I read this book on the challenge of a friend. I had recently panned a book intended for young adult readers (a ‘Lizzie McGuire’ book) and she mentioned enjoying the ‘Sweet Valley High’ books when she was younger. I promised her that I would read one.

Overall, I was impressed by the book. It’s not great literature, but it was decently written. I would not hesitate to let a child read this series – it’s harmless good fun.

The Sweet Valley Series is difficult to find at my local library. Many of the earlier books are so old that they have been damaged or lost. The volume I mananged to find (book 2 of the series) was a ‘large print’ addition, which seemed odd. Are there many elderly people reading books written for pre-teens?

It was a quick read, well-written and the story flowed along at a good clip. It’s your standard good-against-evil story, but set in a valley-girl California suburban high school. ‘Evil’ is personified by Jessica Wakfield and ‘Good’ by her twin sister Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is sweet and kind and very, very nice to everyone. She keeps her room clean. She works hard in school. She views other people in terms of their good qualities. She tries to help out wherever she can. She has a humble, decent, boy-next-door boyfriend whose popularity and success as the school basketball star don’t stop him from being generous and kind to the school geek, Winston Eggbert. Elizabeth is nice to the geek too.

I can totally dig a heroine who’s nice to geeks.

Jessica is cruel and catty. She’s shallow and thinks of other people only in terms of what they can do for her or how she can use them. She’s obsessed with her appearance, her popularity and status. She has an over-developed sense of entitlement. Her room is messy and studying is clearly not on her agenda. She’s dishonest. She’s unkind to poor Winston who, cruely, is in love with her. In short, she’s a bitch.

The scariest thing about Jessica is that I’ll bet there are at least a few overamibitious, shallow teenage girls who actually liked and related to the Jessica character.

The plot of this one is simple: Enid, best friend of Elizabeth, has a secret. Jessica finds out (by snooping in her sisters room), reveals it (to Enid’s boyfriend, causing great heartbreak and tears) and then convinces Enid that Elizabeth was in fact the culprit (this seems to be a recurring theme in this series).

Elizabeth finds out and thwarts Jessica’s plan in such a way that everyone is happy about it except Jessica. In the final chapter, even Winston, the geek, is smiling.

Good wins out over evil. All’s well in the universe. Until Book #3, of course!