Very Bad Things

Sweet Valley University Thriller Editions #17

by Francine Pascal (Creator), Laurie John

A SECRET SORORITY...

Someone is jealous of Jessica Wakefield.

Someone who'll do anything to take her place.

Someone who has the power to make bad things happen....

Very bad things.

Genres: Young Adult

278 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2000

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

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had absolutely zero recollection of this book when I saw the cover. I know I’ve read it at least once, but I couldn’t have told you even the vaguest of details from it.

Once I started reading this, I realized why I probably don’t remember it: it takes place during their “sophomore year” at SVU, and pretty much all of those books were awful. The Elizabeth and Sam thing got old fast, Jessica was so toned down she was boring, and the worst and most annoying character in the history of Sweet Valley was introduced: Chloe. Still, I was determined to read this one precisely because I didn’t remember it at all.

Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed this a lot. Oh don’t get me wrong, it’s awful, but it’s “Sweet Valley awful” which means it’s somehow great. It’s not quite “someone wants to steal Alice Wakefield’s face” great, but it was definitely entertaining nonetheless.

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heh. What I learned from this book is that in the SV-verse, if you're from the South, you're psychotic. Unless of course you're A.J. from SVH, but he's the exception that proves the rule, I suppose.

So... Leslie is obsessed with Parker to the point that she follows him from Louisiana to SV, California after undergoing some serious plastic surgery. Apparently Gia, Leslie's new persona, is fantastically gorgeous. And yet it never occurs to her to use her new found hotness to go after any other guy, even as a way to show Parker that her new self is wanted by someone else.

Instead she's so socially unaware that she just zeroes in on Parker and obsesses until someone catches on that she's craaaazzzzzzzzyyyy.

The hardest part of this book is how awfully Leslie's family treated her and the knowledge that unlike Margo, Leslie seems to have lacked the proper psychotic rage to have taken her Aunt and cousins out.

There's a lot of 'wicca' in the book and it tries to walk a line between "Crazy girl uses it badly" and "Hey, this is really cool" but it's hard to imagine Liz being pro-Wicca.

[Candeeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

love these books

[Rosette Adel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic SVU of Francine Pascal only this is the first time I've read something with a thriller edition. This is a book of love, revenge and obsession.

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read so many of these books I can't remember all of them.