Olivia's Story

Sweet Valley High Super Star #4

by Francine Pascal (Creator), Kate William

Follow your heart...

Olivia Davidson's offbeat style sets her apart from the other students at Sweet Valley High. And until now, her mother has always encouraged Olivia in her artistic pursuits. But ever since Olivia started spending time with James Yates, another intense artist, Mrs. Davidson has been pushing Olivia to change her ways and begin thinking about college and earning a living.

Then, Olivia's career-oriented cousin Emily comes to town, and it's more than Olivia can take. Emily's got her whole life planned and organized in color-coded files; meanwhile, Olivia doesn't even have the money to buy a paintbrush! She's ready to give up her art and James forever. Then Mrs. Davidson reveals a startling secret about her own past that forces Olivia to make what could be the most difficult and important decision of her whole life.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Collections

216 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Francine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.

Reviews

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Source: I read this book online via Open Library.
Cost: Free

Title: Olivia's Story
Series: Sweet Valley High Super Stars #4
Author: Francine Pascal // Kate William
Overall Rating: 3 stars

Again, this was another story that didn't live up to scratch for me. Olivia is an artsy person who is in love with artsy James, and loves art and her whole life revolves around art and all of that jazz. Of course, people don't understand her, she's artsy, why would they?

But when her cousin Emily comes to town, who she hates because she's organised and actually has a plan for the future, she flies into this existential crisis of "I don't know what I'm doing with my life," "my mum wants me to go to college but I want to paint." And the usual internal battle every teen has.

I mean, it was an okay book, it tried it's best. But sometimes it's best wasn't good enough and I got a little bit bored in some sections, it kind of grated on me a bit after a while. The ending was also pretty predictable.

[Naomi Stothard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Third SVH book I've read. It's not that I mind reading YA books & in fact, so much of my light reading is that. BUT I have to say that this gets 2☆s only for the very fact that, for a Sweet Valley HIGH book, it seemed like an elementary school level read. This was more Kids than YA. The story was just a tad childish if I'm going to put it honestly. Childish isn't bad, it's just not fitting for an SVH book.

What I liked: Some values in the story are important, I suppose.

What I didn't like: I felt like reading this book was pretty pointless. Olivia's story? Was that all of it? She's an artist, she feels intimidated & pressured to be more serious & then she goes back to being herself? :/ So many loose ends in the story too. AND doesn't sound like the life of a 16-year-old...

I won't give up on Sweet Valley. One mediocre book won't put me off to the hundreds more I plan to collect.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Olivia Davidson is not a character well able to carry an entire super-sized book. She's best known for being the artsy chick at SVH, and that's still about as much as we know about her after reading the whole book. The story line is basically- Olivia likes art and likes a boy who likes art and he's really poor, so Olivia starts to panic about being poor when she gets older. The plot holes are enormous (why wouldn't Olivia realize her parents would help her out? Where are artsy boyfriend's parents? Why is Olivia allowed to hang out with a college kid alone in his flophouse apartment whenever she wants to? What's up with her weird cousin going all Single White Female on Olivia's man and closet with that never being a problem? And the side plot with Robert Simpson seemed like nothing other than an excuse to squeeze Jessica into the story ), and the book is slow. Only thing that kept this from being a one star rating was the image of Olivia using a 45 record album as a hair tie. 1.5 stars, rounded up.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun re-read. Simple story about deciding who you are and how to be true to yourself.

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

So when the great Sweet Valley drinking game comes about, I say we have a category for Olivia-centric books. Specifically: Olivia is the star of either the A or B story and suddenly decides that maybe she's a little too artsy for this world and undergoes a make-under only to realize that no, she's lovely the way she is.

I'd be more miffed about this coming up except I don't think the story-lines from any of the Super Star books are ever, EVER mentioned again in the rest of the SVH line. Which is a shame because some of them had some good ideas.

And in case this is your first Olivia rodeo, Olivia Davidson is SVH's answer to the BSC's Claudia Kishi. Olivia's mother works at the local department store and is after her daughter to be a little less out there and a little more practical. Olivia's not really interested in this and is quite happy to be the type to use a vinyl record as a hair accessory, odd looks from the popular crowd be damned.

At least she's happy enough about it until her preppy cousin Emily comes to town and Olivia meets a True Artiste named James. James is all about the Truth with a capital T. He's unconcerned with getting a day job to afford him a nice place to live or health insurance and he lives in a dump. Considering he's college aged, it's not really all that unexpected that he wouldn't have the best apartment ever, but you try telling that to 16 year old Olivia. She panics when she sees a possible future for herself wherein she might not make enough money to even keep the electricity on, so she decides maybe it's time to embrace her inner Emily and conform.

I like that while Olivia and Emily are both kind of unsure as to how to treat the other due to their extreme differences, they aren't pitted against one another. They're just different and yet they see something in the other that they wish they possessed more of, and it's a refreshing twist not to have them feuding.

And there's a little C plot involving Jessica Wakefield throwing herself at a guy who is interested in Olivia.

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved finding out more about some of the other characters...Just a great time with a writer who really understands the teenaged mind.

[Melenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover but just not the story.

[Pete Payton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olivia Davidson will never stop being awesome. RIP Olivia (1983-1998).