Crash Landing!

Sweet Valley High #20

by Francine Pascal (Creator)

George Warren has been looking forward to taking his girlfriend, Enid Rollins, as a passenger on his first licensed flight. Afterward he's going to tell her something he's known for a long time—he doesn't love her anymore, and their relationship is over. Then he'll be free to date Robin Wilson, the girl he does love.

But as he and Enid are flying, George loses control of the plane and is forced to make a crash landing. Enid is seriously injured, and George is overcome with guilt. He can't possibly break up with Enid now. But how long can he pretend to be in love with her and continue living a lie?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Romance, Teen, Chick Lit, High School

151 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1985

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

[Nathan Brodsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must to read for any software developer! It simply will change the way you tihnk about programming, making you write much faster, scalable, and better applications than ever.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-Read 2024

Sweet Valley High has already experienced motorcycle accidents, kidnappings, death of a classmate, a potential suicide and being threatened by a drug dealer. I suppose the ghost writers felt it was time for a plane crash. When Elizabeth's best friend Enid Rollins and her boyfriend, George Warren become victims of a plane crash, the consequences are devastating for Enid. Enid receives damage to her spine and the road to recovery may be long. Will George be able to confess to Enid that he is now in love with their schoolmate, Robin Wilson?

And then there is Jessica, Elizabeth's twin sister, who is beginning to feel that her family doesn't appreciate any of her attempts to do good things. Has Jessica had enough of being blamed for everything?


Things that were just odd...

-I totally get that Elizabeth was stressed over her friend but my goodness she was so mean to Robin.
-Jessica and Lila take a cooking class. That part was entertaining. Jessica thinking her older French instructor was going to go to a high school dance- WEIRD!
-"How inappropriate," Lila said coldly. "Who'd ever dream of showing up at a dance in a wheelchair! ( How HORRIBLE CAN LILA GET??)

Things that improved
The fat-shaming towards Robin Wilson wasn't as bad BUT I wish the authors had followed up with an apology from the characters.

Goodreads Review 15/02/24

[kylajaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welcome to Crash Landing! or The One Where Enid Temporarily Becomes Bella Swan.

Book tagline: Will Elizabeth lose her best friend? Answer: Not until Sweet Valley Confidential, when power is shifted from ghostwriters back over to Francine who completely shits on everything, including Enid, making her a right-wing bitch who no longer speaks to Liz.

We open with 16 year olds George Warren and his girlfriend Enid Rollins in a plane that George is flying.
Hold up. 16 year olds flying a plane? In Sweet Valley? Yep, sounds about right.
George is moping about (of course he's not actually concentrating on flying, pssshh) because he doesn't love Enid anymore - he loves Robin Wilson now. But he sees how happy Enid is next to him, and he can't bring himself to tell her the truth (except that Robin actually had the balls to break it off with her boyfriend, Allen). In the midst of all this moping and angst (about page 6) George loses control of the plane and has to make a crash landing. He later blames his lack of experience. No comment.
Enid ends up perfectly fine in the landing, but she sees that George is in danger. In the process of rescuing George Enid falls against a wing of the plane and hits her lower spine, causing her to lose all feeling in her legs. George can't possibly break up with Enid now, can he?
Of course not. That would require him being a. a decent human being and b. not living in Sweet Valley, where people are incapable of being decent human beings. Obviously Enid doesn't need anymore pain than she's been through, but you can't tell this to George.
Since Enid has to find out about his love for Robin on her own (good old Liz knows, but St. Liz would never breathe a word) she becomes just like batshit crazy Bella Swan by saying that she has no reason to EVER walk again if Edward, excuse me, GEORGE, were to ever leave her for Robin. No lie. Nope. She actually says that.
Elizabeth McMeddlePants Wakefield sticks her size 6 ass into Enid's problem by borrowing Mr. Collins' kid (who really can swim) by inviting him over while Enid is there, leaving the room, and telling Enid he can't swim. The boy promptly "drowns" and Enid is miraculously cured by jumping out of her wheelchair to save the day. But people don't care that Enid is no longer an invalid. They only care that Liz saved the day. Yep.
With being able to walk again comes (thank god) clearheadedness as Enid finally realizes what a needy turd she was being and tells Liz she is okay with George and Robin - at least, as much as she can be, for she only wants to see him happy. Ahhh. Now how about a girl who is that smart the WHOLE book, for once?

Meanwhile, Jess has decided she is tired of being the Evil Twin (for one book, anyway). In the next book she is going to run away to San Francisco, but it's set up for in this book by everyone in her family "picking on" Jess, and she gets extremely fed up. Jess is taken with a new cooking class (for a boy, natch, at least for a little while) and while preparing a seafood dinner for her family she forgets to cook everything fully and ends up giving her family food poisoning. It's pretty hilarious. She gets a ribbing for other things too, but they are so trivial that of course Jessica suddenly thinks all of this should make her run away. I could think of a much better reason for her to skip town : she framed her sister for involuntary manslaughter. But hey, what do I know? After all, I actually READ these books.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dang this one has an intense start! A plane crash leaves Enid in bad shape. What I found impressive was the speed of recovery/expected recovery and surgery timing. If only things were so fast in real life! I felt a bit bad for Robin in this one. Even though I question the status for her and George's relationship prior to the accident. That might take some away... The other surprise feeelings I had were sympathy for Jessica. She actually tries to be morally right and tries so hard to do something for others, yet her reputation and past history causes her no end of trouble in this one. she needed to voice how she felt to her parents.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters of SVH were in some pretty tough situations in this book that I did not envy.

1. George was just about to break up with Enid to be with Robin before they were in a plane crash leaving Enid potentially paralyzed. He is consumed by guilt and chooses to stay with Enid as a result.
2. Robin has already broken up with her boyfriend Allen to be with George before the plane crash and now she is left boyfriendless and girlfriendless after rumors about her and George spread through SVH. Plus, she starts emotionally eating which is beyond relatable.
3. Enid is getting odd vibes from George but knows he won't leave her as long as she is still in her wheelchair.
4. Elizabeth knows everything about Robin and George and is keeping it from Enid and anyone else who questions her about Enid and Georges strained relationship.

Whew!! I mean, that's quite the situation and it brings up some interesting questions. Would I want my boyfriend to stay with me purely from guilt even if I was in crisis? Would I want my best friend to let me know that my boyfriend had been planning to leave me before said crisis? Would I be too much in crisis to care about any of this and just want to cling to an idea of what used to be, like Enid does. Who knows, but it did have me thinking.

--
**Review Note - I have been re-reading the Sweet Valley High series one book at a time for my podcast, “Lessons From Sweet Valley.” The following is the unique SVH rating system that I use on goodreads for these books alone…

5 Stars - The book is worthy of being read outside of the series purely as an exemplary example of YA fiction.
4 Stars - The book contains an element, storyline or theme that sets it apart from your average SVH tome.
3 Stars - The book adequately meets the expectations of an SVH book as it exists in the Sweet Valley universe.
2 Stars - The book falls below the SVH standards in terms of subject matter, characters or overall story.
1 Star - Offensive by SVH standards! Any of those re-reading the series should skip entirely

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

Title: Crash Landing!
Series: Sweet Valley High #20
Author: Francine Pascal // Kate William
Overall Rating: 3 stars

The drama of it all.

So, in Sweet Valley, everything seems possible. Sixteen year olds can fly planes, sixteen year olds can also crash them. And when George crashes the plane that he's taken Enid in to tell her that he doesn't love her anymore, which is stupid, take her to a park, he crashes it. And when she gets injured, he can't possibly break up with her.

This book made me grit my teeth a little bit. George is definitely a bit of a sleeze ball, Robin, his new girlfriend, is so unbelievably annoying in this book. She's going to die of loneliness because George is at the hospital with Enid, and she's broken up with her boyfriend to be with George, and Liz doesn't want to listen to her talk about how much she loves George.

Which is fair enough because Enid is her best friend.

I just...I can't deal with some of these filler characters.

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 3 out of 5]

The A Plot: Enid's boyfriend George is taking her as a passenger on his first licensed flight. She is enjoying the ride, but he is wrecked with guilt, because he has been falling in love with Robin Wilson and is planing to tell Enid and break up with her, as soon as they land after the flight. However, he promised to take her on his first licensed flight, and he's going to keep that promise if it kills him, dammit! Personally, I don't think Enid is going to care all that much about that flight once you break up with her, George. But hey, whatever makes you able to sleep at night.

Unfortunately while flying the engine fails, and George has to make an emergency landing on a nearby lake. The plane flips over, and they end up hanging upside down from their seats. George was knocked unconscious by the landing, but Enid wasn't too badly hurt, and is able to make her way out of the plane. She swims over to the other side, in order to get to George's seat belt and get him out of the plane too. Positioned badly, George hits her as he falls out of the seat, and she's knocked backwards and hits the back of her neck on the wing. It doesn't hurt enough to knock her unconscious, but she can no longer feel her legs!!! Fortunately the cold water brought George back to consciousness and he swims to the rescue and helps Enid back to the shore.

Todd was nearby and called for an ambulance, which came and took both Enid and George to a hospital. Robin, who's seen the whole thing, faints from the shock of seeing the man she loves being driving away in an ambulance, despite the fact that he's obviously not dead nor dying.

Being Enid's best friend, for once it makes sense that Liz is one of the first people at the hospital, so I won't snark about that. Enid is still unconscious and nobody can see her, but the doctors tell that she damaged the last disc in her spine, and it's cutting off nerve communication to her legs. Once the swelling goes down they'll try to operate, but they have no idea if it'll be successful or not. Liz knows about George's feelings for Robin, so she finds it awfully awkward to be together with him, but refuses to talk to him about it.

To George, Enid's diagnosis feels like a death sentence. Nope, he's not a drama-queen... 'scuse me, drama-KING at all. He figures that since it's his fault that Enid is paralysed, he can't break up with her, but has to stick with her for ever and ever... or at least until her legs work again. He drives over to Robin to tell her this, and is seen walking away from the house by Lila and Jessica who immediately get the gossip mill started, and soon Robin is treated by a phariah by everybody.

Enid soon regains consciousness and is ready for the operation. As expected the operation is a success and now she just needs some physical therapy and she'll be as good as new. Physically anyway. She can feel something is wrong between her and George, but he won't admit to it or tell her anything. Elizabeth obviously knows what's going on, but feels it isn't her place to interfere. Of course not. You're just her best friend, why should you interfere in her life? IMHO a true friend would have told George, "Either you tell Enid, or I will!" - but perhaps that's just me.

It all comes to a head at a party at school (yet another one!). Enid and George come to the party (and Enid is immediately scorned for being there when she can't even dance! Apparently she should just have stayed away, because only people who can dance are allowed at parties), she tells George that just because she's chained to a wheelchair, he doesn't have to be too, and he should go off dance with somebody. He doesn't wait for her to change his mind, and immediately goes to find Robin. As luck will have it, a slow dance starts right then, and when Enid sees the two of them together, she understands why he's been so remote lately. She rushes off - as fast as she can in the wheelchair - and George takes off after her.

Now, one would have thought that was the end of that, right? But no. Instead of realizing that that was it, and she should let George go, Enid figures that he won't leave her as long as she can't walk, and stops even trying. Yet another place where Enid and I differ - I'd be too proud to stay with somebody who obviously is in love with somebody else.

Elizabeth can see that Enid has completely given up trying to get to walk again, and after talking with Enid's mother and her doctor she knows that there's no medical or physical reason why Enid can't walk. It's just a mental thing and she must therefore be tricked into it!

Once realizing this, she immediately puts her plan into action. She teams up with Mr. Collins, as she needs to borrow his 6-year-old son, Teddy. Once he's in place at the Wakefields', she calls Enid and tells her she needs her to come over right away. Being the loyal friend she is, Enid doesn't stop to wonder why Liz can't just come over to her instead, as it'd be easier, but does as told. When she arrives, Liz and Teddy are out by the pool, where Teddy is playing with his truck. Liz tells Enid to keep an eye on Teddy as he can't swim and goes in to get something to drink. Not stopping to think how utterly ridiculous it is for an invalid to take care of somebody who runs around, Enid agrees.

Of course this is part of the great plan, so once Elizabeth is out of sight Teddy moves closer and closer to the water, and FALLS IN! Oh noes!!! Enid calls for Liz who obviously doesn't respond. She has to do something! She has to save Teddy! Too fast to even think about the fact that she oughtn't be able to do this, she jumps from her wheelchair, runs to the pool and jumps in to save Teddy. Yay! Go Enid.

Elizabeth and Teddy are THRILLED that their plan worked, and Jessica comes home just in time to tell Enid that Teddy swims like a fish, so they all tricked her, but Enid is too happy to be able to walk again to mind at all. She realized she'd just convinced herself she couldn't walk, in an attempt to keep George around, but now decides to let him go, and of course they have a friendly breakup, seeing as they're both so good people.


The B Plot: Lila managed to convince Jessica to sign on to a gourmet cooking course. Jessica thinks it's a waste of time at first, but then discovers that the teacher is a HUNK and stays on to impress him by her mad cooking skilz (Hmmm... here I can't help but think of Stacey and her teacher in "Stacey's Big Crush" and Claudia and her skiing instructor in "Winter Vacation" - a famous plot-line obviously). Actually she ends up being not half bad at cooking, but of course her teacher ends up being married, so she can't impress him enough to get him to go out with her after all. Still, she figures it's not all been in waste, at least now she knows how to cook gourmet food, and can impress her parents by cooking them an amazing meal for their anniversary and showing up Liz who's probably too busy with Enid to remember their anniversary at all.

What Jessica doesn't take into consideration is the fact that Liz has a perfect boyfriend who not only reminds her of the anniversary, but even has an idea for a gift! Tickets to a dinner and a play (wow! Expensive gift for a non-round anniversary!) Jessica is upset, because this means that she'll have to postpone the dinner to the following evening, and it won't be the same if it's not on the day itself.

Still, she agrees to go head and does a 'test run' by making some seafood-thing-or-the-other, which would have been really great - if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't know how to tell that mussels had gone bad, and inadvertently ended up giving the entire family food poisoning! A mistake that can happen to anybody, but her family are totally rude in their response. Instead of telling her they knew it was an honest mistake, they actually get MAD at her, as if she'd done it on purpose. Not only that, but they refuse her offer of cooking them a gourmet dinner for their anniversary, replying that "they're not sure they'll be recovered from Sunday by then." Jessica is near tears and thinks "What a bunch of jerks I've got for a family" and for once I really have to agree with her. They're being awfully insensitive about this entire thing, and are constantly comparing her unfavourably to Liz. NOT something parents should do, and I completely understand why Jessica is so hurt. I actually was too, on her behalf.

No conclusion was given to this problem however, as it leads over into "Runaway!" where Jessica embarks on a desperate course of action... for a change.

[ThymeOperator · Rating 3 out of 5]

Words fail me.

A 16-year-old has a pilot's licence and, shockingly, crashes on his first flight. George and Enid make it out of the crash relatively unscathed. Granted, her spine is a bit messed up and needs surgery to restore her ability to walk - but the surgery is an immediate success, as we knew it would be, so there wasn't much tension there.

Enid skips physical therapy because she subconsciously knows George won't leave her as long as she can't walk, and she's chosen lifelong paralysis over a normal teenage breakup. I mean....

Both Enid and Robin express the sentiment that if they don't have George, they have nothing else at all in life and may as well just be crippled or morbidly obese. I mean, how special IS this guy - who, by the way, has no apparent personality.

Best friend in the world, Liz, keeps it a secret that George cheated on Enid, all the times Enid asks if something's wrong - because you can't break the news to a cripple. Do you know how livid I would be in Enid's shoes, to learn that the whole school knew, including my best friend, and no one bothered to tell me?? How humiliating! But instead. Liz is hailed a hero - because - you ready??? - she asks their teacher if she can 'borrow' his 6-year-old son, keeps the reason a secret (NO parent would agree to this!) and has the boy PRETEND TO DROWN...and Enid just instantly leaps from her wheelchair to save him (because 'the mind is such a strange thing') and then immediately sees what a moron she is about everything else in life.

All of this while Jessica plans to invite a man in his 20s to her high school dance.

As I say: words fail me. It was pretty funny, though!

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crash, Secrets and Sweet Valley Chaos

Now that is how you open a Sweet Valley book.
A plane crash, a secret relationship revealed, a possible paralysis storyline. the DRAMA.

Jessica and Lila’s little side feud over the psycho fraud from Too Good To Be True was kind of filler, but at least they made up quickly so we could get back to the real plot: George being trash and Elizabeth in people’s business with side eyes and plotting.

I can’t be too hard on George because he didn’t cause the crash but sir, you were still out here cheating, so.. you should feel guilty about that.

Really liked Elizabeth in this one. She was calling George out and had no patience for him. But the way Elizabeth kind of flips on Enid gave me whiplash. Like dang, Elizabeth you went from “I’m her for you girl. You got this!” to a televangelist pastor saying “You are healed! Get up and walk already!!” Like what?! lol and that little test Elizabeth pulled by the pool… crazy. It could’ve went so badly.

Jessica on the other hand was having this one-sided rivalry with Elizabeth that is gonna lead into the next book. Not too excited about that story line. It’s gonna be a lot of “woah is me” Jessica and not the “Imma sit back and laugh at this train wreck that I created” Jessica that is so chaotic and entertaining to read. But I shall see if this next book is good or not.

What I’m liking also is how it is taking background characters and giving them something interesting to do and adding development to their characters. Like with Regina and Bruce. Speaking of that I’m ready for Regina to come back from Switzerland to continue that storyline.

Onto the next book in this suburban soap opera!

[Shelly Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! What a blast from the past this one was. I just reread this after… well, let’s just say I read it when it was first released so it’s been quite some time (and I’ve gotten quite old since then).
In this book, the 20th in the Sweet Valley High series, George and Enid are heading to the skies since he has just recently received his pilot's license. After that, George plans to tell her that he isn’t in love with her anymore and they need to break up. Then he will be able to openly date Robin Wilson, the girl he fell for.
However, things don’t always work out as planned and when the engine cuts on the plane George is forced to make a crash landing. Enid is seriously injured and George is overcome with guilt. There is no way he can break up with her now. So he will live a lie and away from the girl his heart belongs to.
This was just like I remembered. I can’t imagine that teens nowadays would be down for the way this was written. It definitely shows how different life was back then. The things that were criticized and how issues were treated is so very different from the way books are written now. Is it problematic? Well, at the time it didn’t seem like it but I have a feeling that with today's standards it most certainly would be! Still, I loved the nostalgia of it all.

[Starry · Rating 4 out of 5]

We discovered in the last book that Enid's boyfriend George is secretly in love with Robin the ex-fatty who rose to popularity and became the co Captain of the Cheer Squad, and he plans on breaking up with Enid after taking her on a flight to celebrate his qualifying as a pilot. He almost got out of that horrible task by crashing the plane they were in and nearly killing Enid - but she survived only to have spinal damage. Since no one could possibly cripple a girl and dump her in the same week he tells Robin all bets are off and he is sticking with Enid. In time Enid's spine is recovered enough that she should be able to start walking again - surgery took care of its end, now Enid needs to get her mind around the fact that she can walk - but she doesn't want to since she suspects that she is losing George and is being very clingy about everything. Liz decides it is up to her to force Enid to realise she can move her ass so she gets some poor kid to pretend to drown in her pool while Enid is the only one there and has to jump in the pool to save the kid, and after this happens everyone miraculously forgives everyone and Enid lets George go.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this installment, with adult eyes, I truly atarted to wonder if the writers of these books kind of hated teenaged girls. So far in the serie, its been made abundantly clear that Jessica is an awful human being, but in this book? We learn that boring and inexplicable best friend of the "good" twin Elizabeth, Enid Rollins is ALSO pretty terrible. Add in former fat girl turned cheerleading captain Robin making some pretty shitty anti-girls code rules, and I literally was left rooting for only Jean Pierre, random cooking instructor included only for vague b-plotline. Enid maybe would have been more sympathetic a character post plane crash if they'd killed her off. Two stars because I don't read these because they're good but because I need mindless fun some days and they are indeed that. The ending leaves Jessica feeling sorry for herself. Because being Jessica Wakefield is apparently super shitty. I dissent, but whatever. Pulpy noatalgia, I love you hard.

[K.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enid is paralysed after the plane her boyfriend George is flying crashes. She doesn't know that he was planning on breaking up with her for Robin, but Liz does, and George feels pressured to stay with her until she recovers from her operation. The doctors all say that she should be able to walk, but Enid seems to have a mental block - Jess suggests that the only way she can hang onto George is while she's still in a wheelchair. St Liz plans to help Enid confront her problems by borrowing Teddy Collins, who pretends to drown in Lizs swimming pool. Enid is so overwhelmed that she gets out of the wheelchair to rescue him. All problems solved, Enid can walk again, and she ends things amiably with George.
Meanwhile Jess is really going all stops to impress her parents with her gourmet cooking classes, but nothing seems to work! And after a disastrous dinner where she accidentally gives the family food poisoning, she's at her wits end

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one started good and sort of fizzled out. We begin with Enid and George in a plane. For some reason George wants to take her out one last time before he breaks it off with her as he's been cheating on her with Robin. The plane crashes and while trying to save George from drowning Enid injures her back and can't move her legs and needs surgery to fix it. George decides he can't break it off with her now. Everyone hates Robin cause no one likes cheaters, I mean Sweet Valley has better moral standards than Beach View Boarding House does. Enid recovers from surgery but can't walk and Elizabeth uses a pure 1980s sitcom plot to help her.
The b plot involves Jessica taking French cooking classes, falling in love with the married teacher and giving her family food poisoning and is hilarious and sets up the next book when she realizes she's a terrible person and no one likes her.
This was a mixed bag but I still enjoyed most of it especially the Jessica plot line.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crash Landing! Or Every College Freshman In Sweet Valley Dates High School Juniors!
Despite the exclamation mark title, this book isn't all that exciting. Yes, teenagers fly planes. Yes, Enid saves George's life. Yes, Jessica falls in love with a married French man. Yes, Jessica gives her family food poisoning from clams. And yes, Elizabeth does visit Mr Collins AT HIS HOUSE ON THE WEEKEND TO GET PERMISSION TO USE HIS CHILD IN A SCHEME TO MAKE ENID REALIZE SHE ISN'T REALLY PARALYZED (maybe this book is exciting?) BY HAVING HIM PRETEND TO DROWN. And the French teacher who Mr. Collins is dating is at the house. And Elizabeth is shocked by this. Anyway, Jessica was the better twin in this book, Robin gained 10 pounds and Lila says she will never need to learn how to cook because she will always have servants to do that for her.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, THIS IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU READ FOR 2021? Yeah, it is.
Book 1 of my #2021readingchallenge is Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High #20: Crash Landing.
This is all about how George is falling in love with Robin Wilson and he takes his gf Enid up in his plane and then they crash and Enid is hurt and blah blah. It actually wasn't one of the good ones.
But hey - it reminded me that Elizabeth was pretty normal and Jessica seems like a narcissistic psycho. Growing up, the difference between the two was kind of haha, but now that we're in 2021, her behavior seems cuckoo and cruel.
Onto the next one.

[Autumn Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty drama, and there was some unnecessary things added that just kinda made me roll my eyes in annoyance. It wasn't really a gripping story like others, but then again these are meant for pre teens. I do like Elizabeth's plan to get Enid back on her feet though, that was the only part I really enjoyed. And I guess Jean Pierrie or whatever his name is was an interesting side story. Eh, it was okay.

[Dr. Aditi Kapoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dramatic one involving a plane crash, heroism, a betrayal and a handicap. Mostly it involves Enid, George and Robin and Liz. Enid and George are involved in a plane crash and Enid loses the power of her legs. Previously George and Robin have fallen in love but part ways given Enid's condition. In a sidestory, this is the one where Jessica poisons her entire family despite her best intentions.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still love this one, despite how ridiculous it truly is.

Also, I always feel so badly for Jessica here, and even more so in the next book. She really is treated unfairly by her parents a lot of the time, and I don’t think I could handle being the twin of someone “perfect” like Elizabeth.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why is she named Enid? Why do college students date high schoolers? Why are teen girls awful? Why is Jessica so disfavored in her family? Emotional scarring runs rampant in this book. I don’t remember these stories being so damaging when I read them as a kid. Bleh. Points for nostalgia.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one really felt like a soap opera. Plane crashes, cheating, becoming temporarily paralyzed and staying together because of the guilt. Also notable mention of Elizabeth using Mr. Collin’s young son to stage a fake drowning to give Enid the will to live! You just can’t make this stuff up.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remember how the whole "suddenly paralyzed" thing used to be a storyline all the time in the 80s? And of course, everyone recovered, but still couldn't walk until they'd "unlocked their mind".

[Brooke · Rating 1 out of 5]

These plots just aren’t for me.

[anolinde · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was kind of a snoozefest, just like Enid.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find that I'm often in agreement with Jessica about Enid. She's just so boring, and in this book, we add manipulative. It's hard to feel bad for anyone when they're all acting so terrible.

[Kodie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Bad.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars for the fat phobia just constantly manifesting itself throughout the book. The Wakefield parents suuuuck. But also SVH is my guilty pleasure so...

[BG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading books i read as a teen. Some of them do not hold up well. But still fun.

[Rachel]

So Robin loses weight and becomes a man stealing hoe...

That cover though 🤌

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like a car crash where you don't want to look but can't stop. Or, a plane crash I guess.