is killed accidentally when another orphan commits suicide, causing Thelma tremendous grief. She ends up helping the heroine in her adventures.

* In ''Literature/AmongOthers'' by Creator/JoWalton, Mori's twin dies shortly after the start of the book and she spends most of the book coping with her death. [[spoiler:Then she sees her twin's ghost who tries to get her to commit suicide so they can be together.]]

* [[spoiler: Digby Geste]] from ''Literature/BeauGeste'' plays a bit with this; though he survives his twin [[spoiler: Michael and even helps in making a funeral pyre for him]], he feels a lack due to his twin's more dominant personality [[spoiler: and he dies on the way back to Lagos]].
* In Creator/DavidEddings's ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgariad]]'', the sorceress Polgara is this.
-->'''Belgarath''': "To this very day, if you're impolite enough to ask Polgara how old she is, she'll probably say something like, 'We're about three thousand--or so.' Beldaran's been gone for a long time, but she still looms very large in Polgara's conception of the world."
** In fact, just the mention of her name, such as [[spoiler: Garion naming his first daughter after her]] is enough to shake her.
** Either one of the surviving twins in his other novel, ''Regina's Song'' gets this. [[spoiler: [[CuteAndPsycho Very]], [[SerialKiller very]] [[TheOphelia badly]].]]
* In ''Blade of Fire'' (the second volume of Stuart Hill's ''Literature/TheIcemarkChronicles'') Thirrin's son, Cerdic, is killed in battle, prompting his twin brother, Eodred, to enter a period of protracted mourning. In the end, it takes the insistence of his sister, Cressida, that he get on with life and his newfound friendship with a young werewolf to help Eodred recover.
* In one of many possible interpretations, Colin Whisterfield in Creator/AlanGarner's ''Literature/{{Boneland}}'', in which an older surviving twin seeks to come to terms with the (presumed) death of his sister, in very strange circumstances, anything up to forty years before the present.

* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': Book #8 (''The Cat Who Sniffed Glue'') features David Fitch, who has to deal with not only the murder of his twin brother Harley and his wife, but also their mother's fatal stroke and their father's suicide, both indirectly caused by the murder. His friends are all worried he may follow his father's example. [[spoiler: Subverted when we find out that David was DeadAllAlong and the surviving twin is actually Harley, who killed David in order to take his place. He was having an affair with David's wife. The parents' stroke and suicide were caused by the fact that they figured out the truth, and couldn't live with it.]]

* {{Exaggerated|trope}} in ''Literature/TheDiminished'' where everyone, save for a rare few "singleborn", is a twin. If one twin dies the other gets sick and dies soon after, and the 1 percent who survive become known as "the diminished" and will inevitably snap into murderous insanity. [[spoiler:Except not really. The CorruptChurch has been secretly dosing the diminished with PsychoSerum for decades, in order to increase the populace's fear of them and their own power. Without that, only one in five of the diminished will snap, and it won't be quite as dramatic or murderous when they do.]]

* Carrie, after Cory is killed by poison in ''[[Literature/DollangangerSeries Flowers in the Attic]]''. The next book, ''Petals on the Wind,'' shows that she never entirely recovers.

* Gilead Lothain, the dispossessed elf protagonist of the Black Library novel ''Gilead's Blood'' (and the forthcoming Gilead's Curse), owes his grim, tragic and thoroughly disillusioned character to the death of his identical twin brother Galeth. Gilead and Galeth were often described as one soul in two bodies, such was the strength of their bond (extending to a kind of mild telepathic link), and Gilead speculates that their bond somehow survives Galeth's death, making him effectively two souls in one body. It is because of what happened to Galeth that Gilead lost all interest in his lands and noble birthright and became the shadowy wandering vigilante he is in the books.
* Both played straight and subverted in ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** [[spoiler:George, the surviving Weasley twin, goes on without Fred to become super successful at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which was the dream the twins had pursued together.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler: he marries Fred's then-girlfriend, he names his own son Fred, and WordOfGod says that he never fully got over Fred's death, to the point where he could no longer produce a Patronus charm, since all his happiest memories involved Fred]]. In the films, the look on [[spoiler: George's face in the movie when he sees Fred's dead body shows just how deeply it affects him]].
** Meta-Example (sort of); the actor playing [[spoiler: George]] couldn't do more than a few takes of [[spoiler: pretending his brother was dead]] as it was too much for him.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Katniss’s family friend Mrs Undersee became a drug addict after her twin sister was killed in the titular games about 25 years before the start of the series.
* Jonah in Natalie Standiford's book ''How to Say Goodbye in Robot'': [[spoiler:Jonah's father actually lied to him about his twin's death in a car accident. He actually had him institutionalized because he didn't want to look after him.]]
* The book ''Literature/IMissYouIMissYou'' opens with the character Tina telling the audience that her identical twin Cilla will soon die in a car accident and that this is not meant to be a surprising twist because the story is about Tina dealing with the loss of her sister.
** While the characters in the book are fictional, they are based on real life twins Kinna and Jenny Gieth. Kinna, a teenager at the time, co-wrote the book with author Peter Pohl as a way of coping with the death of her twin.

* In the SF novel ''La Horde du Contrevent'' by Alain Damasio, one of the Dubka brothers dies and the other angsts about it until [[spoiler: he is replicated and the copy instantly assumes the identity of the dead brother, for reasons explained in the book.]]

* In [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] novel ''Look to Windward'', this is the {{backstory}} for [[spoiler:the AI Mind of the Masaq [[Literature/{{Ringworld}} Orbital]], formerly the GSV ''Lasting Damage'', which had been reunited with its BackupTwin and then lost it during the Idirian War. Culture Minds are titanic. Big mind, big angst.]]
* The Literature/{{Redwall}} story ''Marlfox'' has a pair of otter twins that are part of the Sensational Wandering Noonvale Companions Troupe. One of the brothers, Elachim, dies in the first battle of the story, while his brother survives to the end.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_%28novel%29 Lightning]]'' by Creator/DeanKoontz. The heroine meets a pair of identical twin orphans, Thelma and Ruth. Later on Ruth is killed accidentally when another orphan commits suicide, causing Thelma tremendous grief. She ends up helping the heroine in her adventures.

* Isadora and Duncan Quagmire are Surviving ''Triplets'' in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. They insist on being referred to as triplets, not twins, because they were not born twins. [[spoiler: Later subverted when it turns out that Quigley survived.]]
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': In one version of the "burn the ships" incident, Amras, one of Fëanor's twins, is [[AccidentalMurder on the ships when his father burns them]]. His twin Amrod becomes this afterward. [[note]]This version doesn't appear in the published Silm, apparently because Tolkien changed his mind about it. Doesn't stop many fans accepting it as canon, though.[[/note]]

* Wulfgar from ''{{Literature/Valhalla}}'' loses his brother to the protagonist in the first scene, setting up his quest for revenge.
* The ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'' book ''The Wakefields of Sweet Valley'' includes the story of Jessamyn, the great-great grandmother of the twins featured in the main series, who never really got over the death of her own twin Elisabeth in a riding accident. To a lesser extent, Amanda (the Wakefield's great-great-aunt whose twin Samantha dies in childbirth) and Sarah (the great-great-grandmother on the other side of the family whose twin brother James dies of pneumonia) might also qualify.
** Elizabeth herself has a nightmare in which Jessica is killed in a car accident following an argument in which Elizabeth has finally gotten fed up with Jessica's selfish behavior and outright told her "I wish I didn't HAVE a sister." Naturally, Elizabeth is this trope until she wakes up and realizes it was AllJustADream.

* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'': Peril is haunted by the fact she killed her twin while [[FetusTerrible still in their egg]]. It fuels her belief that [[EnfantTerrible she was hatched to kill others]], something [[TykeBomb enforced by her queen]]. [[spoiler:It turns out the story is a lie. Her MissingMom Kestrel was forced to kill her brother in a SadisticChoice soon after they hatched.]] Later [[spoiler:it's revealed that Kestrel managed to fake her son's death, but lost track of him afterwards.]]