Sweet Valley Confidential: Like Catching Up With Old Friends

(This post is going to be full of spoilers. So if you don’t want any spoilers, I suggest that you leave this page and then come back AFTER you’ve read the book).

I got my hands on a copy of Sweet Valley Confidential and couldn’t wait to start reading.

I must admit that before starting the novel, I had read spoilers and I wasn’t happy.

In my mind, it should always be Elizabeth Wakefield and Todd Wilkins. Forever. Jessica, Elizabeth’s younger (by four minutes) twin, didn’t fit in with Todd. I was an Elizabeth-Todd fangirl since they started to be an item in Sweet Valley Twins. As I got older, I started reading Sweet Valley High and still rooted for them. I remember feeling heartbroken with Elizabeth as Todd moved away to Vermont. I remember being excited when Todd came back from Vermont. I remember feeling happy when Elizabeth broke up with Jeffrey French to be back with Todd.

And since Todd and Liz also broke up in Sweet Valley University, I didn’t feel like reading more into the series. I think I stopped reading after SS Heartbreak.

Plus, I think the writers destroyed me then. I had always been able to relate more with Elizabeth than Jessica and wanted my own Todd Wilkins, preferably with his SVH description: good looking and in love with Elizabeth.

So to read Sweet Valley Confidential and find out that they’re not together anymore didn’t make any sense. At first.

But as the story progressed, it dawned on me that giving Elizabeth and Todd a happy ending would’ve been boring and expected. Whereas surprising readers with a Jessica-Todd pairing will probably be more exciting to write and intriguing to read.

Elizabeth said it perfectly. If she and Todd had gotten married, it would’ve taken a great tragedy to break them up. And if that tragedy didn’t happen, their love would have faded away, slowly and eventually.

Yes, Steven is gay, though I honestly would’ve preferred him not to be written that way. I have nothing against gays but Steven is Steven and I just think the writers could’ve done more with him than just have him being gay.

I don’t remember Aaron Dallas being described before as having heterochromia.

Who the hell is Richard Fowler??? Lila’s dad is GEORGE Fowler. And how come Lila seemed to be not-so-fashionable anymore?

Why does Jessica have an annoying voice in this book? She’s overused “so” many times. It’s like the part was written by a teenager! Women who are supposed to be twenty-seven don’t talk that way. Elizabeth doesn’t. So shouldn’t Jessica.

Too bad Winston Egbert died.

Elizabeth and Bruce being together at the end of the book reminded me of the story of Alice Robertson (the twins’ mom) and Henry Patman in “The Wakefield Legacy”.

The book ends with a round up of other characters present in the Sweet Valley High series like Cara Walker, Dee Dee Gordon, Robin Wilson, Bill Chase, Jeffrey French among others. You somehow get a feeling of closure but still end up wanting more only to see if the nth marriage (how many times did she really get married before marrying Todd?) of Jessica to Todd goes well or will he end up pining for Elizabeth in the future? How will the relationship of Elizabeth and Bruce play out?

Reading the book makes me want reread “The Wakefields of Sweet Valley” and “The Wakefield Legacy”. There’s something in those two books that made Francine Pascal and her team decide that it should be Jess and Todd in the end.

Knowing myself, I’ll probably end up reading more and getting the books I missed in the series. I just hope the books are readily available in the bookstores.