Sweet Valley High #104: Love and Death in London

Jun 04, 2007 21:35

In which Jessica and Elizabeth go to London, meet weird hot British guys, and realise there's a werewolf on the prowl. That's... pretty much it ( Read more... )

sweet valley high, cheating cheaters, recapper: versipellis, werewolves, strange view of europe

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Comments 34

kiwiria June 4 2007, 21:05:15 UTC
Mwahahahahahahahaha!!! Oooh, this is priceless!

But seriously, how many royalties/celebrities do the Wakefield girls meet and date over the course of the series? It's pathetic.... but in the guilty-pleasure-fun-to-snark-at kind of way :-)

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versipellis June 5 2007, 14:27:34 UTC
It's such an insane book ^^

I don't know. Someone on this comm should count XD

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dramaturgy June 4 2007, 22:14:46 UTC
England, "a patchwork quilt of lush green farmland speckled with little villages".

All true - from the air. :)

Why she doesn't want to go to Oxford Street like the rest of us I'm not entirely sure.

I was a fan of Portabello Road.

Liz and Jess get a "big, black taxi" to the youth hostel where they'll be staying.

And then paid an arm and a leg when they got there. WTF TAKE THE TUBE, IT'S MUCH CHEAPER AND YOU'RE GOING TO NEED THAT MONEY.

Portia Albert, the daughter of Sir Montford Albert, "the most famous Shakespearean actor in the world".

Who is doing WHAT at a youth hostel?

"a cultural discussion with Americans, whose idea of theater is the thirty-minute situation comedy, promises to be immensely... refreshing."

OW. Oh, ouch. Kind of true, though. XD

Jessica nearly gets run over by a double-decker bus

Happens to the best of us. >_>

Robert tells Jess he was kicked out of "Eaton" (it's spelt 'Eton', dear ghostwriter)

... I know it's just a SV book, but how did that get past the editors? Maybe I'm just being overly ( ... )

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versipellis June 5 2007, 14:29:27 UTC
You know, that's a very good point about the taxi. I should have commented.

Portia is apparently, uh, staying there while she performs in the West End. Or went there specifically to bitch at people to practice her part *shrug*

We have "Eaton" mentioned at least twice, so it wasn't just a typo.

Wow, such clubs really exist? Cool :D

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dramaturgy June 5 2007, 18:26:45 UTC
Wow, such clubs really exist? Cool :D

There was one across from the South Ken tube stop that my friends used to look at wistfully whenever we took the tube home late at night - I'm not much for clubs, but watching people get turned away because they weren't on the list at the door was fun. >:D

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versipellis June 6 2007, 18:13:15 UTC
You could only get in if you were dating a Lord? :D

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umbluemusic June 4 2007, 22:22:44 UTC
" Luke tells her he's going to university in the fall, and the ghostwriter loses one hundred cool points from me for forgetting that in England we have autumn ( ... )

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versipellis June 5 2007, 14:31:04 UTC
I swear, Liz has done this exact same plot (only, uh, without the werewolves) so many times. It really sucks. I mean, you'd think she'd be getting wise to the lure of holiday romances by now.

I know! I really want to find some more of the cracked-out ones. (Although I thought this one was pretty weird even when I read it the first time...)

Heh heh, maybe it's a phase you grow out of :D

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Werewolves and London and Stereotypes - Oh My! ez_oz June 5 2007, 01:21:32 UTC
How on earth did two American teens get internship jobs with a London newspaper? Especially considering Jess has no newspaper experience... and Liz, the school newspaper doesn't count! ;-)

the girls meet Emily Cartwright, a redheaded Australian
Did she say "G'day mate" like Americans writers usually make Aussie characters say? (Because really I say, "How's ya goin'?", bad grammar and all ;-) )

Liz runs into a boy who apparently looks like Lord Byron
That's kind of lame, knowing what a dead poet apparently looks like ;-)

Luke tells her he's going to university in the fall, and the ghostwriter loses one hundred cool points from me for forgetting that in England we have autumn.
Ghostwriter = American. I'm in a writing group with Americans, and it always surprises me when someone doesn't realise that Australians spell things the British way... and that American spelling isn't the only/best way ;-) Lovely people, though.

They find some wolfsbane.
What's wolfsbane?

As the last line in the book has it: "Her beloved twin sister was dead ( ... )

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Re: Werewolves and London and Stereotypes - Oh My! versipellis June 5 2007, 14:33:52 UTC
I don't really know why Jess is there at all. Apart from to make out with sexy lords.

No, sadly Emily had no dodgy Australian accent at all (she says 'fellow' later, so I have a bad feeling the author forgot she wasn't English...)

Well, you know Liz. Literature!geek and all ^^

I know, I know, I shouldn't be expecting actual research on England from the ghostwriter. BUT I DO :D

Wolfsbane is a plant. According to... Harry Potter, I think, it's fatal to werewolves. According to Luke, when it flowers THE WEREWOLF IS ABROAD. Anyway, yes... it's a plant ^^

That would be so cool if Jess turned into a werewolf...

You're welcome - have a good day yourself ^^

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Re: Werewolves and London and Stereotypes - Oh My! dragons_f_wolf November 3 2007, 16:45:38 UTC
According to... Harry Potter, I think, it's fatal to werewolves. According to Luke, when it flowers THE WEREWOLF IS ABROAD.

And according to Stephen King "even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms."
(Yes, I know I'm commenting on an old review. I just found this community and I'm catching up. XD)

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Re: Werewolves and London and Stereotypes - Oh My! esc_key June 20 2007, 00:39:21 UTC
Wolfsbane is a plant sort of like a buttercup. It's an actual plant, but it often appears in werewolf literature as something that can repel werewolves (or, depending on who is writing it, turn people into werewolves). I find it convenient that they a) just found some lying around b) knew what to look for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconitum

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emeraldsword June 5 2007, 09:25:34 UTC
I really like 'Eliana' as a name for a monarch. Also, why is the dog called Poo-poo? That's so traumatising!

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versipellis June 5 2007, 14:26:06 UTC
The fact that she's called Eliana is possibly my favourite fact of the book ^^

I don't know. I can only assume that... uh... Americans don't have that slang?

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punkyami_chan June 5 2007, 16:22:04 UTC
Right. No American slang here. Fo Shizzle is so not slang.

And I know what Lord Byron looks like. Then again, I have a degree in English!

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irinaauthor June 5 2007, 20:50:13 UTC
I wonder if Liz's boyfriend has the funny little mustache, too.

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