Sweet Valley High #140: Please Forgive Me
I only have a few of the
“newer” books, and I found this one in a thrift store, so I
figured I should recap the last one, which is does at the beginning.
Apparently, Elizabeth “I-never-cheat-on-my-boyfriends” Wakefield
surprisingly enough cheated on Todd with some random new hottie named
Devon. They worked together in science class, and she fell “in
love” with him. When Todd found out about her affair, he proposed
to her. Devon saw, they fought, and she stormed off because, what
woman would want to see two men fighting over her?
Elizabeth is so disgusted
with them that she avoids talking to them both. Enid tells her that
her cousin went on a trip with Project Adventure, which is a total
rip-off, and she thinks it sounds interesting. The trip ends with
each person left alone in the middle of the wilderness to fend for
themselves overnight. Since Ned and Alice are without a doubt the
worst parents alive, they agree to let her go.
Elizabeth is currently not
speaking to Jessica because her sister “betrayed” her. Todd
started dating Courtney to get back at Liz, and Jessica knew that
they were meeting. She called Courtney and Devon, which led to the
big fight. Jessica thinks that the best way to get her forgiveness is
with a bitching party. She gets all her friends together, and they
convince the guys to help.
Todd mopes over Liz
constantly because she is the great love of his life. He sees some
random dude named Keith, who goes on and on about how nature is the
best cure-all for everything. He decides to go with him and his
buddies on a mountain biking trip, and he likes it so much that he
rushes out and buys a new bike. He also gets all of his friends
involved, and they spend so much time outside that they ignore all
the party planning. Todd even asks Devon to join them, but Devon just
snaps at him and whines about how crunchy things are in California.
Elizabeth goes with her
group, which is 100 percent adults. She naturally makes a bunch of
brand new friends, and tells them all about her big problems and how
she's in love with two men. Suddenly, it's time for her solo trek
through the wilderness. She starts imagining that she's seeing things
and feels like she's losing her mind. They gave her a beeper to call
for help, and she contemplates using it.
Jessica and the girls keep
trying to track down the guys, but they act all cagey and weird about
what they've been doing. She finally organizes the girls into two
groups, and they follow the guys into the woods. Oh, and by this
point, Devon has decided to go ahead and join the group. He and Todd
even make a deal to stay away from Liz until she makes her own
choice. The girls eventually run into Liz who thinks she's imagining
the whole exchange. Jess invites her to the Dairi Burger, but she
decides that she's strong enough to finish out the day.
Suddenly, it's one day
later and time for the party. Jessica wants to get to the lake early,
so she asks Liz to pick up the deli platters. Todd shows up and tells
Liz that he understands why she cheated (god I hate him) and that he
forgives her. He then offers to pick up the platters for her, and
they trade cars. Devon decides to stop by and see her too, but he
sees Todd leaving. They have an ugly confrontation, and Todd points
out that he and Liz were friends for years and he wanted to make sure
they could remain friends, before he speeds off.
Jessica calls and flips
out when she hears the news because oh-noes, the brakes on the Jeep
are faulty! Liz tells Devon, who suggests that she go with him on his
motorcycle. She briefly flashes back to her traumatic accident before
hopping on his bike. They find the Jeep barely sitting on the edge of
a cliff with Todd trapped inside. Devon manages to pull Todd out
while Liz holds onto the back for stability. WTF?
Everyone rushes to the
hospital to see Todd, but they will only let in family. The doctor
calls Liz over because his parents called and said that they wanted
her there until they could get to the hospital. She spent so much
time crying over him that Devon thinks she loves Todd, and he tells
her that she made her choice. She then asks him to go in with her
because Todd would want that. Seriously, WTF? And then the book ends
with Liz deciding not to date anyone. Seriously.
*Here's what pisses me
off: one of the people in the nature group is there because she just
went through a divorce after her husband CHEATED ON HER WITH HIS
SECRETARY. She literally tells them this on the same page that Liz
starts moaning about her big problem. Everyone tells her that it's
oh-so-serious and offers suggestions, including the same woman! She
even AGREES that you can love two people at once. I would have
totally bitch slapped her up and down that mountain.
*I thought Liz didn't
remember her accident. Here, she not only remembers the accident, but
she also remembers what it was like in the coma.
*I don't like Devon. This
is the only book I read with him in it, and I really disliked him. He
literally spent the entire book moping over Liz, thinking about Liz,
riding his bike to get away from Liz, and the talking to
Liz/wondering why Liz won't talk to him.
*You have to love Bruce.
He never rode a mountain bike before, but he owns two of them.
*The whole thing with the
Jeep is that it's about to go over the cliff, and Todd's body is
what's holding it up. I'm pretty sure that Liz sitting on the bumper
is not going to stop it.
*Someone suggests that the
boys were abducted by aliens, and Maria says that if Winston uses
that excuse, he better be ready to show her the probe marks. LOL.
*I don't get why the boys
are so secretive in this one. They've surely done worse things
before, but they act all embarrassed about mountain biking.
*Jessica's date for the
party? Aaron Dallas. Remember him? The guy that Sweet Valley
Confidential tells us numerous times that she never liked or found
attractive.
*Speaking of SVC, Jessica
tells Liz that she has to love Todd for the way that he loves Liz.
Ha!
*Liz is such a bitch. She
literally sits in the waiting room, thinking about the time she spent
in the hospital and how hard it was for her and how Todd was always
there for her. Yet, when she gets the chance to see him, she makes
someone else go with her. She doesn't really know that they made
up/are friends, so why the hell would she do that?
ONE OF THE STUPIDEST MOMENTS IN THE TIME CAPSULE
ReplyDeleteby Dane Youssef
They couldn't be a home-run every day and they couldn't be a strike-out every day. This was neither. It was a nuclear stink-bomb. They tried to have all the characters live every possible incarnation and experience.
Well, it was cheap episodic teen soap-opera melodrama. But I think this was the point where the series was really waning and running out of good ideas. The lesson here is that at some point, you have to know when to say, "You're not worth it, lady."
Todd responds to her infidelity by proposing... Uh-huh.
Elizabeth cheats on Todd and he retaliates by cheating on her. But he proposes to Elizabeth first... come on. Liz isn't as disgusted as we are.
Also, he turns down the opportunity to get back at Liz by fooling around with Jessica to whine and pout over her. I guess they're trying to give us a message about how "it's not worth it when it's someone who would do this to you." But... that's kind of given. Even the smallest children would be rolling their eyes.
"Please Forgive Me"
No, Mrs. Pascal and ghostwriters. Not for a book this stupid and lazy and ludicrous. Maybe there were so many readers, they felt they didn't even have to make any kind of effort anymore.
Oh crap, what if they're right?
Thanks for all, Jenn. Your diagnosis... more right than the rain. And worth infinitely more than this piece-of-shit, waste-of-time, insult-to-the-intelligence-and-taste book.
--Gratefully, Dane Youssef
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ReplyDeleteIs anyone out there still wondering why Todd ends up marrying Jessica?
ReplyDeleteOr rather... why he cheats on Elizabeth repeatedly with Jessica, even while engaged to Elizabeth?
It wasn't just for the sake of "drama"... was it?
--Always The Voice of Reason, Dane Youssef
I'm guessing that Todd actually wants the best of both worlds. He wants the sexy twin who is hot to trot and always up for some fun, but he also wants someone who is a little more mellow and likes curling up on the couch every single day. Instead of actually going out into the world and finding the right woman, he just keeps bouncing between the twins.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that when I was a kid, I loved Todd and Liz. When I read SVC, I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. I know Francine wanted to stick with the same characters, but it's a little sad that years after high school ends, they still wind up in the same little group, dating the same people they knew from high school.
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ReplyDeleteWell Jenn, I was really just sort of half-way joking with that comment--Come on, I KNOW the real reason Todd was making time with both twins.
ReplyDeleteIt's a SOAP OPERA! Come on, they all cheated on one another all the time. It was all for the sake of drama. For F-'s sakes, he had an affair with her identical twin sister! There's honestly not even a better metaphor for the definition of a soap... is there?
Despite the fact that Liz and Todd were literally made for each other (yes literally, Miss Pascal wrote them to be perfect for one another)--they tended to philander whenever they got the opportunity. But no one cheated more than Jess, of course. It was a soap.
Yes, that's why.
--Sincerely Here Jenn, Dane Youssef