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sunshinejenn03

sunshinejenn03

Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later

Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later - Francine Pascal I'm not sure how to rate this. So I'm going to give it a mid-grade rating and tell you why I loved it and why I hated it.Come on! It's Sweet Valley! Who doesn't love our favorite all-American twins and their escapades? Reading Confidential and seeing all those characters' names on the pages again was like going back in time to my tween and teen years and reliving the old books. They were my favorite growing up and honestly, I'd read them again. Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield sparked my interest in reading and I haven't looked back since. I've always wondered what happened to them...did they marry and have children? Is Jessica as wild and unpredictable as she's always been? Has Elizabeth learned to cut a little loose? What about the supporting cast, like Lila Fowler and Bruce Patman? Are they as rich and obnoxious as they've always been or has time changed them, eroded the sharp edges into a nice, smooth flow? Is Todd still the perfect boyfriend and all-around good guy?I loved this book because it took me back to those people I loved so much.I also hated it. It was very poorly written and completely unlike the past books in flow and rhythm. As I understand it, Pascal employed ghost writers for the previous books (however, please correct me if I'm wrong) and I wish she had done that here. This was such a deviation from my prior experiences with Sweet Valley and I didn't enjoy it. The abrupt narration changes didn't help, either. Narration shifts from 1st to 3rd, as well as from different perspectives and it's distracting to the reader (at least, THIS reader). I often found myself having to go back a page to find out who was narrating that particular segment, because there's no obvious break. There's also a lot of deviation from character traits. It made me wonder if Pascal is banking on reader's just accepting that the characters grew into different people as they aged over the ten years from graduation. I recommend this if you are a Sweet Valley fan. It wraps everything up tidily (although I was pretty disappointed that it appears to be one book and not a new series, something I'd have been pretty over the moon for). There's enough intrigue if you know and understand the characters to keep reading, but don't expect to be wowed. It's not exceptional...it's mediocre at best.