Sweet Valley Series

[BinkyBetsy]

dwanollah said:

Dreamiest SVH boy? Der... Bill Chase!

Ohhhhhhh, you've just reminded me of my favorite SVH! It was number 8, though I can't remember the title (weird, huh?). The setup was that during number 7, when Liz had had her personality change* after the motorcycle accident, Bill was one of the guys she'd ensnared. At the end of the book, when Liz was out almost getting date-raped by Bruce Patman**, Bill came by because Liz had also accepted a date with him. Jessica spent the whole evening with him, then at the last minute sprung it on him that "I'm not Elizabeth -- I'm Jessica!"

So in book 8, Bill is abruptly getting to know DeeDee Whatsername now, while still pining for Jessica and for his former girlfriend...Julianne, that's it. Who was more charming than Jessica, and more perfect (without being nauseating) than Liz, and had a deep spiritual bond with him, but unfortunately died in a car accident because he had picked a fight with her at a party, so she rode home with someone who had been drinking. (Even at the time, I wondered how young Bill could still be if he had all this history.) So when he heard of her death, he jumped into the ocean during a heavy storm, hoping to drown or get pneumonia. He did neither, but was fished out by a lifeguard, while vomiting up seawater and mumbling Julianne's name over and over, and spent weeks recuperating. Then he moved to Sweet Valley, and met Jessica and Liz, who were both the spitting image of Julianne.

So fast-forward to book 8, where he's giving surfing lessons to DeeDee, who is "less conventionally pretty"*** than Julianne or the Wakefields, but who somehow carries a glint of Julianne's spirit. Except that Jessica (who REALLY needed to be bitchslapped for this) kept stalking him, and every time he was alone with DeeDee, at the beach, in the caf, the hallways, wherever, would plunk her ass down between them and flirt outrageously until DeeDee would slink away.

So one raw, drizzly afternoon, Bill was giving DeeDee another surfing lesson. She was in the ocean and he was on the sand, brooding about Jessica and not noticing that DeeDee had wiped out until it was almost too late. So he raced out to her, praying not to have a repeat of the Julianne tragedy, and brought her back to shore with his awesome surfer muscles, and gave her mouth-to-mouth with his blond surfer hair dripping all over the place, and cradled her against his muscular surfer chest, and...Whoa, whoa, calm down, Binky! The point is, that's about as unabashedly romantic and sensual as they got for a long time. Usually, love scenes were like, "They kissed...Now let's see what the other twin is up to." Guess which copy in my collection was more worn-out than any other!

*I'm almost willing to give them a mulligan on that one. People do sometimes react badly to head trauma, and since Liz did not strictly "become Jessica", but was just straight-up nasty, it's not quite the old sitcom device of someone becoming the opposite of what they were. That said, I think it takes more than ANOTHER bump on the head to reverse the process.

**And that scene, when Liz comes back to herself and starts saying "no", and Bruce tells her, "I've got really strong hands, Liz. From tennis," to which she replies, "Is this what all your big conquests are about? With girls who don't know what they're doing or are too drunk to care?" was pretty powerful, by SVH standards. Though I forget precisely what she did to escape. For that matter, I wonder how she repaired all the bridges she'd burned during her rampage. I mean, sure, Todd would have forgiven her if she'd shot up a schoolyard full of children, but what about everyone else, including teachers and her parents?

***Which no doubt meant she'd be a knockout in any real-world context. That's another thing I hated: the implication that anyone who didn't look like a Wakefield was a dog. Or if someone did outclass them, it's because they were also evil.

[kayti2212]

deelight said:

I didn't think that any of Elizabeth's boyfriends were all that great. Elizabeth didn't really deserve a good boyfriend, anyway. Didn't she cheat on Todd or whoever she was with at the time practically every time she went on vacation?

She also cheated on him with Bruce Patman, when Todd was staying with her for the week! It was when they discovered that their parents had once been married to eachother, and started to re-live their romance! They were kinda cute together actually.

I liked Liz & Bruce together too, and I remember that book extremely well, including the kitchen scene where Liz is in a bikini (they were hosting a pool party) and kissing Bruce and Todd walks in! And then she makes a bad dive into the Wakefield pool and Todd rescues her. Ah, good times...

I had such a crush on Ryan James Bittle who played the original Todd on the SVH TV show (later turned up as Jack's homophobic fraternity brother on Dawson's Creek - how random).

On another note, did anyone like SVU? I really liked the turn it took after SVH. Seemed much more 'real' (well, as real as it can get in Sweet Valley world) and the characters all showed lovely development. And omigod, there was actual SEX depicted! Jessica and Mike! And Todd broke my heart with his bad choices at the beginning, but I loved his relationship with the Asian girl who eventually died (what was her name - Gin? Sun? I've totally forgotten!). Tom Watts was a loser! And Elizabeth got even more boring. But yay for Lila getting married (then hooking up with Bruce!) and Enid turning into Alexandra!

[Deleted]

deelight said:

She also cheated on him with Bruce Patman, when Todd was staying with her for the week! It was when they discovered that their parents had once been married to eachother, and started to re-live their romance! They were kinda cute together actually.

Whoa, I didn't read that one. And, um, ew. If their parents had once been married to each other, then their romance has a somewhat incestuous tone to it, even if the marriage happened before they were born. Ya know?

[everlynn]

hoppingghost said:

Whoa, I didn't read that one. And, um, ew. If their parents had once been married to each other, then their romance has a somewhat incestuous tone to it, even if the marriage happened before they were born. Ya know?

I might have read the Wakefield Sagas, and it turns out their parents were never married. She almost married him before she then ran to Ned, I think she showed up on Ned's front lawn with her wedding dress still on?

[kiran]

Aw... I kinda liked Todd.

Whatever, my fave boyfriend was hot, rich and brooding Nicholas Morrow. He had a boat!

But my favorite storyline was the shortlived romance between Lila and Steven. Basically Lila's house was burnt down (by the dude who tried to date rape her) but everyone thought it was her because a)lonely rich girl, whose parents were out of town b) her boyfriend had just dumped her in a letter c) her previously unmentioned fascination with fire. Steven was working with the police department and on a break from his girl friend, and as he investigated Lila he became more and more intrigued and taken with her, despite suspecting her more and more (at one point he took her to dinner and she got fixated on a candle and started talking about how much she loved fire). To young me it was very, very Sea of Love.

[Cinchona]

I'm watching Cape Fear for the first time right now on TCM, and I'm realizing that it's where "Francine" got the plot for this book. (And "she" also probably got the killer's name from this guy.)

[Deleted]

On another note, did anyone like SVU? I really liked the turn it took after SVH. Seemed much more 'real' (well, as real as it can get in Sweet Valley world) and the characters all showed lovely development. And omigod, there was actual SEX depicted! Jessica and Mike! And Todd broke my heart with his bad choices at the beginning, but I loved his relationship with the Asian girl who eventually died (what was her name - Gin? Sun? I've totally forgotten!). Tom Watts was a loser! And Elizabeth got even more boring. But yay for Lila getting married (then hooking up with Bruce!) and Enid turning into Alexandra!

I read a few SVU books but I sort of moved on (to V.C. Andrews!!!) soon after they started so I never really got into the series. I remember thinking that the vaguely creepy guy who worked on the college paper or something and was in love with Liz (was it Tom Watts?) was rather dreamy. I did like how Elizabeth's perfect life fell apart once she got to college and Todd dumped her ass and Enid became Alexandra. It lasted for a few books, iirc, and I liked that it actually took Liz some time to find her niche. I also liked that Winston FINALLY scored a hot chick by being his goofy self. Although I am sure that I would find that whole storyline completly patronizing if I read it today.

[bee]

I found the first Wakefield Saga (and could NOT turn up the second) and the Evil Twin miniseries at my parents' house this weekend and couldn't help but indulge myself. Now I'm in a queue for borrowing a whole bunch more from a friend ... I simply MUST re-read all those soap opera-y plots!

[dwanollah]

I expect a full report, bee.

[bee]

What, even more than "Still think Jessica rocks. Still want to punch Elizabeth in the throat."?