Sweet Valley Twins #96 Elizabeth The Spy

[carolyn_keene]

By the time the Sweet Valley Twins books came out, I had moved to Christopher Pike and Anne of Green Gables so I’m not terribly familiar with this series, but according to my roommate, the librarian, that’s all she can find at work. Riiight. I bet she’s found dozens of SVH books and is hiding them, writing her own recaps!

Let me start off by

Comments

[xbexuniquex]

This book was SO much better when I was ten.

Question - does Joe ever freak at Liz for going into his apartment? Although, then again, it's not very sensible to leave his keys, labeled, in the broom closet for all the world to see.

I wish Pascal had just called let Liz read Nancy Drew rather than making up a fake detective. I'm sure she could afford to pay the royalties, if there were any.

And yes, total rip off of the Simpsons episode! I don't know which one was written first, but when I watched that episode I was totally like, "That's just like what happened in Sweet Valley Twins!"

[carolyn_keene]

I don't think Joe finds out. I'm sure he'd fall at her feet anyways since that's what mere mortal do when they come face to face with a Wakefield.

[daphne_23]

Yay it's the one with the secret artificial leg!! I asked for this to be recapped a while back (though at the time I got it confused with Robbery at the Mall) so cheers for doing it!

(It sounds much worse than I remember though. I too adored this at the age of 10/11, especially the brainteasers which I memorised and recited to my family...)

Are there clowns and little girls living in the mansion? That would make me too scared to sleep.

Just the one VERY SCARY little girl... (yes, Eva still terrifies me, and I'm 21...)

[pancake_syrup]

YES. this was one of my all time favorite SVT books. i had all the brainteasers bookmarked and would try them out with my freinds/family.

[tommckayisgay]

So, uh, do we ever find out who the real robber is? Or is that not as important as Liz getting Joe off the hook and then being asked to star in an ad for maxi pads?

I don't think I ever read this book but it sounds so... typical. Like the part about Liz finding out Joe's address so easily and hiding in the closet while the police enter. Why would they need the bills anyway? For evidence in court? And how does Lila know in advance that Joe will be found guilty? And Liz lying (gasp!) under oath to say she kicked the clown! What's up with that?!?

[carolyn_keene]

Oh Jeff Casey did it. Sorry, I must've dozed off at the end of the book. He did it because he was upset that Old Man Casey was going to leave the store to Joe. I guess if Joe was out of the picture (i.e. in jail), his uncle would give him the store. But he acted like he hated the store and the customes were a waste of his time so I don't know why he wanted it! Ugh. Sweet Valley!

[jaynesgottarun]

Wait, so they never found the real robber? Sigh.

Even at 13 I remember that I found this book to be pretty low on the Believability Scale. Now in my old age it's be downgraded to "makes no fucking sense whatsoever." Not because of your excellent recap, but because the ghostwriters were really starting to bottom out here.

Also, WTF STEVEN AND LILA? What is that book? I must find out immediately!

[irinaauthor]

Wait'll you see: it's a whole series awesomely recapped by strangerface. It starts with #135, Lila's New Flame and goes on for the next three books. This is also the miniseries where John Pfeifer bites it. You can get the rest of the links on the group's homepage.

[jaynesgottarun]

These recaps are a mind-blowing discovery that are blowing my mind all over my face.

My job certainly has suffered since I found this community. Liz would be so disappointed.

[annakelly]

It's called the "Inferno!" miniseries (yes, exclaimation point included) and all three books have been recapped here. It starts with "Lila's New Flame," which would be Steven. It's pretty decent, you know, since it's Lila.

[velvetleather]

Awesome recap, thanks! I never read this one as a kid, so all of this clown-related wackiness is entirely new to me.

Evil little kids and clowns truly are some of the most freak-out worthy things I can think of. A former professor of mine liked to ramble on about how we find evil children so frightening because it would take a truly wicked environment to corrupt their childish innocence so quickly, or something like that. (Whatever- all I know is that I'm still a bit scared of the carnival ghost kid in that one SVT Superchiller!) I think the eeriness of clowns probably stems from the aversion of humans way back in the good old State of Nature to not being able to see someone's face clearly and thus not knowing if the person is an enemy who's out to kill you.

[carolyn_keene]

I just blame the picture above on my fear of clowns.