Thursday, June 2, 2011

Review: Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal

Publisher: St Martins Press
Publishing Date: March 29th, 2011
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 293 pgs
ISBN: 9780312667573

My Rating: 2 stars

Summary from GoodReads:

Now with this striking new adult novel from author and creator Francine Pascal, millions of devoted fans can finally return to the idyllic Sweet Valley, home of the phenomenally successful book series and franchise. Iconic and beloved identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are back and all grown up, dealing with the complicated adult world of love, careers, betrayal, and sisterhood. WANT MORE SWEET VALLEY RIGHT NOW?? Become a fan of Sweet Valley Confidential on Facebook or Twitter.


My Review:

I was anticipating this book for a while because I was a huge Sweet Valley High fan when I was younger. I have to say though that this book was a huge disappointment. I had fair warning from different reviews but felt like I should read it and form my own opinion. I really wish I could have said that it was amazing because I think it could have been but it wasn't. I have to say that if I slightly disliked Jessica before, I really dislike her now! She basically carries on an affair with Todd, Elizabeth's high school sweetheart and then wonders why her relationship with her sister is ruined. The author also overused/misused the word "like". Here is just one example of this: "And like I feel a bit of an edge, that same edge that was so exciting when I first met him. Now it feels like almost dangerous." I mean I can understand if you are trying to speak like a teen during the 90s but this book is supposed to be ten years later. I know I definitely don't speak like that anymore and this is only one example of the overuse of like. There are millions more found throughout the book. Anyhow, I don't really have much else to say about this book except that it was not the greatest. It was nice to revisit Sweet Valley High and see what all the characters were up to but it kind of shattered my view that Sweet Valley was awesome when I was younger. Overall I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

2 comments:

  1. I agree! I never finished reading the Sweet Valley series (middle school, high school, or college), but I was so excited for this one. I was hugely disappointed. I always liked Jessica in the high school series, but I really didn't like her in this book. I couldn't stand Todd, either. I assume in the college series, the affair with Jessica and Todd was there, but since I never read that part of the series, it came as a shock to me when I read Ten Years Later, and I was so mad. I agree with the overuse of the word "like," too. It was so annoying! Thanks for sharing your thoughts (and sorry for blabbing so much in a comment!).

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  2. I've been putting off reading this one because of the bad reviews. I was a big SVH fan as a teen and so I will hate to be so disappointed.

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