Sweet Valley - who is with me?

[dangermousie]

This is basically the best website ever.

Oh, I have such fond memories of trashy trashy Sweet Valley books with its improbably blond, gorgeous, All-American twin heroines Elizabeth and Jessica.

For someone like me, a 14-yr-old immigrant lost in a strange world, their delightfully at-home world with everything resolved at the end of each book, was heaven.

The first book I ever read in English was a Sweet Valley twins one (where the twins have to dogsit but try to go to a concert instead and learn a Valuable Lesson (tm)). The second one was Bulwer-Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii, so I had...eclectic tastes even then.

Anyway, I used to devour Sweet Valley High books as a young teen. I'd return from the library with arms laden with their deliciously trashy paperback goodness. I mean, how could I not love a book about a beautiful deaf girl who melted jerky rich boy only to die of cocaine overdose? Or the one where a football player went blind and ended up dating a mousy girl? Or the one where a psycho wanted to kill one of the twins and take her place? I am firmly convinced these books are what primed me for kdrama love. :)

Ah, nostalgia.

Comments

[kitkat-cat.livejournal.com]

OMG! Sweet Valley High and Twins! hahahaha! I used to read these all the time when i was also about 14-15. Unfortunately, these then introduced me to the heady world of trashy romance novels. Someone passed me a Judith McNaught when I ran out of Sweet Valley High, and I then started on a long slippery slide.

My mum, thought that these were the work of the devil and were trying to corrupt her daughter!!! The thought of 16-18 year olds dating and snogging were enough to send her traditional chinese mother's soul into permanent panic! :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Bwahahahaha. Seeing that I was reading my Mom's Jusith Krantz books for my on sex education in high school - heeeeeeeee.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

I was traumatized for life by the one where an earthquake hit Sweet Valley and my favourite character was killed after she got crushed by a toppled REFRIDGERATOR. Whhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

oh, olivia right? it was so sad, ken was with her when she died =(

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

THEY KILLED OLIVIA????????????????????????????????????

Argh, I never knew that.

Booo.

I only really liked two of SV girls - Regina and Olivia, and Pascal offed them both? I must be a jinx.

*goes off to weep in the corner*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I just learned about Olivia's death right now (15+ years after I first read SVH books) but I am still pissed :)

Nooooo, why couldn't they kill annoying Jessica?

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

haha, offed by a fridge. But seriously, it was one of the worst moments ever, and Ken was never the same after that.
(I find the fact that Amy's pretty average boyfriend Ken Matthews turned into THE football quarterback in SVH to be an amazing moment of puberty gone A-okay)

[thegreatmissjj.livejournal.com]

Um...you do realize my boss is publishing the adult book, right?

http://sweetvalleytenyearslater.com

It's coming from St. Martin's Press March 29, 2011. It's the only fiction title we've acquired so far...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I had no idea! Awesome! Thanks!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You forgot the part where the historicals were THE MOST EPIC THING EVER (when you are 14) and where motorcycles are, like, the end of covilization.

Remember when Elizabeth had amnesia and started acting like, well, most of the other girls in the series, and she was supposed to be OMG HORRIBLE AND UNNATURAL, and Lila was all "oh, eew" when she realized she was mistaking Elizabeth for Jessica because Elizabeth stole Jessica's clothes?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I was reading those. The one about all these women who failed to marry a Wakefield until Alice ran out on Bruce's Dad and married Ned. LOL. I can't remember what I had for dinner yesterday but I remember that trashy fun.

Must not see if it's on kindle

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

I think I read a few of the supernatural ones? There was an angry ghost, and some dimension hopping with princes (of course), though not in the same story.

Ah, Sweet Valley. :P

I wonder about Diablo Cody's movie version, though. It may be hilarious. Or terrible.

Hilarrible?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

A movie?????????????????

*expires*

[corlee1289.livejournal.com]

KYAAAAAA~!

I also used to read Sweet Valley High and University when I was in high school... Which was something like 5-6 years ago?

Ahhhh~ It brings back a lot of memories :3

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I read them a lot longer ago than that but yeah :)

[autumn-yaar.livejournal.com]

OMG don't get me started! I also spent so much time at the library searching for every single book available from Sweet Valley High. I was obsessed!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I remember hunting them all down too.

I was especially desperate to find the one where Liz ends up in a coma :P

[shinystory.livejournal.com]

My first Sweet Valley book was the sixth in the Twins series, "The New Girl." A classmate was reading the series and sorta recommended it to me, so I tried it. It always calls to mind a sunny Sunday afternoon, when everything is quiet and unhurried and well.

I remember the family history series that I just devoured (I was already reading romance novels then.)

I had a lot of these books and on a great quarterlife-crisis-clean-up mode, I was able to donate all my collection but for a few that were gifts. The High and Twins went to a bookshop advocating journalists' rights; the Kids went to a children's hospital.

It's making me nostalgic just thinking about it.

I take it you like the Sweet Valley High series best?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I was in the right age group for SVH and by the time it branched into SVU etc I was too old to care, so yes.

[ejekyll.livejournal.com]

hmmm... a sign that I'm just plain old as opposed to getting older - when I remember reading the books you're talking about, but it's so hazy as to be shrouded in the mists of history!

makes me yearn to dig out a few old copies, but I don't think any have survived, though I did find a few Chalet stories from my childhood days a few months back. and Enid Blyton too!

[ejekyll.livejournal.com]

although it's kinda a good feeling, to find out that times haven't changed that much... my high school days were 15 years ago, which means I'm about 10yrs older than lil miss corlee there...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think I am about your age (my high school years were 15 yrs ago too) but, perhaps depressingly, I remember all the characters' names. This is really sad. :P

[puion.livejournal.com]

OMG...the good ol'days!

I used to collect these books (& Babysitter Club lol)! But the most memorable part for me was when that scary girl who tries to kill & replace either one of the Wakefield twins.

I remember that story was split into like 6 books or something...and my goodness, the wait was intense, and almost killed me lol!

Who was your favorite twin??? I think I like Elizabeth..and she was so sweet with Todd! Wonder if they actually make it?!

I don't even know how they end up...I remember reading Sweet Valley University...and Jessica slept with that older man...I think.

[katranna.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth cheated on her boyfriends more than Jessica did! She cheated on Todd tons of times, and on Jeffrey too. She was just cast as this good girl and she always felt Really Conflicted whenever she'd go make out with other guys while her boyfriend was trying to figure out why she'd been avoiding him.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hey, I like Liz. Jessica was a psychopath :P

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

Did you ever read SVH Senior Year, tho? It's almost like a personality transplant. Jessica got kicked off her high horse, Liz was too caught up with the perpetual bad boy...a lot of drama going on, but hey, high school angst was GOOD.

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

Well, Todd cheated on her straight off the bat though, in SVU. But yeah, Liz is always Really Conflicted.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I used to love the scary psycho wants to replace a twin books!

I liked Liz. And Todd. I remember the first time it occurred to me it would be nice if a boy ever kissed me was when I was reading about Todd kissing Liz. And I thought it would be nice if someone did it to me (I was 13).

[puion.livejournal.com]

I know!!! They are so sweet together! Can't wait for the 10 years later book! Woohoo!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I still can't imagine how they got out of the timewarp and actually aged. LOLOL

[biases.livejournal.com]

I clicked on the link to check out the Sweet Valley High stuff but then, THEN I saw the link for FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC aka probably the reason I like kdramas and yes, that terrible writing, that awful plot, that guilty pleasure!

Thank you for linking, I forsee hours of entertainment. :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Enjoy!

[katranna.livejournal.com]

Hah, and then you used to retell them to me, with even more glorious melodrama. I also like the loving-snark community 1bruce1 and this site: http://thedairiburger.com/

And I was going to mention how JJ's involved in the upcoming release of the "10 years later" Sweet Valley book, but she beat me to it. :-)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember retelling the blind football player one to you guys. LOLOLOL. Clearly, I was cut out for Korean drama even then :P

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I used to read so many Sweet Valley High books. I think my favourite was when Elizabeth and Jessica got cast as like... soap stars or something? And the fact that they were perpetually sixteen, or whatever? LOL. It brings back so many memories.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I tried to calculate how long their school year would have to be to fit all the activities in and finally gave up. I bet they are in a time warp.

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

Oh god I used to devour Sweet Valley. Shelves of my home library are filled with them. From Middle School, to SV Junior Year, SVH, SVH Senior Year, SVU...but I think I loved Sweet Valley High the best. My fave was when Jessica went out with Christian - the hunky surfer from their rival school - while still dating Ken (oh the drama), and the schools had this whole war going on, and Christian died in the end. Needless to say, I cried.

And then I got my grubby hands on my mom's extensive collection of Harlequin Mills & Boon, and I was off to adulthood. (I'm a fan of historical romances now).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOL. I switched to Victorian novels instead.

[paatriiing.livejournal.com]

lmfao Sweet Valley. Now that I think about it, even the name is kinda cheesy. But I collected those things like mad from those elementary school ones to the ones after the earthquake. HAHAHA Francine Pascal, that wily fox.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

She must be rolling in $$$$$$$$