Sweet Valley High #7: Dear Sister

This was one of the first Sweet Valley High books I ever owned and I have to admit that I read it a bunch of times as a kid. Enough times, that I could probably write the recap even if I hadn’t finished it the other day.

So this book picks up right after Dangerous Love, with Liz in the hospital. Jess goes to see her and plays the woo is me card, constantly crying. She’s five minutes away from a starring role on General Hospital when the doctor shows up and chastises her. He tells her that she needs to talk to Liz like she would if she was alive and maybe it will wake her up.

Liz wakes up from her coma and almost instantly starts acting weird, or you know, like Jessica. She bitches because Jess invited Todd up, she bitches because Jess didn’t goop her up with makeup and she bitches because she brought an un-sexy nightgown. She plays sick when Todd’s around, but then starts flirting with the doctor as soon as he leaves.

Liz gets home and decides she wants to have a party. She doesn’t want to invite any girls and oddly enough, Jess convinces her that it’s a bad idea. Liz then decides that she doesn’t want to see Todd and it’s up to Jessica to blow him off for her.

When Liz finally goes back to school, she picks out some super short miniskirt that her mom bought her. She points out that Jess always wrangled clothes from their parents and that she won’t let her borrow it. They go to school and everyone mistakes Jessica for Liz, mainly because she’s wearing jeans.

The day of their party, Liz calls and says she has an important errand to do. Jess sets up the whole party and finds Liz in the shower. By the time she gets cleaned up and dressed, Liz is outside flirting with all the guys and showing off. At the end of the party, Liz fakes a headache and leaves Jess to clean up.

The twins then learn that the Wakefields are taking care of twin 12-year olds Joan and Jean while their parents are out of town. Ned and Alice leave the same fucking night the girls get into town (they’re all around bad people, aren’t they?). Jessica’s getting ready for a date with Danny, some lecherous pervert and doesn’t realize that Liz skipped out on her own date. She ends up taking the twins with her and of course it goes horribly.

Jessica starts getting pissed off because everyone wants to bitch to her about Liz trying to steal their guy, even Enid. It gets even worse when Liz flirts with Ken Matthews in front of his girlfriend and then makes up a story for the paper about Susan seeing someone else. To make matters worse, she takes a copy of Winston’s big term paper, changes a few things and turns it in under her own name.

At the next game, Todd completely fucks things up. He keeps missing shots and even gets in a minor fight. Liz gets kicked off the paper for making up a story and then gets yelled at by her parents for cheating. They also yell at Jessica, for not telling them Liz was having problems at school. Once again, nice parenting.

Todd comes over, just to mope and wine about Liz to Jessica. Liz comes roaring up, riding on Max Dellon’s bike and Todd freaks out. He grabs her and yanks her off the bike. Ned and Alice wake up early on Saturday morning and realize they can’t take Joan and Jean to some audition. They leave a note for Jessica to do it for them. Seriously, can they be any worse?

Jessica takes them to the audition, hits another car and gets a speeding ticket on the way home, all because she’s late for a date with Danny. She gets to the beach, just in time to find him cozying up to another girl. Even though Liz is grounded, they convince their parents to let her go to some pickup party at Lila’s house. Seriously, there’s a line about how girls who are going steady, find themselves single after one of the parties.

Jess and Liz go in different matador costumes and of course, Liz starts macking on every guy she sees. Liz winds up with Bruce, who thinks she’s Jess at first. She even sneaks some liquor with him in a corner. They run out to his car and he feeds her some wine, but Todd shows up. He drags Liz out and makes her go home.

Bill Chase pops up, mainly to set himself up for the next book. He asks Todd’s permission to ask Liz out and surprisingly, everyone agrees. Unfortunately she also makes plans with Bruce and leaves Jessica to handle Bill. Jess decides just to dress up like her twin.

Apparently Jess hates Bill because she once had a crush on him, but he blew her off when she asked him out. Bill tells her he loves her and she keeps saying he loves her sister. He finally gives her a whole list of reasons why he loves her and she reveals that she’s Jessica.

Bruce and Liz go to his beach house, where they make out for awhile. He touches her breast, which means he got to second base with both twins. He leaves her in the bedroom so he can get some more alcohol, because why would you want to have sex sober? Plus it’s easier to slip roofies in her drink if she’s not around.

Liz trips, hits her head and suddenly comes back, conveniently not remembering anything since her coma. She fights with Bruce, who basically tries to force her into having sex. Before running off, she tells him that she’ll tell everyone what he did to her if he says anything. She runs outside, runs into Todd and he knows as soon as he looks in her eyes that it’s his Liz. They wander off into the sunset and I wonder why I loved this book so much…