Allowance Busters: Sweet Valley High, Babysitters Club, and other YA serials

[andromeda331]

23 minutes ago, starri said:

Ah, there it is.  Mary Dowling Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes.  I think I could probably read it as an adult and be thoroughly entertained, but on the off chance that I'm wrong, I'm not going to risk it.

I had completely forgotten the runner-up, Betty Ren Wright's The Dollhouse Murders.  Aside from being a good, spooky story and focused only on three female characters, it does a good job of portraying the main character's frustrations at having a sister with special needs without being ableist.

I had never heard of Christopher Pike's The Midnight Club, about a group of terminally ill teens in a hospice that get together at night to tell scary stories as a way of dealing with their knowledge of their mortality.  However, I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and find a copy, just because it sounds like a fascinating book.  Also quite remarkable is that one of the characters, Spencer, is a closeted gay boy dying of AIDS and guilt-ridden about possibly having passed HIV to his boyfriend.  I don't know if I would call a character dying of AIDS totally progressive for 1994, but it apparently also deals with the realities of being a gay teen in the mid-90s.

All in all, Paperback Crush is well worth a read.  The only real oversight that I can think of is that I can't remember a single mention of any of Cynthia Voight's books.  And there was only one mention of VC Andrews, although one could make the argument that she wasn't really writing YA.

Not Cynthia Voight? That is an oversight. I do agree about VC Andrews she really wasn't YA. 

[Annber03]

4 hours ago, starri said:

I had completely forgotten the runner-up, Betty Ren Wright's The Dollhouse Murders.  Aside from being a good, spooky story and focused only on three female characters, it does a good job of portraying the main character's frustrations at having a sister with special needs without being ableist.

Oh, man, I remember that book! I liked it, too :).

Quote

I had never heard of Christopher Pike's The Midnight Club, about a group of terminally ill teens in a hospice that get together at night to tell scary stories as a way of dealing with their knowledge of their mortality.  However, I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and find a copy, just because it sounds like a fascinating book.  Also quite remarkable is that one of the characters, Spencer, is a closeted gay boy dying of AIDS and guilt-ridden about possibly having passed HIV to his boyfriend.  I don't know if I would call a character dying of AIDS totally progressive for 1994, but it apparently also deals with the realities of being a gay teen in the mid-90s.

I'm not familiar with this one, either, but it definitely sounds interesting. Sad, but interesting. 

[Minneapple]

10 hours ago, starri said:

Ah, there it is.  Mary Dowling Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes.  I think I could probably read it as an adult and be thoroughly entertained, but on the off chance that I'm wrong, I'm not going to risk it.

I had completely forgotten the runner-up, Betty Ren Wright's The Dollhouse Murders.  Aside from being a good, spooky story and focused only on three female characters, it does a good job of portraying the main character's frustrations at having a sister with special needs without being ableist.

I loved both of these! They were genuinely creepy, IIRC. Good characters, too. 

[LBS]

@starri I found Along Came Helen in my parents basement a year or so ago and re-read  it. It holds up more than you’d think.  It’s a little more bittersweet with an adult perspective.

I’m so glad/mad that you mentioned The Dollhouse Murders because I totally forgot I loved that book and now want to read it but it is $10.99 on Kindle and I can’t justify that.  Hopefully it’s at the library!  

Since I went down the rabbit hole of old YA books on Amazon, I see that the Caroline B. Cooney series Fog, Snow, and Fire is available for free on Amazon Unlimited but those books gave me so many anxiety dreams growing up that I don’t think I can re-read them especially in face of all the gaslighting of reality in today’s news.

I really hope someone here can help me out on a book I read as a kid.  It was a time travel book with 2 girls set, I think, during the Spanish Flu epidemic and current time. They passed notes to each other through a empty post in their bed frame. It’s been driving me mad for a while trying to remember the title!

[starri]

On 11/25/2018 at 3:10 AM, LBS said:

@starri I found Along Came Helen in my parents basement a year or so ago and re-read  it. It holds up more than you’d think.  It’s a little more bittersweet with an adult perspective.

You're 100% right.  It really does hold up .And yeah, adult perspective does change thing--namely the realization that the parents are total assholes.  The me that grew up to be a psychiatrist realizes a lot sooner that Heather being a monster is because she's hurting.  And poor, scaredy-cat, probably-psychic Molly, being the one nobody believes, who swallows her fear because she knows no one else will protect Heather.

Some lovely writing, as well.

They apparently made a Canadian film adapting the book a few years ago.  Mary Downing Hahn plays the librarian.

[andromeda331]

Just downloaded Paperback Crush and started reading it. I love its comment about how people keep moving to Fear Street despite all well documented murders.

[Dr.OO7]

On 10/26/2018 at 11:17 PM, Constant Viewer said:

Did anyone else ever read the Sunfire romance books? They were always titled with the name of the heroine who lived during a historical era and always had to pick between two guys. I never actually bought them but checked them out form the library like crazy.

I don't know why that old quote is there.

Does anyone remember the title of this particular Sweet Dreams book?

A girl named Laurie (I think), moves to the town where her childhood buddy Greg moved several years ago. Unfortunately, she doesn't fit in with his new friends, so she strikes out on her own. Everything works out in the end and she and Greg get together.

I've been Googling like mad, but no luck.

[Snow Apple]

I borrowed Paperback Crush from the library today. Can't wait to get started. Thanks for letting us know about this book.

[andromeda331]

I just finished Paperback Crush. It was really good. It brought back a lot of memories. Some books I never heard of and others that I forgot about. It was a good read.

[Snow Apple]

I just finished the first chapter, romance. l love all those brands back in the day. The covers with the live models are awesome and hilarious. I hoped they'd include covers with now famous people, but alas.

 I remember covers with Courtney Cox and Yasmeen Bleeth.

[Minneapple]

I'm reading Paperback Crush right now. The only bad thing is every time I see a book mentioned, I'm like "I REMEMBER READING THAT! I LOVED IT! I WONDER IF I CAN FIND IT ON THE INTERNET ARCHIVE!" and then I get distracted. Sweet Dreams! Taffy Sinclair! Sleepover Friends! The Gymnasts!

I'm also going to see If I can find some of the books published by black authors that were overlooked by everyone back in the day.

On 11/26/2018 at 8:32 PM, Camille said:

Does anyone remember the title of this particular Sweet Dreams book?

A girl named Laurie (I think), moves to the town where her childhood buddy Greg moved several years ago. Unfortunately, she doesn't fit in with his new friends, so she strikes out on her own. Everything works out in the end and she and Greg get together.

I've been Googling like mad, but no luck.

@Camille, I would try the reddit forum r/whatsthatbook. It has a ton of subscribers and they're really good at finding books.

[Dejana]

On 10/26/2018 at 11:17 PM, Constant Viewer said:

Did anyone else ever read the Sunfire romance books? They were always titled with the name of the heroine who lived during a historical era and always had to pick between two guys. I never actually bought them but checked them out form the library like crazy.

 

On 10/27/2018 at 1:33 PM, Camille said:

I LOVED those! 

Oddly, I only bought the "Josie" and "Renee" books. Everything else I got from the library, but I thought they were wonderful.

I inherited Josie from my older sister. At the time, I remember thinking it was so romantic and was a history nut, so I was fascinated by the Pony Express angle. Today's young girls would probably be horrified by 

Spoiler

Josie getting engaged at 16, plus her widowed father marrying her aunt.

 

I started with Sweet Valley Twins, but one day a copy of All Night Long appeared in class and our sixth grade selves were so scandalized by the title, premise and cover (the guy not only looked too old for Jessica but like one of our teachers at school). 

Edited December 13, 2018 by Dejana

[scarynikki12]

21 minutes ago, Dejana said:

I started with Sweet Valley Twins, but one day a copy of All Night Long appeared in class and our sixth grade selves were so scandalized by the title, premise and cover (the guy not only looked too old for Jessica but like one of our teachers at school). 

You had a teacher who was a 70s porn star?

Here's the cover for those who don't remember:

[Annber03]

...that's supposed to be the cover of a book for teenagers?! 

Oh, god. That's...both hilarious and really disturbing :p. 

[andromeda331]

Oh, that's right the 70s porn star! I forgot about him. 

[scarynikki12]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

that's supposed to be the cover of a book for teenagers?

Isn’t it fantastic? 

[Dr.OO7]

On 12/10/2018 at 2:55 PM, Minneapple said:

 

The website 1bruce1 snarks on everything about the Sweet Valley series, including the covers.

[andromeda331]

2 hours ago, Camille said:

The website 1bruce1 snarks on everything about the Sweet Valley series, including the covers.

I love that site.

[starri]

Jessica dated a young Nick Offerman!?!?!

[Dr.OO7]

6 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I love that site.

Me too. For starters, I love that they have no shame about calling Elizabeth out for being a self-righteous, hypocritical bitch.

[andromeda331]

2 hours ago, Camille said:

Me too. For starters, I love that they have no shame about calling Elizabeth out for being a self-righteous, hypocritical bitch.

No they don't which I love too. Plus big fans of Lila who ended up becoming my favorite character. 

[scarynikki12]

Anyone who loves The Divine Lila Fowler is forever welcome to sit with me. 

[Minneapple]

16 hours ago, Annber03 said:

...that's supposed to be the cover of a book for teenagers?! 

Oh, god. That's...both hilarious and really disturbing :p. 

Not just for teenagers! I was 11 or 12 when I started reading SVH. My mom saw this particular cover and freaked out. 

Did anyone else start a slam book? I remember a few of us in junior high did that. Cutest Couple, Best Dressed. It was pretty harmless in our case, but I can see how it could get out of hand. 

[Spartan Girl]

On October 20, 2018 at 10:52 AM, anna0852 said:

I was really into The Face on the Milk Carton series. I always felt so awful for Janie. That reunification was just completely bungled. At 15, forcing her into another home and even answering to another name was taking it too far. It's terrible for the Springs what happened but nobody is thinking of Janies best interest. And Stephen and Jody were just the worst! They treated her like absolute crap and nobody reigned them in at all. Everyone's acting like it's Janie's fault for being kidnapped in the first place.

The Springs definitely could have handled things better. But Reeve, Janie's so-called boyfriend was the WORST. He blabbed Janie and the Springs' story on his stupid radio show to make a name for himself, and then when he gets caught keeps trying to get Janie to forgive him, even going as far as the blame her for acting like a "brat" to her family and making things worse. Janie and her siblings rightfully tell him to burn in seven hells and that was awesome.

But then stupid Mrs. Spring convinces her to take him back because "nobody's perfect" and "we went on loving you even though you chose another family over us." WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, CAROLINE COONEY?! How does Janie choosing the family that she knows out of trauma and confusion even begin to equate Reeve violating her trust for fame? Every time I read The Voice on the Radio I want to throw it against the wall just for that part. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[Black Knight]

All these years later, I barely remember anything about that series - I actually don’t think I read beyond the first book - but I remember thinking even in the first book that Reeve was an asshole.

[Ramona Quimby]

LBS, I think maybe the time travel book you are thinking of is (and one of my personal faves) is Charlotte Sometimes. It's about two girls at an English boarding school who switch places between the present + WWI (1918). 

[LBS]

@Chummy thank you thank you thank you!!!! It is!!!  Oh I am off to order that!

[Rosenrot]

I was looking at that book cover of All Night Long like "wow, that's REALLY 80's!" until I, only NOW, realized that it actually is... a book from the eighties. Here where I live they only published 50 of the first SVH books (plus six Super Thrillers) and stopped there (I was shocked to later find out how many more there actually are in English), and it was during the 90's, about the same time the TV show was on. I remember watching and liking it. All the books had the TV show cover as well, so those 80's covers are shocking to me! :D

Nonetheless, SVH was always my guilty pleasure as a kid. I always found those books weird and peculiar and endlessly entertaining. I was 11 and couldn't possibly understand why Jessica spending a night with her boyfriend was such a big deal to everybody. I thought they were all prunes, except Jessica, who was just an all-around horrible person. I liked the Super Thrillers a lot more; they had crimes and kidnappings and planned murders and what have you, but there were only six of those books.

I just love the fact that there can be a book series in existence with titles like "Jessica's Older Guy" and "Miss Teen Sweet Valley" and, on the other hand, "The Treasure of Death Valley" and "Kidnapped By The Cult!" :) Also, am I wrong, or are there werewolves at some point? 

Edited January 5, 2019 by Rosenrot

[starri]

21 minutes ago, Rosenrot said:

Also, am I wrong, or are there werewolves at some point? 

You are not wrong.  Jess and Liz had enviable internships at a British newspaper, and apparently, London is lousy with werewolves.

[Rosenrot]

8 minutes ago, starri said:

You are not wrong.  Jess and Liz had enviable internships at a British newspaper, and apparently, London is lousy with werewolves.

Oh my god, that is too awesome. I need to go to 1bruce1 to read a recap.

[starri]

It's a three-book arc.  104-106.

[scarynikki12]

There was also a vampire arc where almost every character became a goth.

[starri]

I can picture Lila as a vampire princess.

Liz as a goth sounds spectacularly boring.

[scarynikki12]

Liz didn't become a goth.  She was the only one who knew there was Something Wrong With Jonathan (the vampire) so she never had any interest in impressing him (becoming goth was how the wannabe minions showed their devotion).  She had fights with Enid and Todd, who both fell under his thrall and became goth, and Jessica, who got to be the love interest without changing her look.  I don't remember if Lila is even mentioned in the book but they make a point of saying that the entire student body, minus the twins, went goth to impress Jonathan so I assume she did as well.  I agree that Lila The Vampire Princess would have been excellent and far more interesting a story choice than a Wakefield twin being the center of whatever the new romantic drama was.

[Annber03]

I'm kinda sad I missed out on the "Sweet Valley" books now. Judging from your descriptions of them, they sound like they were quite a wild read :D!

[scarynikki12]

1 minute ago, Annber03 said:

I'm kinda sad I missed out on the "Sweet Valley" books now. Judging from your descriptions of them, they sound like they were quite a wild read :D!

In this regard, 1bruce1 is your source of entertainment since I doubt many of the books are readily available. 

[andromeda331]

44 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I'm kinda sad I missed out on the "Sweet Valley" books now. Judging from your descriptions of them, they sound like they were quite a wild read :D!

 

42 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

In this regard, 1bruce1 is your source of entertainment since I doubt many of the books are readily available. 

If you have Kindle unlimited on Amazon most Sweet Valley High books are free. The first twelve aren't but the rest are. 

[scarynikki12]

3 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

 

If you have Kindle unlimited on Amazon most Sweet Valley High books are free. The first twelve aren't but the rest are. 

This is dangerous information for me to have.

[Dr.OO7]

16 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

This is dangerous information for me to have.

Me too.

[Rosenrot]

On ‎6‎.‎1‎.‎2019 at 12:49 AM, scarynikki12 said:

There was also a vampire arc where almost every character became a goth.

… before you said this I almost was like "I don't suppose there were vampires as well", but silly me, of course there were vampires!

Instead of all that silliness (although I do love the silliness), why not write one of their friends to have a baby or something? It would've been a good cautionary tale. (I mean, of course I know why - it would mean somebody was having the big bad S E X. Did they ever talk about sex or anything like that even in the SVU books?)

[scarynikki12]

The closest I remember them getting to the evil sex is a couple times: in Dear Sister (when Elizabeth wakes up from a coma and acts even more like Jessica than Jessica) Bruce Patman feels Elizabeth up, which she's into, and then tries to rape her when she gets her memory back and rejects him, and there was a subplot of Don't Go Home With John where Jessica and Sam come close to having sex but she's not ready and so they don't.  The A plot of that book involves John trying to rape Lila and then getting discovered as a serial sexual harasser and assaulter so that whole book was focused on sex in one form or another.

In college the characters did have sex.  Todd, Enid (excuse me, Alexandra), and Jessica each lose their respective virginities within the first couple of books, and various other characters are either implied, or specifically mentioned, to be having sex with various love interests.  Liz is the only holdout on losing her v-card, which is fine, but she's 110% Liz about it as she judges everyone* rather than just shrugging her shoulders and focusing on her own life.

*Her judgement of Todd was the only one I remember being deserving as her refusal to sleep with him led him to dumping her and getting a new girlfriend who would have sex within something like a 24 hour timespan.  SVU was the only time Liz ever saw how much of an ass Todd really was but then she replaced him with Tom who basically the same.

[andromeda331]

8 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

The closest I remember them getting to the evil sex is a couple times: in Dear Sister (when Elizabeth wakes up from a coma and acts even more like Jessica than Jessica) Bruce Patman feels Elizabeth up, which she's into, and then tries to rape her when she gets her memory back and rejects him, and there was a subplot of Don't Go Home With John where Jessica and Sam come close to having sex but she's not ready and so they don't.  The A plot of that book involves John trying to rape Lila and then getting discovered as a serial sexual harasser and assaulter so that whole book was focused on sex in one form or another.

In college the characters did have sex.  Todd, Enid (excuse me, Alexandra), and Jessica each lose their respective virginities within the first couple of books, and various other characters are either implied, or specifically mentioned, to be having sex with various love interests.  Liz is the only holdout on losing her v-card, which is fine, but she's 110% Liz about it as she judges everyone* rather than just shrugging her shoulders and focusing on her own life.

*Her judgement of Todd was the only one I remember being deserving as her refusal to sleep with him led him to dumping her and getting a new girlfriend who would have sex within something like a 24 hour timespan.  SVU was the only time Liz ever saw how much of an ass Todd really was but then she replaced him with Tom who basically the same.

Yeah, I had no problem with Liz not wanting to have sex there's nothing wrong with that but her constantly judging people for having sex I did have problem with. Todd definitely deserved it because that's exactly what he did. Dump her because she wouldn't sleeping with him and find someone who would. It did always bug me that no one had sex in high school despite the sexy covers plus a lot of characters who probably would but didn't for really no reason. Jessica totally was someone who would have sex in high school. It was really weird that a character so completely into being sexy, hot, and dating hot guys was only interested in making out with them. It didn't fit with her character and doesn't make sense. Plus it was always really weird on the rare times she hooked up with a guy who wanted to have sex and she was surprised by that. The closest we ever got was in the one she dates Bruce and they "did stuff" but never said what that was. It was kind of funny though when the two psycho twins who are planning on murdering both twins to take over their lives get into a fight over who gets to be Jessica and one of the reasons is that Elizabeth doesn't have sex. Because if apparently if your going to all the trouble to murder someone and take over their identities you want to make sure its one who has sex. Ironically, Margo thought that was a stinking point even though its clear it her arc she'd probably be still murdering people as the new Liz. 

[starri]

20 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

In college the characters did have sex.  Todd, Enid (excuse me, Alexandra), and Jessica each lose their respective virginities within the first couple of books, and various other characters are either implied, or specifically mentioned, to be having sex with various love interests.  Liz is the only holdout on losing her v-card, which is fine, but she's 110% Liz about it as she judges everyone* rather than just shrugging her shoulders and focusing on her own life.

IIRC, Liz actually considered having sex with Tom within the first couple of books.  Tom stayed with the Wakefields over Christmas (for...reasons) and Liz, for once, went to Jess for advice.  

[Rosenrot]

On ‎7‎.‎1‎.‎2019 at 5:19 AM, scarynikki12 said:

The closest I remember them getting to the evil sex is a couple times: in Dear Sister (when Elizabeth wakes up from a coma and acts even more like Jessica than Jessica) Bruce Patman feels Elizabeth up, which she's into, and then tries to rape her when she gets her memory back and rejects him, and there was a subplot of Don't Go Home With John where Jessica and Sam come close to having sex but she's not ready and so they don't.  The A plot of that book involves John trying to rape Lila and then getting discovered as a serial sexual harasser and assaulter so that whole book was focused on sex in one form or another.

In college the characters did have sex.  Todd, Enid (excuse me, Alexandra), and Jessica each lose their respective virginities within the first couple of books, and various other characters are either implied, or specifically mentioned, to be having sex with various love interests.  Liz is the only holdout on losing her v-card, which is fine, but she's 110% Liz about it as she judges everyone* rather than just shrugging her shoulders and focusing on her own life.

*Her judgement of Todd was the only one I remember being deserving as her refusal to sleep with him led him to dumping her and getting a new girlfriend who would have sex within something like a 24 hour timespan.  SVU was the only time Liz ever saw how much of an ass Todd really was but then she replaced him with Tom who basically the same.

Ah, thank you! I was thinking it would be super implausible if all the characters went through college in some sexless bubble. (Not that I seek plausibility in the SV books, mind you, but that would be too much!)

[Snow Apple]

Today I randomly remembered it was from SVH where I learned you shouldn't eat mussels if the shell doesn't open up when cooking. I probably still wouldn't know this fact of it weren't for SVH and Jessica.

[HazelEyes4325]

17 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

Today I randomly remembered it was from SVH where I learned you shouldn't eat mussels if the shell doesn't open up when cooking. I probably still wouldn't know this fact of it weren't for SVH and Jessica.

Holy crap...that was a piece of information that I knew, but could never remember where I heard it...until now.  Yup, SVH!

[starri]

9 minutes ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

Holy crap...that was a piece of information that I knew, but could never remember where I heard it...until now.  Yup, SVH!

And my mother tried to tell me these books weren't educational.

[CountryGirl]

My people!

SVH was my jam back in the day.

There was so much to snark on (one of my faves in that department is The New Jessica where Jessica, tired of being a twin, dyes her hair black, dresses uber-fancy, and talks with a faint-British accent). Personally, she looks like she's in drag. Really bad drag. Liz is, of course, oh-so-dismayed.

But they could also surprise you by going places you never saw the "perfect" Sweet Valley going. The book I'm thinking of and the one that has stuck with me the most was "On the Edge" when TPTB not only had good girl (I'm talking overcoming deafness and making the Bruce the Cad fall in real love) Regina Morrow trying cocaine...but...gasp she dies... 

[Dandesun]

Ah, The New Jessica. Yeah, that's... not a good look for the cover. Jessica in drag can't even do fishy well. I think that was one of the last SVH books I ever got. The first one I got was actually #10 and then, you know, discovered that there were on-going plots so I went searching for the first 9 and then kept up until #32 with the Specials thrown in for good measure. I think I started getting them in the sixth grade and was done by 8th grade when I graduated to far more sexy storylines in historical romances and such.

Man, look at the price on that cover! $2.95! No wonder 7th grade me could manage to get them on the regular from baby-sitting of just begging my parents for them.

[Annber03]

I'm really enjoying looking at the covers of these SVH books. They're hilarious :D. 

2 hours ago, Dandesun said:

The first one I got was actually #10 and then, you know, discovered that there were on-going plots so I went searching for the first 9 and then kept up until #32 with the Specials thrown in for good measure. 

That seemed to be a thing with a lot of these teen series in general back then, the specials. I remember the BSC series had specials as well.