Sweet Valley High Super Edition: Winter Carnival

This is one of those very few books in the Sweet Valley High universe where things don't go well for one of the twins. See, Elizabeth isn't having the best run of luck. When the book opens, she's all excited for the upcoming winter carnival. The school buses all the students up to some random lodge and let them have fun all weekend long.

The only downside is that Todd is coming back to town. He apparently worked for some Big Brothers thing and his little brother won an award. He asked Liz to go with him because she knew his little bro or some crap, but at the last minute, it turns out the awards ceremony is Friday night, which is the same night as the big opening party for the carnival. Jeffrey is less than pleased that she's blowing him off.

Liz and Enid spent all this time filling out a contest form for some new trivia game show. Jessica rushes in and announces that she and Amy were one of the two duos selected for the pilot. Naturally, they didn't know a lot of the answers, so they just used Liz and Enid's answers. All she wants to do is brag about how hot the guy competing against her is and how much fun they'll have. Jessica then reveals that the squad was picked for some state competition.

Elizabeth recently entered a writing contest too. Mr. Collins calls her into his office to tell her that she received an honorable mention nod. That night at dinner, Jess keeps talking about all her good luck while Liz pouts. The Wakefields think that getting an honorable mention out of more than 200 students is great, but Liz keeps thinking about how she's clearly a huge loser.

It doesn't help that Jess keeps acting like classic Jess. Jeffrey surprises Liz with plans to take her to her favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. When she gets home though, she finds a note Jess left her. Even though it was her night to cook, she skipped out to study with Amy for the trivia contest. Jess pretty much blows off all her responsibilities for weeks.

Liz keeps lashing out at Jess too. When Jess wears one of her sweaters, Liz flips out to the point where both Ned and Alice basically tell her to STFU at the dinner table. Jess tries to talk to her, which leads to Liz snapping about how she can never trust her. She gives her twin one shot at making things up to her. She is playing tennis with Jeffrey but needs to pick up Teddy Collins from a birthday party. The father of the birthday boy is calling to leave her directions to his house, and she needs Jess to write them down for her.

Jessica has a date set with David, the guy from the trivia show, but she promises to get the directions. See where this is going? She gets the directions but leaves with the paper in her purse. By the time she realizes what happened, it's too late to get in touch with Liz. Jess gets home and finds Liz waiting in the dark. Turns out the dad drove Teddy home, but she's pissed that it made her look so irresponsible so she basically stops talking to her.

They make up again, but then Jessica gives her some "advice" about Jeffrey, which is basically to ignore him and try to make him jealous. Liz follows her advice and makes it seem like she might have feelings for Todd still. Jeffrey gets pissed and storms away from her. This makes her hate Jessica all over again and leads to Jessica trying to make things better.

She arranges to meet with Todd, who is staying with Winston. Jess makes him think that the party is some huge deal and that Liz should really be there. He then calls Liz and tells her that she doesn't have to come to the ceremony. She gets a message from him later basically telling him not to come at all. Liz flips out because she made Jeffrey mad and now doesn't have Todd either.

Jess also screws up once again. Jeffrey leaves a note for Liz and asks her to meet him that night and make up. Jessica promises to get the car home in time for Liz to go, but after winning the trivia challenge, the whole group goes out to eat at some restaurant. By the time she gets home, it's way past the time Jeffrey wanted to meet, and Liz is sure they're over.

Jessica once again decides to help. She leaves Jeffrey a note in his locker to meet her before the party starts and signs it with Liz's name. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a chance to tell her twin what she did because Amy takes forever getting ready. They finally get to the buses only for Amy to remember she left her allergy medication at home. Jess leaves a message with Sandy for Liz and decides to drive them up to the resort. Amy tells her that she'll just have to meet Jeffrey herself and pretend that she's Liz.

By the time they get to the resort, that's her last option. She makes up with Jeffrey as Liz and promises to be his date. Some random chick sees them and then runs into Liz later. When she tells her what she saw, Liz thinks that Jessica orchestrated the whole thing as a way to steal Jeffrey and runs to the bus station. Steven and Cara just got there and try to calm her down, but she refuses to listen and goes home.

Jessica calls and tries to make it up to her, but Liz flips out on her, screams, and says she wishes she never had a sister. Liz then takes a nap and wakes up to a police officer calling her. Jessica was in a serious accident and is now in the hospital but the doctors don't think she'll make it. Liz arrives just in time to get the news that Jessica died after skidding off the road and into a tree, which causes Liz to pass out.

We then get a few chapters of Liz trying to cope with her twin's death. Steven and Ned can barely look at her because of how much she looks like Jess. Alice grieves a lot but tries to move on with her life and eventually turns Jessica’s room into a guest room. Liz goes to a memorial service at Enid's house and watches in horror as Jeffrey and Todd get into a huge fight over her.

Since this is Sweet Valley where nothing bad happens, she wakes up and finds out it was all a dream. Jessica, Jeffrey, and some others show up at the Wakefield house, and all she cares about is that her twin is alive. They make up and everything is cool again. There's some crap at the end too, where Jeffrey reaches out to Todd and tries to be friends with him. They compete together in some events and are pretty cool in the end. Liz also gets some new dress that causes Jeffrey's eyes to pop out of his head, and she reassures him that there's no other guy for her.

*Amy apparently wears contacts. There's multiple parts of the book where she's packing her contact stuff or talking about her contacts, which is weird since it never shows up in any other books.

*Liz mentions that Alice gave the twins a book on dating advice from years ago and that she, Jess, and Amy always read it together and laughed. That's strange since Jessica never wanted anything to do with Amy when they were kids.

*Jessica references Suzanne Devlin and how Todd was in love with her. There's no mention of what happened between them later, but she says that was the reason Liz and Todd finally broke up. Gee, I thought that was because they live on opposite sides of the country. There's also no mention of whether this book takes place during that same Christmas break.

*I love that Liz is so worried about Jeffrey and freaking out over him and Todd and how she loves him so much more given that when Todd moves back, she drops Jeffrey like a hot potato.

*Jessica gets pissed because David won't throw the show and let her win. They do win though, when David incorrectly answers the number of cups found in a gallon.

*David takes her to meet his sister and her boyfriend at a sushi place. I swear the descriptions sound like something out of St. Elmo's Fire. He wears a button up shirt buttoned to the neck with a jewel clip, slim cut pants, and matching glasses.

*Alice buys Jessica a new ski outfit made from some silver material with Lycra, which Liz thinks will hug her twin's curves. Does Jess really need her mother's help to look like a slut?

*In her dream, Liz imagines her dad smoking in his den. Is it weird that I could totally see Ned as a smoker?

*The dream thing is ridiculous. We all know it's just a dream, but it drags on and on for multiple chapters.