desertvixen | Reading Post: Sweet Valley High Reissues #3, #4 (Reply)

Books 1 and 2 were reviewed on 5/11/08 and 5/14/08, if you're curious.

My short, unspoilered version remains pretty much the same: they're about as good as the originals. My only caveat is that Jessica seems more malicious, and Elizabeth seems a little less goody-goody. (Yes, I identified more with Elizabeth as a teenager, go figure.) This one is fairly shallow, and more prone to being dated than, say, Nancy Drew, but other books in the series did handle tougher teenage subjects without necessarily getting all Afterschool Special on us. The third book has some language use that deserves a higher rating than the originals. The fourth book has somewhat of a “moral” at the ending – almost Elizabeth Wakefield doing a PSA. There’s definitely a slightly harder edge on these, and this series is definitely aimed at teens, not tweens

Getting into the spoilers:

SVH #3: Playing With Fire (the book where Jessica Wakefield gets her wish to be Bruce Patman’s girlfriend, then finds out the truth in the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for”…)

1. 2008 touches include refs to: InStyle magazine, reality dance-contest shows, YouTube, Coldplay, Forever 21 (Jessica’s favorite store apparently).

2. The description of Winston Egbert dancing was a little mean, but priceless – “early Michael Jackson meets old man trying to swing dance meets boy choking on his own saliva”.

3. Cara Walker and John Pfeiffer still appear to be “okay” to Liz, even though they hang out with Bruce (and Jessica). Elizabeth still doesn’t like cliques.

4. I have a hard time picturing Elizabeth Wakefield using the word “dis” in a serious sentence.

5. The pivotal Wakefield vs Patman tennis match is still pretty good.

6. The general plot has not been changed, really. Jessica gets Bruce, puts up with his general self-centered jerk with a fidelity problem self, is finally made to realize that heis cheating on her, gets her pride back, and shoves a piece of pizza in his face, and to finish the fun, causes him to fall in a fountain and be a general laughingstock for all of five minutes.

7. Bruce is much more unpleasant than in the original. In the original, he was a rich, self-centered jerk, but at the core he wasn’t bad, just spoiled. The newer Bruce (to me) seems to have a streak of maliciousness.

8. The language issue: Both come from Bruce (who is a senior, while the Wakefields are juniors) – the term “kick ass” to describe his sailboat, and the one that bothered me more, when he calls Jessica a “little bitch” after he takes his little swim in the fountain. I forget what he calls her in the original, but it wasn’t that. Not that I never use the word, but I was a little surprised to see it in a YA book.

9. There’s also definitely more implied sexual activity – nothing overt. Jessica makes it clear she’s doing more than not kissing Bruce, but reassures Elizabeth that she hasn’t had sex with him.

SVH #4: Power Play (the book where Liz and Jess square off, over Jess’s treatment of Robin Wilson). This is one I really enjoyed in the original, and it’s still pretty well-done.

1. 2008 touches include refs to: MySpace (a Miss SVH contestant being disqualified for lewd photos on her MySpace), a Tom Hanks film retrospective, Jamba Juice.

2. The Pi Beta sorority has become a beautification club. I think they could have done a little better on this part, because the tension between the sisters made more sense when there were more people and Liz had more of a stake in the club.

3. Enid described as being “smart, shy, wears Old Navy”. There’s definitely more of an us (regular people) vs. them (the “beautiful people”) thing going on in the series, even in the Wakefield household.

4. Speaking of the Wakefield household, there’s been almost no mention of the twins’ hot older brother Steven. I know he’s at school, but they don’t even talk about him.

5. Robin Wilson is the major non-Wakefield character, and she goes on to be a regular. She’s the heavy girl who loses weight and becomes popular. There’s several things about this plot that are interesting:

1. It’s (slightly) more realistic this time how Robin loses the weight – working with a private trainer, having a nutritionist create a diet plan for her. She loses 20 pounds in a month. (Remember, I said slightly.)

2. Robin doesn’t just lose the weight, she also starts dressing more flatteringly, gets a haircut that shows off her face.

3. I had a hard time trying to picture how big Robin is. We know the Wakefield twins are five-six, but we don’t know how tall Robin is. I would guess she’s the same height or possibly taller. For one, the author compare her to Tracy Turnblad in the 2007 film, but no unambiguous comparison for the slimmer Robin. She loses twenty pounds and comes back looking good, but plans to lose twenty pounds more. The biggest problem is that we never see Robin through her own eyes, only the eyes of the twins.

4. Liz gets annoyingly preachy in parts of the book. She wonders why Robin carries around Snickers bars instead of apples, and muses in an interior monologue that although she and Jess are lucky enough to have “skinny genes”, they were still taught (and abide by) good nutrition and eating habits. (Robin’s mom is a pro chef/caterer which also seems to play into Robin’s issue.) To be fair, the Wakefield sisters are shown working out.

5. At the end of the book, Robin makes the cheerleading squad on her talent. She’s described as being strong, not necessarily skinny, and as a good base. This also leads to the idea that Robin may be taller than the sisters. The mental picture I have at the end is that Robin is shapely, but not stick-skinny.

6. Liz outwitting Jess by reading “two piece” as “tankini”, not “bikini” for Robin is pretty good.

7. Overall, Liz is much more assertive in this book. She’s definitely not very respectful towards mall security in the secondary shoplifiting plot involving Lila. She threatens the “rent a cop” crew with a lawsuit from her father. She also taunts Bruce Patman about not making Stanford early admission when she’s trying to blackmail him. At the same time, she is genuinely concerned about Robin, and finds after the mid-plot blowup that she enjoys her as a friend, not just a cause in need of saving.

8. “Jessica lived in her own little world. Everyone else was just visiting.” That’s pretty accurate.

9. Todd Wilkins (Liz’s steady) and Bruce almost get in a fist fight.

10. Robin is shown to be a good dancer, and has rhythm. She makes a good cheerleader, and Liz refers to her as looking like an “all-American cheerleader”. Which made me think of Julie in 1632, who wasn’t “skinny” either. She also has a harsher edge, that she maintains toward Jessica.

11. Cara Walker is once again proven to be too nice for Jessica.

12. The stunt where Robin cons Bruce into letting her use his car for the Miss SVH victory ride was better when he drove the Porsche. Classic Corvette or Cadillac Roadster… hmmm, I think I’d stick with the Vette.

Worth buying if you enjoy YA, waiting for the next 2 in December. Except for the part where they're going to leave us with the cliffhanger of #6 for probably 3-4 months, I'm looking forward to seeing more.