SVT SUPER CHILLER #8: The Secret of the Magic Pen, or…do I even need a snappy alternate title here?

[dirtywingsgirl]

How can you not want to read the recap of this book? The title alone is gold! Not to mention the back cover, which reads:

“A pen that tells the future?
Summer vacation is here, and Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and their friends have just arrived at sleep-away camp! On a hike through a dark, eerie cave, Elizabeth finds something incredible - a

Comments

[esc_key]

At first, I thought Miranda had weird green sparks coming out of her fingers, but then I realised it was meant to be a bush she was hiding behind. That’s right, a bizarre, alien, floating-in-mid-air bush. But I guess if we can believe in an evil, magical, haunted pen, then we can suspend the laws of physics for a cover pic.
Oh hahaha. I didn't even see green, I thought it was the dark of the cave. I thought she was crouched like that in an ironic ("Ooooh magic pen") way and thought she was awesome. I'm oddly let down.

Camp Faraway
What an original name.

The next day, the campers go on a cave expedition. Jess meets a rival called Priscilla Westover, whom the girls quickly rename “Prissy”. It suits her. Prissy is a pain-in-the-ass, Southern-accented complain-aholic, who starts almost every sentence with “Mommy and Daddy”. I love her.
She's a tiny Celine Broudeux!!!

[dirtywingsgirl]

Yeah, you can't really notice the bushes/sparks on this pic, but on the book
you can.
Hahaha, I thought the same thing at Camp Faraway's name! =)

[ka_os]

Actually, every time I see it I think it;s the dark of the cave, then realise it's a bush, then go back to thinking it the dark of the cave again... like the idea of a floating alien bush though...

[dramaturgy]

“Should her setting be Sweet Valley, or should she make up a fantasy world where only the strangest things happened?”

Ahem. That's redundant.

Elizabeth slid the pen back into her pocket. “No one can see it, Jess. This is between you and me.”
“A secret pen?” Jessica asked. “Oh come on, Elizabeth.”

I'm actually with Jess on this one. What?

“Somehow she felt as though she had to find time alone - it was almost as though the pen was calling to her”.

"This one time, at summer camp, I stuck a pen up my - "

Jessica smiled graciously. “It’s all a matter of being true to yourself,” she replied, quoting from something she’d read about acting somewhere”.

I love how her advice is “be true to yourself”, when the quote isn’t even hers.

I somehow doubt Jess has read Hamlet. Liz I'd believe, Jess, no. If she follows up with "neither a borrower nor a lender be", I call bull.

[sophie10]

I remember this book. I loved it as a kid, but it was oh so far fetched. Thanks for the review :D

[versipellis]

I adore the way your cheeks are flushed with excitement.

I've read this one and I can't believe I didn't pick up on amazing lines like this. (And that fact that he's called Roland Barge, which I find way too funny for some reason.)

And you know what? I never realised it was Amelia's ghost doing all that stuff. Man, I was an unquestioning child XD

Great recap.

[_ocelott_]

Wow, this recap was awesome! I will be snickering at Liz and her magical, secret pen all day.

That is possibly the lamest Sweet Valley cover ever. Which really says something.

[dirtywingsgirl]

I know =D I know!!! Every time I look at this book I chuckle with glee...
But you know, lameness of it aside, I loved it as a kid.
I'm so, so glad I've found this community. Finally, people I can ramble on
to about Sweet Valley's many plot holes and hilarities, people who know just
as much about this crazy world as me! All those years of constant reading
have not gone to waste =D My parents begged me to read something substantial,
like non-fiction or...anything other than Sweet Valley, but I stood my ground.
And look at me now! Writing recaps online! And working at Burger King! I sure
showed them!!!!!!

[irinaauthor]

My parents begged me to read something substantial, like non-fiction or...anything other than Sweet Valley, but I stood my ground.

Hee! I remember when I was about eleven, asking my mom if she'd take me to the bookstore so I could get Kidnapped. She was all excited, thinking I meant the book by Robert Louis Stevenson, and was like, "....Oh," when we got there and I made a beeline for the Sweet Valley High book.

This was such a great recap! I laughed out loud at several parts, but especially at Jess being all, "Secret pen what now?" and your last paragraph.