Power Play

The Hardy Boys Casefiles #50

by Francine Pascal (Creator)

Robin Wilson wants to join Pi Beta Alpha, Sweet Valley High's highly selective sorority. She may not be beautiful or popular, but she's friendly and smart. So when Elizabeth nominates her for the sorority, Jessica is less than thrilled. She is determined to find a way to keep Robin from Pi Beta.

But Elizabeth is just as determined to make Robin a sorority sister, and the twins become locked in a struggle that develops into the biggest power play at Sweet Valley High. Who will prevail? Which twin will triumph? What happens when sisters go head-to-head?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, Childrens, Teen, Chick Lit, Ebooks

150 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

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

[Nina (ninjasbooks) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel a bit ashamed that I liked it so much when I was younger. It shows I had no clue about what mattered and didn’t notice how society tried to tell us what beauty is. The audiobook version has a warning before the book starts, that the publisher doesn’t agree with some of the content, but they’ve not altered anything to show how it was at that time. Okay, now. What caused my reaction ? The reason was how Sarah was described. She was bullied for being overweight and although Elizabeth didn’t like it, she still encouraged Sarah to not give up and continue to do things that humiliated her, and the go-home message in the end is that if you really try you can loose your weight and be happy.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

And the moral of the story is: if you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em by changing yourself so drastically that they finally want you to join ‘em, and then going, “Screw you, I don’t even want to join anymore! Take that!” Or something...

[Belle Lumiere · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me preface this review by saying any negative things I say about Sweet Valley High are said with absolute love and affection for the book series as a whole. These books were a huge part of my childhood and teenage years, so they will always hold a special place in my heart - even if they're terrible.

Power Play was a pretty damaging book for me to read as a teenager, but as a 31 year old it was just plain infuriating. The main storyline revolves around "chubby" / "fat and ugly" /
"tubby" / "fatso" Robin Wilson, who is bullied and fat-shamed throughout the book until she loses weight and suddenly becomes beautiful and popular. JUST LIKE REAL LIFE, GUYS. *eyes roll out of head onto the floor and out the door*

Teen Sociopath Jessica Wakefield takes advantage of Robin and promises to help her pledge to Pi Beta Alpha - the hottest sorority at Sweet Valley High. Knowing her sister's true form (Satan) but loving her anyway, Bleeding Heart Elizabeth Wakefield takes pity on Robin, and vows to help her get into the sorority. Of course nothing goes to plan and everything comes to a head with Robin being brutally humiliated at the school dance. After this public humiliation Robin "turns her life around" ie: eats lettuce leaves for lunch (literally) and runs laps of the school track until she loses weight and becomes thin and beautiful. Surprisingly enough, Jessica's motivation for being extremely cruel to Robin is (for once) not a boy. This is pretty rare for a Sweet Valley High book, but it does highlight how much of a terrible person Jessica is. She is cruel purely for the sake of being cruel.

The side story in the book revolves everyone's favourite Brunette Millionaire Lila Fowler, and her penchant for shoplifting. Of course there are little to no consequences (affluenza!), and once again Bleeding Heart Elizabeth Wakefield manages to save the day.

Sweet Valley High promoted some UNHEALTHY ideas, and this is probably one of the worst books in the series for that, however the cover of this book is FLAWLESS, and the twins look as stunning as ever. 1/5

[Suede · Rating 1 out of 5]

First off, this one star review has nothing to do with the cover, which is by far one of my favorites of the series. I'm really hoping that at some point during the primaries Obama and Hillary do a recreation of this.

I really don't want to be a hater about anything related to Sweet Valley, since reading these books as an awkward pimply pre-teen was a VERY IMPORTANT part of my social calendar. And I hate to think that instead of reading great Literature, I was merely being brain washed into believing that to be perfect you need to be a size 6 blonde haired auquamarine eyed twin that drives a Fiat and lives in a split level house, buuuuuuuuuuuut...I'm pretty sure this was ghost-written by someone as a joke. Most of the series is like a subliminal message, just a little whisper in my ear that to be popular and well liked I need to either be captain of the cheerleading squad or the school newspaper's gossip columnist. Not book #4. No sir. This one punches you right in the face with it's message. IT'S NOT OKAY TO BE FAT. IF YOU ARE FAT, YOU ARE A LOSER. IF YOU ARE FAT, YOU WILL HAVE NO REAL FRIENDS, AND YOU ARE STUPID AND NAIVE IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE. IF YOU ARE FAT THE ONLY THING YOU ARE ALLOWED TO WEAR IS A TENT DRESS, EVEN TO THE WEEKLY SWEET VALLEY HIGH DANCE, YOU WILL ONLY BE ALLOWED TO WEAR A NICER TENT DRESS THAN THE ONE YOU WORE THAT MORNING (shudder). And even though I'm sure wearing a tent dress is more comfortable than wearing the fugging pantsuit that Jessica always wears, deep inside I know, I should be afraid of them, very, very afraid. Tent dress = social death in Sweet Valley.

I always thought that my years of therapy could be traced back to the hours upon hours I spent comparing myself to Tiffani Theissan and Tiffany Weber on the cover of 'Teen magazine, but now I see that this book was my gateway into self loathing hell.

[Eemil Kontu · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most fatphobic book I have ever read in my life. I was supposed to re-read the whole series but oh helllll no. It took me a year to finish this. Hated every second of it. I read this for the first time when I was 11-12 years old. I started struggling with eating disorder back then and still do. No wonder! I should have NOT read this as a pre-teen nor as a 35-yr-old adult.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Re-read 2023

I think this book triggered every negative thing that I was told or overheard about my body when I was growing up. Mean girls and fatphobia galore. I just can't forgive it, probably the worst book in the series.

New girl, Robin Wilson wishes to pledge to Sweet Valley High 's sorority but Jessica, Lila, and Cara will do anything to make sure their overweight classmate is humiliated from joining. Elizabeth pledges to help but can she outwit her twin and the other mean girls?

Wow, this book made me cringe and rage in so many places. Like the author describing all the food Robin was eating and that she wore tent dresses is basically a stereotype of people who are overweight. Elizabeth helping Robin was a bit lackluster especially when her attention seemed to drift to Lila Fowler shoplifting and obsessing over her newspaper job. And of course, Jessica never learns.

Goodreads review published 21/08/23

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before Reading: Oooh...it's face-off time with the twins! I always think of them having long, straight hair but it's always kind of short and wavy on the covers. Weird. This is the uber fat-shaming one. I'm sure I'll have a LOT to say about this one!

The Main Plot in 50 Words or Less: Robin is infatuated with Jessica and the Pi Beta Alpha sisters. Jessica is disgusted with her fat rolls and does everything she can to keep her out of the sorority. Elizabeth helps Robin, but does more damage in the end.

The Second Plot in 20 Words or Less: Lila becomes the typical "rich girl wanting daddy's attention shoplifter". Elizabeth helps her out, too.

Opening Lines: Elizabeth Wakefield didn't know how messy things would get with Robin Wilson and the sorority pledging, until she was in too deep to back out.

Closing Lines: Jessica in love with an experienced college man meant storm clouds would be gathering soon. And all Elizabeth could do was hope that the inevitable winds would not shipwreck those close to her sister-including herself. (I don't even know what this means. Too much metaphoring.)

Best WTF Lines: Too many to type, so I made a handy graphic below. Enjoy. (I even color-coded it for you, see if you can figure out who said what!)



Happenings in SV: Robin Wilson thinks Jessica is her best friend, but Jess is just using her to run her errands and stuff. Robin wants to join the Pi Beta Alpha sorority at SVH (why does a high school have a sorority, anyway??), Jessica is the president and "promised" Robin she would nominate her. Of course, she never does and Elizabeth ends up doing it instead. Jess is pissed and decides to haze Robin, making her run the track every day, wear a bikini to the beach, and ask Bruce Patman to the Discomarathon (dance of the week/book).

Elizabeth bribes Bruce into saying yes to Robin by giving him a glowing article in the "Eyes & Ears" column of the school paper. He agrees, but then totally humiliates Robin at the dance by dumping her at the dance floor in front of everyone. Robin is devastated and runs off, but ends up coming back with some geek called Allen Walters (never heard of him). Then Robin gets blackballed from the sorority (thanks to Jess) and she is heart-broken.

After the vote, she cuts everyone out of her life and stays home for a while, then starts working out and eating better. The book kind of makes it seem like it's been a few weeks, but I don't know about that. Robin starts to lose a lot of weight and even becomes pretty. Liz stops her one day and mentions it. Robin fixed her penetrating eyes on Elizabeth, "Liz, I may have been stupid about almost everything-the Pi Betas, Jessica, and maybe even you. But if you're asking me if I'm starving myself to death, I wouldn't give any of the PBAs the satisfaction." Yeah, right.

Robin eventually gets thin and pretty and tries out for the cheerleading squad and makes co-captain, with the furious Jessica. She also wins Miss Sweet Valley High, which is some kind of football queen (I don't even know) and snubs Bruce Patman for Allen.

Lila starts giving Jessica tons of expensive gifts and Liz finds it a little suspicious. When Liz is at the mall one day, she talks to a shop keeper who tells her that they've had some theft lately and Liz thinks it might be Jess. Later, she sees Lila at a shop, stealing a bracelet. Liz almost gets pinpointed for the theft, but runs off. (That's not suspicious at all.) Then, Lila calls Elizabeth up, panicking, because Jessica gets arrested for shoplifting! Lila finally fesses up and her daddy is called in and fixes everything. For some reason, Lila asks Liz for all this help and begs her not to tell Jessica anything about it.

Fashion Icons: You can see all the Robin tents up in the WTF-graphic, so I'll skip those.

Jessica was wearing leotards and exercising with Jane Fonda via video cassette.

Jessica was bouncing down the steps in an ice-blue string bikini, heading for the backyard pool. With her slim body, she'd never suffer the miseries poor Robin had gone through that day at the beach.

An oddly dressed young woman [Lila] was standing in Lisette's studying the counters. She was wearing a pair of bright green, skin-tight pants and a loose striped blouse that looked as though it could accommodate two people.

On Monday Robin showed up in designer jeans, a rainbow top, and a new hairstyle. Lip gloss and perfect eye makeup created an effect that almost caused Bruce Patman to walk into the gym door.

Comfortable overalls disappeared. Sneakers went into the closet. With carefully dressed hopefuls lounging around on the school lawn, leaning against the white oak trees, Sweet Valley High looked like a spread from a fashion magazine. [Doesn't it always, with its "no fatty" policy??]

Jordache jeans were challenged by Calvin Kleins. Miniskirts were seen next to tapered slacks. Makeup and new hairstyles turned the young women into Glamour models.

Twin Hijinks: Elizabeth is at home & answers the door to Robin, who knows she's not Jessica. Elizabeth asks her how she knows and Robin says, "I don't mean to offend you, Liz, really I don't, but I'm pretty sure Jessica's never dressed like that in her life." (Old jeans and a flannel shirt)

The salesclerk at Lizette's grabs Jess for shoplifting, thinking it's Liz. When they're together, the clerk thinks it's a gang lol.

Other Thoughts: This book was so amazingly horrendous, I just had to give it 4 stars. I don't think I've ever read a book that made me feel so awful about being a chubby bunny. :p I'm not sure what exactly the authors/ghost writers/editors/publishers were thinking with this one, but they missed the mark, big time. Not only does Robin get tortured nonstop for being a fatty, but when she finally does lose weight (very quickly and unhealthily), she immediately becomes Miss Popular.

Elizabeth calls Jessica "Jessie" throughout the book, which kept throwing me off. I don't think she does that in any other books. This book also had about 637 examples of Jess saying "thirty-seven" in it. (See what I did there?) Why was that number so important?

Reviewed at Give a Hoot Read a Book

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to get ahead in Sweet Valley, apparently it’s best to not be fat! Sadly, I remember being so enamored with this book as a chubby high school freshman.

That's because every chubby gal secretly wants to go away for the summer and come back hot and svelte so you can lord it over the entire boy’s baseball team. (Well, I also wanted to make out with Kirk Cameron, but that was before he started spouting off about how bananas are a religious miracle.)

I wonder how they’re going to re-do Robin in the new release of this book. If Jessica and Elizabeth had to be slimmed down to an better-than-perfect size 4, Robin might be *gasp* a size 8. That IS pretty heiferish. We really shouldn’t be promoting childhood obesity…

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I love SVH, there are just some books that are completely irredeemable and this is one of them. Just belongs in the garbage bin.

Early series Jessica was deranged, they really didn't find her humor to balance out the worst tendencies until quite a few books later.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's business as usual for this series...which isn't a bad thing.

[Anna Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a little problematic for me because of the fat shaming, however it was written in a different time and had some other good messages in it.

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this but the message in this book is not ok and young girls shouldn’t read this, it was entertaining for me but most people should skip this one!

[Melanie]

I love how there's no irony at all in this book. The fat insecure girl caricature is literally shoving candy bars and cheesecake down her pie hole every time she's mentioned in the first quarter or so of the book, then after she doesn't get let into the sorority she goes to see her aunt who kicks some sense into her and over the next month loses like 30 pounds and gets totally hot and beats out Jessica for Football Queen or something ridiculous like that. And Bruce who is a dick to her suddenly wants her once she's sexy.

[hannaH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, this is one of my favourite Sweet Valley High books, primarily 'cause it's so fat-phobic and unhealthy. In the space of approximately one week, Robin goes from being a fatty who nobody likes, to slim, gorgeous and captain of the cheerleading squad. (Does that happen in this book? Whatever, it happens eventually.) And Jessica is in high form here, and Elizabeth is so condescending, it's brilliant.

[jenn]

Man, this may have been the worst one yet.

[Amy W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty terrible morally and I wouldn’t recommend it to a teen girl, or anyone with body image issues, but I like to see Jessica suffer so it’s a 4 star from me.

[JJ Wall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Robin’s weight is yet again at the forefront as we begin Power Play; mentioned by her mother within a few pages followed by Elizabeth’s internal criticism as Robin dares to eat a candy bar.

Because Robin is “overweight” this makes her a “loser”, “unattractive”, and a “wimp”. Jessica pulls every trick to keep Robin from joining the SVH sorority (Pi Beta Alpha) because she doesn’t fit the image, while Elizabeth busies herself “helping” Robin get into PBA all the while not doing a thing to boost Robin’s self esteem, solely focusing on getting Robin in the sorority simply to beat Jessica.
Robin ends up blackballed from the sorority and made to feel like a complete outcast and leaves town for a few days to visit her aunt in LA.
Upon her return to Sweet Valley, and INEXPLICABLY to these two geniuses, Robin’s clothes start to look different and she’s running every morning, on the SVH track, so they naturally assume she’s “gone off the deep end”. When Elizabeth’s brilliance kicks into high gear she realizes Robin is losing weight and she couldn’t be more patronizing - her internal thoughts: “The excess pounds were going rapidly, and the Robin who was emerging seemed like an entirely different girl. Elizabeth remembered the night of the dance...when she first realized Robin had a pretty face. Now as the weight fell away, that face was becoming more than just pretty”.
By the end Robin is deemed “gorgeous” having lost weight and updated her wardrobe: “Everybody at Sweet Valley High, even Elizabeth, gradually forgot there had ever been a fat and ugly Robin. But Robin would always remember.” - a horribly problematic message for kids and teens that Robin was not good enough to be accepted as she was. Once she changed her outside appearance to what was considered beautiful the entire school was falling over themselves to be friends with Robin, some even thought she was a new student because they’d never even noticed her before (as it is pointed out). Robin goes head to head with Jessica to win Miss Sweet Valley High and then those two bitches pat themselves on the back for turning Robin “from an ugly duckling into a swan”.

If Robin’s struggle with her body image was written correctly and with a focus from her characters perspective it could have been a compelling plot point and empowering, helpful story. However, we are treated to the “perfect, all american” Wakefield twins constant criticism of Robin’s weight and eating habits, which is incredibly problematic for the young readers these books are / were intended for.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Everyone at Sweet Valley High, even Elizabeth, gradually forgot there had ever been a fat and ugly Robin. But Robin would always remember.”

YIKES.

As horrified as I am by this book, I’ve now read several books from the 80’s in the last year or so and they all have this kind of attitude to overweight people. So sadly, I feel like I’m almost immune to it now.

Random other thoughts:

Elizabeth calling Jessica “Jessie”. It just sounds weird.

Lila shoplifting and being caught by Liz! I loved their (very) short-lived friendship with Lila being so grateful to Liz.

“Robin has us throbbin’!” lol.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessica, Jessica always getting into trouble somehow and never ever owning up to it. In this book, Jessica and her friends bully a girl named robin and make her feel really badly about herself. Robin is desperate to get into the sorority at school but Jessica and her friends give her impossible tasks to do in the hopes she fails. I honestly don’t like Jessica and I think her sister is so blind by her actions that she just doesn’t get it. Overall this was an interesting book to read.

[Shelly Mack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rated against other SVH. Although this story is well fleshed out, the problem for me is the bullying element. That's always a bit of a trigger for me. There was little to no resolve, and the fat shaming is off the charts. Jessica is despicable; a total narcissistic!

[Shouty · Rating 5 out of 5]

ROBIN, EVERY SINGLE DAY THAT GOES BY WHERE YOU DON’T GO COMPLETELY HEATHERS ON THAT SCHOOL IS A WASTED ONE, THESE PEOPLE ARE *AWFUL*

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Woof the body shaming in this one was a little hard to take.

[Sully · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review is also posted at http://readingnookandcranny.blogspot....


All Robin Wilson had ever wanted was to be popular, but it seemed she had been going about it the wrong way. All she had to do was be confident, take care of herself, and treat the people around her the way they deserved to be treated...

I liked this series growing up, didn't I? I could swear I did, but I am finding it harder and harder to remember why. I know I liked the Sweet Valley Twins that I read, and I was obsessed with the SVU for a while, but maybe I never actually read the series when they were in their prime in high school.

Oh boy, so here we go again. Let's start with Robin this time. She wants to join Jess's Sweet Valley High Beautification Committee (only started so that Jessica can run for Miss Sweet Valley High since she has been too self centered to have any extracurriculars on her resume), but Jessica and her elite snob jackwad friends don't think Robin is the 'right type' of person to join the club, so they make her go through a whole song and dance of high school hazing that is pretty messed up, hoping she will drop out on her own accord. Robin, obsessed with popularity, goes along with humiliating herself (because why not?), then - when things don't exactly go her way - she drops out of school to be homeschooled and hit the gym and get a makeover, so that maybe she could be popular. I'm sorry, but exsqueeze me? How is this the message we want to send to teenage girls? If you get bullied in high school but a bunch of bitches, just drop out and buy into the whole stereotypes of beauty, stripping yourself of your identity, and then you too can be popular! Ummm, f*&^ no.

Jessica is as much of a brat as always. How have her parents not sent her off to a boarding school yet to get her attitude adjusted? Even Elizabeth is a little annoying in this one. Miss Goody Two Shoes wants to be helpful, so she meddles in the Robin situation which, surprise, surprise, backfires completely. Like we couldn't see that one coming.

Where are the parents in this series? Is it just me, or do these books tend to teach the wrong kind of moral story? The only one I almost want to feel sorry for in this novel is Lila, but she's such the cliche of a spoiled rich kid that I can't. These characters are all archetypes without any depth. And whenever you think they might develop into an actual human like character, it always seems to go sideways. Another disappointing letdown.

[Connie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Source: I read this online via Openlibrary.

Title: Power Play
Series: Sweet Valley High #4
Author: Kate William & Francine Pascal
Overall Rating: Less than two stars but I'm being generous

I know what you're thinking, "wow, Connie's being brutal today" and honestly, I'm not. I'm really not. This book infuriated me, I can't seem to remember why I was so obsessed with this series in my pre-teen days, maybe it was because I didn't read all of the start of this series, but I don't know. This book sends a horrific signal to young pre teens and it's probably fortunate that I never read this book. It's discriminatory and it's potentially triggering to people who suffer from body dysmorphia or other body/eating related anxieties or problems.

Okay so, the story is, Jessica is the president of this society that a girl named Robin Wilson wants to join. However, Robin is slightly overweight, so that means that she isn't allowed to join basically and they take the mick out of this poor girl by making her run laps round a pitch, wear a bikini and be embarrassed by the hottest guy in school, (so they bully her basically.) And then surprise, surprise she doesn't get into the sorority. And the reason she doesn't get in? Because Jessica and Elizabeth are perfect size 6 models who don't really care about the fact that she starts over exorcising and starving herself to lose weight, Liz even calls her Terrific for doing this at one point. I don't understand how a 150 page novel has angered me so much.

Was this acceptable in the 80s?

In the end, Robin becomes co-captain of the cheerleading squad because she's pretty now.

Ugh! Let's hope book 5 doesn't want to make me break my laptop as much as this one did.

[Cate Marsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually put off reading this one, because my vague memories of it were horrific, and I wasn't wrong: it's like a PSA about bullying overweight people until you induce an eating disorder. The language used by everyone who talks about her is uniformly awful.Also, if Robin *hadn't* turned out to be beautiful once she'd lost weight, what then?

BUT. There are a few moments I loved. Bruce Patman preening because he thinks Elizabeth wants him to ask her to the dance was perfect. (She missed a great opportunity for revenge when he used the dance to be cruel to Robin, though.)

Also, deep down Elizabeth has her own streak of sociopathy: "Actually, she thought, it was kind of fun to pit her wits against Jessica and her sorority sisters--as long as she won, of course." Fun, okay. It's not like they're playing around with some girl's emotions or life or anything, right?

Plus I did not know the back was such an erogenous zone, but it gets Elizabeth purring: "When he began to rub her back as they danced, Elizabeth could barely remember where she was." And a few chapters later: ""How about like this?" he asked her huskily as he ran his hand over her back, sending chills all the way through her."

Elizabeth on the possibility of talking to their parents when she thinks Jessica might be shoplifting: "That wasn't a dumb idea. That was a totally idiotic idea."

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. This aged like milk. Left out in the sun. During a heatwave. Holy what an awful message for preteen, teenaged girls these books were targeted to. Robin Wilson wants to join the sorority, which I didn't think was a thing until you got to college but okay. Jessica, Cara and Lila proceed to fat shame. Even Elizabeth does not as bad but she does. And yes this was fairly common back then, but it sure didn't make it okay. After being humiliated at yet another school dance, seriously they have at least one or more per book, Robin disappears and comes back looking at bit different. She exercises and is thin and popular though I suspect an eating disorder because exercising too much is also a symptom. It was an awful message to young girls. I agree losing weight can be good for you, but it shouldn't hinge on whether or not people like you or think you're pretty. The b plot has Lila shoplifting to get attention from her dad which is kind of sad, but also hilarious when Jessica is arrested for it. I love when she gets tormented. Well deserved. Elizabeth again saves the day. I feel bad for her, even Robin tried pointing out what a sociopath Jessica is but still Elizabeth refuses to believe it. Wake up girl your twin is the absolute worst.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I devoured these Sweet Valley High books when I was a young girl and am not at all surprised that they are still around! In this book, Elizabeth and Jessica are locked in a struggle that develops into the biggest power play at Sweet Valley High when Elizabeth nominates 'chubby' Robin Wilson to pledge Pi Beta Alpha, Sweet Valley High's snobby sorority. Jessica is determined to keep Robin out and Robin gets the best revenge. Meanwhile, Elizabeth becomes suspicious when Jessica is suddenly showered with expensive gifts from her best friend, Lila Fowler. It's been a while since I was in high school, but I imagine this is only a slightly out-of-date depiction of typical high school drama.

[jessica wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

i know these books weren't pulitzer prize material back when they first came out in the eighties but at least then the characters had morals. these new rewrites paint teens as being material obsessed and the label dropping is just too much. i truly think these could have been updated with a bit more aplomb. afterall, they may be targeted at fifteen year olds but methinks it is the twelve year olds (and us geeky first timers) who will be buying them.

awful, simply awful.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh.

I love these books because they're silly and trashy and awful, but this one -- no wonder I and my entire generation have body issues.

And it's sad, because I should have liked this book. There's hazing! Shoplifting for attention! A Discomarathon! Miss Sweet Valley!

Did I mention the Discomarathon?

[Tara Calaby]

The more times I read this, the less I like it. The moral (lose weight unhealthily and become someone else entirely) really is quite awful. Thank goodness for the Lila subplot.

[Reviewing on another edition so that multiple readings will count for the yearly challenges.]