Young Adult Revisited

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....

Whisper of Death holds a fairly special place in my heart because it once got me in trouble. My little group of sixth grade friends and I chose the book for our reading group and made the mistake of discussing it in the classroom. A classmate (damn you Luke!) ran and told our teacher that we were reading a book about abortion, cussing and sex. The teacher took one look at the book and banned all Christopher Pike books from our classroom for the rest of the year. It’s kind of sad when you think about it… Anyway, Roxanne is your typical high school student: she doesn’t give a damn about anything, but she does have red hair and “great legs”. We know this because Pike tells us every few pages. She meets Pepper, they go on one date and she ends up sleeping with him in his aunt and uncle’s barn loft. This leads to a great line about how she “got a thorough examination from Dr. Pepper”, a line I never forgot. Oh yeah, and he almost lands on the pitchfork, yikes. Roxanne discovers that she’s p...