As an angsty teen who cared about issues and art and the state of the world, man, I read a lot of books that were about the same things. They were often centered on some personal tragedy or some cataclysmic historical event and I rotated through my favourites as though they were articles of clothing (thrift store clothing though, new clothes were for superficial girls, man). Of course even I couldn’t maintain my social conscience all the time. The odd book (or series of books) managed to crack my façade and even my East German issue military jacket and I couldn’t resist the tales and trials of two perfect twin sisters or the gruesome fluff that was Christopher Pike.
Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal, or the tales and trials of two ‘perfect’ twin sisters. Sadly, I read a lot of Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley franchise. The books have since been re-published and updated with modern vernacular (“sluts” and “cell phones” have been included and disturbingly, Jessica and Elizabeth’s ideal size 6 has been reduced to a size 4) but the formula is unchanged. The identical twins are two distinct personalities: Jessica is headstrong and wild, Elizabeth is brainy and moralistic. Their personalities create divergent paths but the twins always side with each other in the end. Even at the time, I realised they were predictable and preachy yet I continued to read them.
– Guest Post by Sandra
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*YA Today note: As noted above, the Sweet Valley High books were extensively revised last year to make them more ‘modern.’ The new cover image (below) was shot using soap actress Leven Rambin (as reported in Gawker) and Random House Publishing even sent a letter out to journalists before the Sweet Valley High re-release to detail the changes. Gawker also covered this story and click here for their take on the letter (‘Random House proudly promoting eating disorders’ is the article’s title) and to see the Random House Publishing letter in its entirety.
