Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal brings us back into the world of the twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. Elizabeth is smart and sensible and Jessica is still beautiful and self-centered.
Francine Pascal brings us back into the world of the twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield — 10 years later. Elizabeth is smart and sensible and Jessica is still beautiful and self-centered. Elizabeth is living in New York while Jessica is still firmly planted in the fictional Sweet Valley, CA town.
Why are the twins separated by the entire continental US? It all comes back to Todd, which is to be expected, but the story is really about the sisters’ falling out and their relationship.
The story about their falling out is told with present-day details and flashbacks to their high school years.
The story is mostly new, about their new lives, but many of the old characters are there, Bruce, Todd, Lila, Steven and Cara. There’s an epilogue at the end, seemingly tacked on as almost an afterthought, which updates the readers to the fates of many of the characters who they got to know in the series.
I received this audiobook, unsolicited, from the Macmillan Audio, and here’s where I have to admit that I have never read a Sweet Valley High book, so I can’t accurately evaluate this book as a super-fan might. I did catch a few of the Sweet Valley High TV shows, which belongs in the “true confessions” category, since it aired when I was in my mid-20’s. What was I doing watching a second-rate TV show based on a shallow book series for teens? I was probably folding laundry some Saturday afternoon and this was back before my audiobook obsession and DVRs. There is a place for mindless TV, just like there is a place for mindless chick-lit, which is what I was looking for when I began listening to this audiobook.
It’s very very light chick-lit. I could see that someone who read the books might want a fun peek back into their lives, but I can also understand that the changes might be unsettling and the reported errors would be annoying.
AUDIO NOTES:
On audiobook it served as a totally mindless escape — much more entertaining than focusing on the laundry I was folding. The reader January Lavoie makes it easy to listen to and distinguishes between the character’s voices nicely.
There’s also an interview with the author at the end, which fans might enjoy (though given the reception that the press and fans have given her, maybe not??).
Were you a Sweet Valley fan? Are you curious about what Elizabeth and Jessica are like today?
Jennifer Donovan admits to other mindless TV viewing habits at her blog Snapshot.
I actually bought a copy of this simply because I loved Sweet Valley High when I was growing up. I don’t think this book will live up to my expectations, even though I already have fairly low expectations for it after reading several reviews.
Tina–come back and leave a comment and let us know what a fan’s impression is.
I think that if you go into with “light chick lit” as a goal, it fulfills that just fine. Seeing how the Sweet Valley Gang grew up could be just a little bonus.
But like I said, I’d like hearing your thoughts on it as light chick lit, but also as a fan.
This is loaded on my Kindle and there are two more books I have from the library to get to before it, but as a SVH fan (hey, what can I say– they were big in my teen hey day), I’m excited to read it and hoping that it doesn’t disappoint.
Crazy! I read a bunch of those books in high school, but they weren’t that memorable. But I feel like I have to at least give this one a shot, who doesn’t love a little mindless chick-lit!
I read these books when I was a kid, but I think even then I recognized that they were “fluffy” reads, a sort of guilty literary pleasure. 🙂