SWEET VALLEY HIGH #48: SLAM BOOK FEVER

I know, two reviews fairly quickly! I’ve obviously been sick and in bed a lot lately, otherwise you’d be waiting for reviews.

Slam Book Fever opens with Amy Sutton holding center court, which just means Jessica is having an off-day. She tells everyone about slam books and how they were oh-so-popular at her old school (remember how she used to live in Connecticut?). Jessica immediately embraces the idea, though she’s pissed at how everyone calls her a flirt. Liz, who only sits with the group because all the tables are full, is less than thrilled because she assumes someone will get hurt.

The funniest thing of all is that they organize a special group outing to the stationary store to get…composition notebooks. Apparently Sweet Valley doesn’t have a Wal-Mart or Target.

Then Jess learns that there’s a new boy in town, AJ Morgan, and she gets her panties in a twist. The redhead is different though because every time he’s around, Jess starts blushing and stammering because she’s in loooove. The first time they meet, she literally runs in the other direction.

At the same time Liz is getting a little nervous because her boyfriend Jeffrey is spending a little too much time with Olivia Davidson, including calling her Liv. Olivia wanted Liz to help her start up a new literary mag, but the twin is way too busy for the little people and Jeffrey agreed to help. Oh and Olivia and her boyfriend are having problems.

Back to Jess, who’s obsessed with the fact that everyone keeps labeling her a flirt in their slam books. She even gets upset when Liz agrees with her. Turns out she’s upset that AJ will hear about her flirtiness (I.e. ability to dry hump every man in town) and not be interested.

Amy decides to start doing Crystal Ball/predictions in the slam book and *gasp* Jeffery and Olivia start turning up as the Couple of the Future and *gasp* so do Liz and AJ. The rest of the book pretty much follows the same stories: Jess runs from AJ and Liz gets pissed at Jeffery. Seriously though, I kind of feel her. They have a date and Jeffrey forgets that he’s helping Olivia. He even picks her as a “model” for a shoot out in the dessert and stands Liz up for a beach date, even forgetting to call her and tell her.

Cara turns up and tells Liz she saw Jeffrey holding Olivia in his car and Liz basically takes a “fuck you” stance and heads to the beach with the girls. Lila of all people tries to comfort Liz, but Liz decides to run off and flirt with AJ. Jeffrey shows up at the beach with Liv and the two try and convince Liz that nothing happened (yeah, that’s going to work), but she decides to spend time with AJ instead…sorry Jess.

Lila bets Jeffrey that she can change Liz’s mind, or she’ll pay for dinner at the fancy French restaurant in town. Of course it doesn’t work, but she decides that dinner (at a romantic place) is the best chance to talk strategy. They start spending time together and *finally* Olivia grows a brain.

She decides to work with Jess and find out who’s behind the fake slam book predictions. Liz is too busy up in AJ’s grill to even notice that anything is happening. Jess gathers up all the slam books and they discover that only Lila’s is missing the predictions.

AJ tells Jess that he likes girls who are shyer and more natural, not like Liz…but like her. Poor bastard, he doesn’t even see it coming. Jess tells Liz about Lila and Liz makes up her own slam book with entries like “Most Sorry” with her name on it, sends it into Jeffrey during class and they make up. Aw…or whatever.

Olivia and Jess make up a new category called Class Sneak and write Lila’s name in all the books. Somehow she gets her comeuppance from that, but I don’t get it. All she does is blush and sit at another table. The book ends with the gang at the literary magazine opening and Jess blatantly lying to AJ about how she likes poetry and writes children’s stories. Then it finally ends with Jess asking for help from Liz and Liz realizing that things won’t end well for her sister.

Man, this book was a lot better when I was younger….

Lessons Learned

Lie and act fake to get a guy, it always works.

Never trust your boyfriend, even if he claims he’s spending time with a friend.