In this week’s Book Reshorts, Danielle puts Sam’s memory skills to the test! This time she challenges Sam to recall everything he can about Sweet Valley High and Margo’s murder spree from all those months ago. However, he struggles to remember the names of everyone, or that there is, in fact, more than one cute but otherwise nondescript boy in the book. See how well he does, and if you can do better, in Partial Recall!
Danielle concludes Francine Pascal’s saga of the evil twin with her second Sweet Valley High book: Return of the Evil Twin. One year after the traumatic encounter with their inexplicable doppelgänger, the Wakefield twins prepare to celebrate the new year, still lacking the therapy they so desperately need. However, they are soon beset by the long-lost identical twin sister to the murderous Margo who, against all reason, has decided to try and supplant Jessica as a new Wakefield twin; which is essentially the same scheme her sister failed at a year prior. Will the Wakefield sisters survive this latest crazed lookalike trying to replace them? Will their parents ever help them get much-needed therapy? Most importantly, how many separate identical sets of identical twins are there in this world? The answer to that last question, at least, is clear: More than would seem plausible.
This week Danielle introduces the Sweet Valley High universe to Sam with the Francine Pascal novel The Evil Twin. Meet Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, identical twins who are somehow enmeshed in an endless series of ludicrously dramatic events. When the story arc starts with the death of Jessica’s boyfriend in a drunk driving accident with Elizabeth due to Jessica spiking her own sister’s drink as they were competing for prom queen, the introduction of a serial killer doppelgänger seems almost quaint. The unhinged Margo is determined to murder Elizabeth and replace her as the new Elizabeth (manslaughter charges notwithstanding). Will Margo’s dastardly (and ridiculous) plot succeed, or will the twins escape unharmed, except for the bucket-loads of unaddressed trauma? It’s hard to believe there are 181 of these books.