brièveté

(Bitter)Sweet Valley: 10 years later

i took it as a natural thing when i SQUEALED upon finding out that Francine Pascal released a new Sweet Valley installment, Sweet Valley Confidential: 10 Years Later. #1, i always squeal (*cue public apology to my friends’ eardrums); #2, i grew up reading the Sweet Valley series. this recent addition to the Wakefield twins’ saga asks the question “Haven’t you ever wondered what happened when Elizabeth and Jessica grew up?” and i’ll be damned if i said i haven’t. and so, the faithful groupie that i am, i scoured Fully Booked branches for a copy way back in February… e March pa pala ire-release sa US, and of course it took two more months to reach the Philippines. excited ka ‘teh? i finally got it the other day and read it last night. 

THE GIST: Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, now 27 years old, are still “gorgeous, absolutely amazing… with silky blond hair… and with figures that were as if billions of possibilities all fell together perfectly”. (Pascal, 2011… o, e sila na! sila na talaga!) still identical, even when they don’t intend for them to be. (they wound up having the same haircut after not seeing each other for months… or baka naman uso lang talaga?) they were so painfully identical that tada, Todd Wilkins, Elizabeth’s long-time flame, ended up falling in love with both of them over the years. he takes his pick in the end and ah, our plot thickens. (spoilers, mamaya pa. haha!)

THE GOOD: it’s like coming home. while reading the book, it felt good to remember the characters’ names and the different SVH stories i remember them from, as if i was catching up with old friends. ultimately, SVC dishes out what’s expected of it, good-old Sweet Valley goodness,  where everything turns out bright and California sun-shiny despite all its drama.

THE BAD: ooooh, and drama you will get when you read this book. i was reminded that this was the 80s, paperback version of Gossip Girl, and while it isn’t as raunchy, it’s as over the top. as a teenage reader then, i guess it never bothered me that everything seemed to happen in Sweet Valley. pero as in lahat na lang talaga! catfights, boy drama, intense school politics, bulimia, juvenile theft, (muntikang) date rape, (muntikang) drug overdose, (muntikang) sexual harassment issues, and teenage deaths. wow. haha! it was familiar, but it’s not necessarily a good thing, i realized.

THE UGLY: and because it’s 10 years later, the creators found it appropriate to even crank the drama up a notch, culminating the book with a high school yearbook-ish blast to the present update on most of the characters. (in list form. really, how lazy could you get?) bad, to good Bruce Patman? ✔ good, to bad, to dead Winston? ✔ on-again-off-again divorcees Lila and Ken? ✔ cancer-survivor Caroline? ✔ gay Steven (and Aaron)? ✔ leg-bitten-off-by-a-shark Bill? ✔ still goody-goody Liz? ✔ still bitchy Jess? ✔ finally-bored-of-Liz-and-groom-to-Jess Todd? *collective gasp* you know it, ✔. i was half-expecting a meteor to hit the town and the US President to give a doomsday speech! finally, the references to Twitter, Facebook, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, and anything of the now peppered across the story were just painful, too forced. we get it guys, 2011 na. chill lang!

THE VERDICT: still, it was a satisfying retreat. i may rant about how corny, saccharine, and predictable it was, but it was worth the trip down memory lane. i will always love the series like how we love family and friends: warts and all.

in the end, finding out what happened to Jessica and Elizabeth when they grew up led me to the bittersweet truth that, alas, i’ve grown up as well. ♥

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watch this YouTube video and relive your SV love too! :) 

Posted 8 months ago — 2 notes