Sweet Valley Series

[Peggy Lane]

I too read the "Wakefields in history" supplement to the Sweet Valley series... I loved the French resistance one, and wasn't there one where the Proto-Elizabeth was a horseback performer in the circus?

Jessamyn ran away from home and became the circus perfomer. Sweet, perfect Elisabeth went to visit Jess and either decided it would be fun to try riding the circus horse or was filling for her sister and ended up thrown and then...dead. Jessamyn blamed herself. I can't BELIEVE I remember this.

[dwanollah]

chonies said:

Being fat and wearing Doc Martens is code for being a feminist. Not only did Elizabeth get fat, she turned into a womyn's libber. Which, of course, means ugly, humorless, and a Debbie Downer who sucks the joy out of phallocentric university life--football games, frat parties, etc.

She, like, wore "The Earth Is Our Mother" t-shirts, even! She was prolly a big ol' lesbo.

leukemia makes you prettier (#12, When Love Dies);

Any disease or near-death experience not only makes you more beautiful, it also makes you loveable, even if you were a total bitch before (see: Suzanne Devlin). Then again, if you're Jessica, you aren't actually being a bitch, just... you know... popular and dazzling or something.

[chonies]

lallybroch said:

chonies said:

Well, the worst part about that is Rick the Porntache Perv was the last overt sexual mention. Ever, as far as I can recall. Everything else was chaste kisses in someone's mom's Toyota or something. BORING!

A few books later, didn't Bruce try to have sex with Elizabeth? She'd fallen off a motorcyle and hadn't been acting like herself. Then there was "Easy Annie", who had a {{{gasp}}} teenage mother and everyone insinuated that she would follow in her footsteps. But you're right, this all happened fairly early on in the series.

You know, you're right. I forgot the one about Elizabeth and the motorcycle accident. Was that Dear Sister? Porntache Boobgrope just stood out because it was the closest thing to consensual sex--everything else was implied or otherwise unwanted, which makes it assault. Which is definitely not the same thing as Jessica considering bumping Jordache with Members Only parts.

[proper stranger]

I will always remember that Jessica and Elizabeth were 5'6", had blonde hair and green eyes and wore matching lavalieres. "...but that's where the similarities ended!"

I remember the girls in my sixth grade gym class passing around Playing with Fire for the "porny" scene between Jessica and Bruce.

Dear Sister (Elizabeth in a coma) was the first one I read, then I went back to read #1-6. I collected them until #36 or 37, at which time I sold my collection to a used book store to raise money for a ticket to George Michael's Faith Tour. My mom ended up buying my ticket as a gift, so I'd sold my SVH books for nothing. It was vaguely like a late 80s version of "Gift of the Magi".

I didn't read far enough into the series to get to Elizabeth's transformation into a Doc-wearing feminist--LOL.

I wish I still had those books--I'm up for some cheesy retro reading.

[mugatu]

I wish I still had those books--I'm up for some cheesy retro reading.

Me too. And I had a ton.

I always wanted to live in their house. I didn't even know what a split-level ranch style house looked like. But I just knew I wanted to live in one.

[linared]

I actually found a copy of SVU book, I think it was called a A Married Woman. It was about Jess beginning secretly married and her husband is an abusive asshole. And someone gets shot in the end. I've never read any of the SVU books before and part of me wants to track more down. I think I read somewhere that both sisters have sex in these books which was totally shocking to me. I was evilly pleased by Elizabeth become fat, omg, which probably meant she gained two pounds. Jessica and Elizabeth are the perfect example of the virgin/whore stereotype.

[thesurlymermaid]

I would love to read some of my old SVH books too. Sadly, my mom informed me recently she got rid of my rather formidable collection. I can't believe it. Well, she did save one for me...the one about Sandy Bacon and her Mexican boyfriend Manuel that her parents disapproved of. Not one of my faves.

[chonies]

It just occurred to me that there wasn't a whole lot of religion in SVH.

Sandy Bacon was such a pill, but so was her perfect bff Jean West. I've wanted to have a band called the Droids and churn out a couple of concept albums based on SVH. Of course, one song would have to be "The Ballad of Lynne Henry" dubbed with a sample of her hit "On the Outside, Looking In."

[laconicchick]

Oh my god, I just remembered some Christmas edition with harlequin dolls, and the twins could imagine anything they wanted into being? That's about all I remember, except I think the cover had an ornament on it.

And their eyes were blue-green, people. Not JUST blue or green.

I don't remember much of SVH at all, because I never really got into it, but I read a TON of Sweet Valley Kids and Twins. It started when I found the SVK book at the library where Jessica hides a cat in her closet and it has kittens -- I believe it is called Jessica's Cat Trick. The only reason I wanted to read it was because Jessica is my name and when you are seven or so, this is a Big Deal. Of course, my mother had to read it first to make sure there was nothing inappropriate in it. I then devoured the rest of the SVK books, which taught me the word "nocturnal" when Elizabeth broke her leg (there was something about a piano in there too). Actually, I remember a heck of a lot more SVK than anything else. But eventually I got into SVT. I never read much of SVH or any of SVU, really, because I refused to read anything with people older than me, and by the time I was in high school I was a bit too old for either of those series. Plus I think the subject matter was too mature for me (I decided that. I was very sheltered).

The Twins Go to the Hospital kind of made me want to get my tonsils out. They got ice cream!

Wow. Looking at these is like some sort of weird flashback. And these ones too. And I totally forgot about the Unicorn Club books! I think I read a couple of those.

[Jibby]

Oh my god, I just remembered some Christmas edition with harlequin dolls, and the twins could imagine anything they wanted into being? That's about all I remember, except I think the cover had an ornament on it.

The Magic Christmas! Because I'm a big dork, that was always my favorite SV book. The twins got harlequin dolls, but they weren't really dolls... they were really princes from the Hidden Kingdom, and the twins got trapped in their world and had to defeat an evil sorcerer guy before they could get home.

Man, I loved that book ;D