Top 5 Disappointments in Sweet Valley Confidential
Originally, I planned on doing a straight recap of Sweet Valley Confidential, but I just can’t do it. I think I’ll just do a couple of separate blog posts to cover stuff in the books. Be warned guys, I despised this book. Sweet Valley Confidential could have been so great, but this wasn’t great at all. There are some big spoilers here too, so if you don’t want to read spoilers, then skip this post.
I thought I’d start with the 5 biggest disappointments in Sweet Valley Confidential.
#1- Major changes to the overall characters that we know and love. Lila, who was one of the best parts about Sweet Valley University, is now back to a spoiled, bitchy character. She doesn’t even make funny quips: she’s just there to throw a party, be a bridesmaid and screw around on her husband. Steven is now a philandering husband that cheats on his wife constantly. Enid is a doctor that sleeps with AJ Morgan, but doesn’t really like him.
#2-Lack of respect paid to original characters. Yeah, I’m sorry but I didn’t pick up this book, expect to hear multiple mentions of Winston and then hear that he gets drunk, falls off a balcony and dies. Cara gets to come back, but just so Steven can whore around on her. Even Bruce’s parents get killed off prior to the book starting. Jessica also makes rude comments about Aaron, saying she never liked him. I guess Francine forgot that they dated in junior high and high school.
#3-Seriously fucks with the continuity of the books, even worse than the books did. Did you know that Bruce was in the same grade as everyone in SVU? Funny, because I remember him still being a year ahead. Did you know that Aaron Dallas was a year older than the SVH gang? Weird because he was totally in their class in both SVH and SVT. Did you know that Jeffery French moved away halfway through high school? I find that totally odd because he moved there during junior year and was still there senior year. Plus, Jeffery is a dentist and Enid is a doctor…at 27 years old. Does Francine even fact check?
And let’s not forget that everyone still managed to somehow graduate together! I just went through the SVU series, so I know what happens. Todd drops out during sophomore year and Elizabeth goes to England for a year. Even Jessica changes her major multiple times (though she was an art history major, Sweet Valley Confidential says she studied communications). Yet somehow they all graduated together.
Plus, Todd says he never noticed Liz until high school and yet they dated in middle school. There is a whole fucking book about him giving Liz her first kiss! Then we have Todd, who never expressed an interest in writing and studied business, becoming a sports writer. Oh and now SVU is just 20 MINUTES from the Wakefield house!
#4-Liz winds up with Bruce. Um, no? Bruce is totally supposed to end up with Lila! There’s a small mention of them dating in college that really pisses me off. Liz says that he told her it was basically a “minor affair that fizzled out” before it started. Minor affairs do not last two years, nor do they span the course of two years. Liz also comments that both Tom and Sam were minor infatuations and not love. Oh my fucking god! I had to weed through 30+ books about how Tom was her true love and then multiple books about Sam. She says that even then, she was thinking about Todd the whole time. That’s super funny because she had multiple shots with Todd and blew him off for the other guys.
#5-Jessica ends up with Todd. Are you fucking serious? Yeah, the whole thing that caused them to stop speaking was that they fell in love. Apparently they had a month long affair in college, while he was dating Liz. Then Jess married someone else, dumped him after six months and ran back to town. They were around each other for three days and realized that they were in love. Liz found out and left town. The whole book deals with them being in love and the perfect couple.
NO THEY ARE NOT THE PERFECT COUPLE!! I’m sorry, but I’ve gone through multiple series where Liz and Todd are together. Even in SVK, they still had little kid crushes on each other. Even when he did date Jess rarely, it just made him realize how much he loved Liz. The only time Jess went after him (like after Sam died) was to hurt Liz. So basically after 20 years of hearing how it’s Liz and Todd, I’m supposed to root for Jessica and Todd? Sorry, but that isn’t happening.
I read parts of this book out to my best friend and boyfriend and they were in shock. When I explained the whole Dear Sister storyline and what Bruce did, my friend even blanched a little. Yeah Bruce may have changed a little, but how do you forgive someone that tried to rape you? Not just forgive him either, but sleep with him and start dating him? It’s way too far on the ick factor.
Francine also added more to the end, explaining what happened to different characters. I hate to ask, but didn’t Roger die? I know he did because it’s a big controversy mentioned in SVSY and no one knows when he died. Well in Sweet Valley Confidential, he’s alive and comes to the wedding.
My last comment…where the fuck is Neil?? Jessica mentions living with him for “most” of her sophomore year, disregarding the fact that he lived with her the whole year and planned to live with her the following year. He was easily my favorite character in SVU, so I’m disappointed that he only makes an appearance, so Jessica can mention him and pretend that she likes gay men.
Roger and Olivia are probably dating again in that plane of existence where you die but are still able to come back in full form.
ReplyDeleteFrom the way, I see it, Francine Pascal didn't read from her own Sweet Valley bible, which is the only things she wrote herself. And this one.
LOL, so your whole point boils down to "wah, wah, Todd and Elizabeth should have ended up together and wah, wah, Lila and Bruce sould have ended up together!"
ReplyDeleteTodd/Elizabeth and Lila/Bruce were boring, predicatable couples. Thank god Francine saw that and corrected it.
Um her point was a lot more than just couples ending up together. Did you even READ her whole post? And she's totally right. This book is an insult to everything that's been written in the series before.
ReplyDeleteI finished the book a few days ago. I'm planning on writing a review of the book on my blog. You would have thought that the editor would have double checked the facts/timeline of the series. If I'm correct, the SVH and the other books were written by ghostwriters, and never by Francine Pascal. SVC should have been written by one of the ghostwriters because Francine's narration doesn't fit in with the other books.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way! This book didn't feel like a SV book. It also made me wonder if Francine ever bothered to read ANY of the other books or if she was just kind of winging it, based on what she "kind of" remembered.
ReplyDeletei wanted todd/elizabeth to end up together but i never read the sweet valley university books and i don't like lila/bruce tbh
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would rather have had everyone end up with someone completely different. Instead of Jessica/Todd, Elizabeth/Bruce, Lila/Ken, etc., I wish they had all moved on and found other people. What are the odds that so many people from the same small school would not only marry, but still be together years later?
ReplyDeleteNearly every couple from my high school that I can remember either broke up during college or didn't go to college, got married, and ended up divorced. It's really unrealistic to see so many high school couples still together, especially given everything that happened to them over the years.