Ok, I guess I don't really understand this. I'm going to pretend that I'm in the LOST world now. So that Gary Troup is a real person, as well as Jack, Kate, etc. So Bad Twin is suppose to be fiction I'm guessing, because on the website it says Valenzetti is his first non-fiction. So, if Bad Twin is fiction, what about all the mentions of Alvar, the Hanso Foundation, Widmores, Cindy. So is Paul Artisan a real person? What's going on? What's real and what's not?

The book is fiction set in the "real" world of Lost. If you go to amazon and watch the interviews with "Gary Troup" he says he likes to use real people and places to add authenticity to his books. I'm assuming that all the major characters are fake and Cindy is used as a nod to Gary's new stewardess girlfriend.

So none of that stuff actually happened? Why would the Hanso Foundation care if it was fiction? The Widmores were pretty major and they must be real. This whole thing confuses me.

I think the Widmore family is real, but none of the characters in the book are the same as the "real" Widmores. Although I guess Pen could be a younger sister to the twins. I can't find my copy of the book. Does the father in the book have the same name as the Widmore father in the finale?

I agree though, nothing in the book seems like something that should offend Hanso.

Think of it like a Spider man movie.
New York is real. NYPD is real. Spider Man is not. If the Daily Bugle were a real paper, it would be like that.

The father's name in the book is Arthur Widmore. I can't recall off the top of my head, but on the show wasn't Pen's father Charles Widmore?

They could be related. I just finished reading the book today, and honestly I thought there would be more about the Hanso foundation in it.

I want to start reading this book sometime during the summer. But if this is set in the "Lost" world as non-fiction, wouldn't there be valuable information to the losties in the manuscript Sawyer was reading, and didn't Jack burn that?

I'm confused. which came first - lost or the book? does the book hold lost secrtets or just a coincidence being capotilised by the creators of lost?

Arthur Widmore is the father in the book. But I remember in a podcast or something like that, Carlton or Damon said something about a British Widmore family and American Widmore family, so the book is prolly about the Americans while Penny and Charles are probably the British ones in the show..

gary troup is not a real person his name is an anogram for purgatory one of the theories as to who the people on the island are......non of the people are real people in our world....but they are real people in Gary's world or some of them are....the references to hanso in the book and all the referneces to islands and good and bad and the use of many of the same names we see on the island might be to lead us into more ideas about hanso...the book bad twin was probably started as a twist by the people who made lost....some people think stephen king might have written it....but if he did he did a great job of changing how he usually writes.....although there were a few cuss phrases that reminded me of king......i think it kind of has a johnathan kellermen feel to it....but even that is not a strong feeling......i also think it may be possible that it was co written by many people.....

I was confused when I read it as well. i couldn't (and still can't) grasp why Gary Troup would be writing about "real" people, and also I think that the manuscript would have given Sawyer (and Hurley) some big clues. Aside from that, it was a pretty good book.

Hi!
New to the boards :) Was just wondering: can I actually use the info in Bad Twin to help solve some of the mysteries in the series? I seem to be getting some clues while I read but I'm not sure if I'm just reaching.

I just finished it and find it to be essentially a passable mystery-thriller in which Easter-Egg like comments that have to with the Lost universe (Widmore as a surname, stopping at Mr. Cluck's for chicken, the Hanso Foundation, discussions of purgatory as a theme, twins, islands) are thrown in for fun. I don't think the book has that much to do with anything that is actually going on in the show. It is set in the same fictional world that Lost is also set in, but that's about it.

It exists primarily as a marketing ploy to sell books by an ABC subsidiary. If the same novel came out and had not been linked to Lost, its sales would probably be about 1% of what they have been because of the supposed Lost connection.

Cardie

Yeah I was heavily disappointed with the lack of tie-ins. I was expecting some SERIOUS bad mouthing of the Hanso foundation and major revelations. I didn't like the book that much. I found the Artisans commentary amusing at most parts but I think this book was just pointing out the literary references that provide clues about the main themes of Lost (i.e Lord of the Flies). I don't know why the Hanso Foundation is so upset about the book; it only bad mouthed Mittlewick. There wasn't enough ill- hanso in it that makes the reference on the Hanso site that says "Gary Troup must be silenced" or something to that affect have merit.