Sweet Valley Series

[kostgard]

mutagen said:

Margo, the psycho lookalike! Who conveniently scrawled "I AM ELIZABETH WAKEFIELD" across her mirror with lipstick, so the police could figure out her dastardly plans!

I had an Embarrassing Literary Crush on Josh, the vigilante guy who was stalking Margo because she killed his little brother. Which incidentally, it still creeps me out to think about the scene where she drowns the little boy.

Holy crap! Psycho killers? Drowning little boys? Things in Sweet Valley got pretty dark after I stopped reading! When I was reading the books the worst things that happened were things like Jessica being mean and blackballing people from her sorority or Bruce Patman touching someone's boob. Well, I guess there was a plane crash or two, and I think I was still reading when Regina Morrow died after trying cocaine, but at least no one was murdering little children.

Margo AND Nora! There were two of them! They cracked me up because when it came time to choose which twin they were going to replace, they got pissed off at each other because neither of them wanted to be Liz. Heh.

Liz was horrible. The woman made out with Todd while poor Jeffrey was stuck in her closet and hearing everything - she still managed to make Jeffrey not say anything to Todd except that he had himself a good girl. Pfft.

No one wants to be Liz - that's funny.

And yeah, for the "good twin" Liz did an awful lot of cheating on her Perfect Boyfriend Todd and her Other Perfect Boyfriend Jeffrey. I understand the writers wanted their characters to both have a Perfect Boyfriend yet stil be swept away by some new charming guy, but they were really sending mixed messages there. Couldn't they just let Jessica do all the dating if Liz had a steady boyfriend? Between that and all the date raping that apparently went on, I'm surprised that these books haven't scarred a generation of women, or at least gave them some really messed up ideas about relationships.

[dwanollah]

That's something that pissed me off about Liz -- and the whole Liz 'n Todd (or Jeffrey or whoever) = TLA!!!! thing: every single time her boyfriend was out of town or she was out of town, Liz fell for someone else. She hooked up with every single one of her sister's boyfriends, too. (Jess did the same, natch, but you expect it of her.) But because she did it while wearing oxford shirts and cords, she wasn't a fookin' ho-bag skuz-bag like, say, Amy Sutton.

[Deleted]

Jessica was too trampy and sociopathic for Twu Luv. And they liked having the drama of being torn between two possible loves. They were both bitches, in their own special way.

Weirdly, I had a friend who looked exactly like the twins on the covers back in the day when they were drawn.

Did anyone read the Caitlin books? Those were weird. She was a total psycho, Jessica times four, and then somehow became the victim/heroine.

[dwanollah]

Ugh, Caitlin.... Where her boyfriend was sooooo traumatized by her "betrayal" that he was going to, er, date-rape her...? But yeah, it was still Twu Wuv.

[kostgard]

dwanollah said:

That's something that pissed me off about Liz -- and the whole Liz 'n Todd (or Jeffrey or whoever) = TLA!!!! thing: every single time her boyfriend was out of town or she was out of town, Liz fell for someone else. She hooked up with every single one of her sister's boyfriends, too. (Jess did the same, natch, but you expect it of her.) But because she did it while wearing oxford shirts and cords, she wasn't a fookin' ho-bag skuz-bag like, say, Amy Sutton.

She hooked up with all of Jessica's boyfriends too? Damn, I missed that.

Yeah, Liz truly sucks. With Jessica, at least what you see is what you get. Liz is a sneaky little hoooor disgusted in cords, boat shoes, and ribbons in her hair.

Ugh, Caitlin.... Where her boyfriend was sooooo traumatized by her "betrayal" that he was going to, er, date-rape her...? But yeah, it was still Twu Wuv.

Again with the date-rape. What the hell is wrong with these people?

[luciano]

erinnyes said:

Jessica was too trampy and sociopathic for Twu Luv.

That and the fact that her boyfriends kept dying on her.

I found this review of one of the SVU books on Amazon:

Elizabeth is really worried about Jessica's losing touch about reality. Then later she runs into Mike McAllery, Jessica's ex. husband, at the car shop. She gets Mike's help and brings Jessica to a surprise reunion featuring of course Elizabeth, Jess, and Mike. Jess storms off and then Elizabeth and Mike start making out.

Hee.

[Sunbaby]

luciano said:

erinnyes said:

Jessica was too trampy and sociopathic for Twu Luv.

That and the fact that her boyfriends kept dying on her.

I found this review of one of the SVU books on Amazon:

Elizabeth is really worried about Jessica's losing touch about reality. Then later she runs into Mike McAllery, Jessica's ex. husband, at the car shop. She gets Mike's help and brings Jessica to a surprise reunion featuring of course Elizabeth, Jess, and Mike. Jess storms off and then Elizabeth and Mike start making out.

Hee.

OMG! I actually read that SVU book too. Elizabeth was stupid. She should've known Jess wouldn't want to see Mike especially after the divorce and since Nick died (I still can't believe I remember this crap!).

But the real reason I read the University books was because I was a fan of the Lila and Bruce pairing.

[dwanollah]

I found it weird that both Lila AND Jessica would get married (and widowed/divorced) immediately after high school. Enid, maybe. Lila or Jessica? Tying themselves down in a teenage marriage? No way.

[BinkyBetsy]

I liked Euro-Jess too! I wish they hadn't lamed out with the resolution: Jessica goes to a modeling agency, and they immediately want to sign Liz instead of her. "But I really do look just like her!" And the reaction from others kind of bugged too, like "OMG how dare you change your look." Really, hasn't every twin had identity issues at some point? Why wouldn't Jessica want to differentiate herself from Liz for a change? As a naive tweener, my attitude was, "Why does Jessica get to do whatever she wants?" but now I'm more like, "Well, what would I do if my parents had decided I was going to be the Bad Kid?"

[carrier76]

Jessica Wakefield = Brenda Walsh?

Think about it.

ETA:

UM. There's a book called "KIDNAPPED BY THE CULT"? And the cult leader's name is ADAM MARVEL. Oh good gravy.