Goddess Girls Graphic Novels 1 & 2

 

The popular Goddess Girls series is being adapted as graphic novels! The first two released today, just like the first two books released on the same day way back when. 

It's been a long time since I read the book versions but I think these stuck pretty close. Where they veer off wildly is in the art. 

I'm too lazy to take pics of the pages so I'll just be describing. 

The main girls mostly look okay. Athena and Aphrodite change clothes a lot, while Persephone and Artemis tend to be forgotten that way. I do not like Aphrodite's hair though. Would the goddessgirl of beauty really wear a ponytail every day? No. Persephone's is cute short though. 

Athena's childhood friend Pallas got an edgy makeover. Love it, though she looks a bit like a short-haired Eris.

Zeus looks like a cross between his typical GG look and Zeus from Disney's Hercules. He's good. Hermes is very cartoony and a bit goofy-looking. They nailed Ms. Hydra and the teachers. 

Medusa and her sisters are a miss. They're all green-skinned with reddish-blonde hair and look like triplets. They each have a different eye color but that's it. Transformed Medusa looks great though. 

Pandora got turned into a redhead and she wears the most bland outfit. I miss her blonde and blue curls. 

Poseidon is a fish boy that squishes when he walks. It's hard to imagine all the girls crushing on him like this. 

Pheme has spiky orange hair that looks like flames and she almost always looks sassy. She definitely got the best comic treatment. 

Hades is pretty cute but I vastly prefer his book design. I like the dark curls more than the short hair here. 

Demeter is very pretty and has a little crush on Zeus, which is funny because he's actually Persephone's father. Not that any of that is ever mentioned in GG. 

Ares has my most hated design yet. He's this big, stocky, ugly kid with a mohawk. How is that gonna work when Aphrodite ends up liking him? Ares in the books makes sense. He's big and muscular but still cute. This guy just looks like a bully. 

There's a random adult character called Varanus, who looks vaguely like a red-haired Hermes, that acts as a school herald. 

I can't remember which book he was in, but Dionysus has little horns. 

Pheme once again steals the show in her dance outfit near the end. 

Overall, the books are way better, but these were cute and they're a fun addition to the series.

The Curiosities

Took a little break from SVT (I'm on #14) because I received three anthologies from Amazon today. I've been meaning to order two of them and the third I stumbled across. 

The first one is by three ladies who work together on a blog, posting stories, critiquing them together, following the same prompts, etc. I'm not sure if they do it anymore. I tried to look it up and came up with a defunct Livejournal and then a Tumblr that was last updated in 2015. Possibly they got too busy with their individual careers to maintain the project. 

I discovered Brenna Yovanoff in the Don't Turn Out the Lights anthology and then found these anthologies through her page on Amazon. I feel like I've read Maggie Stiefvater in some anthology also, but I read so many that I can't recall. 

This particular book is from 2014 and the follow up is 2018. 

So the premise is that it isn't a typical anthology. It is indeed a collection of short stories, each by one of the three authors, but they also do critiques and commentary all the way through. It's done in a way that doesn't distract from the story. At least it didn't for me. It was fun. 

I'm going to flip through and list off my fave stories, just to see which author I like best. 

MAGGIE:

"A Murder of Gods" (I wish this was a novel series.) 

"The Wind Takes Our Cries"

"Rain Maker"

TESSA:

"The Spiral Table"

"Death Ship"

"Ash-Tree Spell to Break Your Heart"

"Dumb Supper"

"Thomas All"

BRENNA:

"The Bone-Tender"

"Neighbors"

Tessa wins. She tends to go more historical and fantastical, so I can see where I ended up liking her best. I might try one of her series when I get done with some other things. But don't think I don't love the other two. "A Murder of Gods" was hands down the best story in here and one I desperately wish was a novel series. 

So I highly recommend this is you like YA fantasy/horror/supernatural/what have you fiction. There wasn't a single story I did not like.

SWEET VALLEY TWINS 1-10

This has been a long time coming. I've been working through my BSC reissues and I was planning on doing Pen Pals after I'd caught up. But today, I was struck with the strongest need to return to Sweet Valley.

My plan is to review ten books at a time, though sometimes it will be more, as the super editions and chillers and such will be mixed into each group of ten. 

Y'know, as far as cover artists go, SVT had a great one. The first artist anyway. The later books...no. I mean, the girls do frequently have the same shocked or angry expression, but at least most of the characters are attractive and I like the colors. I was always sad that they depicted Lila so unflatteringly though. I think the twins and their friends got the better end of the stick than the BSC and Sleepover Friends though. Some of those were just yikes. My original plan was to only have one cover represent each batch of ten I did, but honestly, I like the covers too much to leave them all out.   

#1: BEST FRIENDS

Best Friends introduces us to the principal cast of SVT for the early books. Obviously, the main characters are the Wakefield twins. They're both sixth graders, while brother Steven is in ninth grade. The main plot of the book is that the girls are growing to have different interests and Elizabeth needs to accept that different interests doesn't mean growing apart. By the end of the book, she's in a new bedroom separate from Jessica and she's loving it. Most people know the basics about the twins. Elizabeth is the studious, more serious, occasionally goody-goody type. She has friends that are similar to her and they all work on the school paper. Meanwhile, Jessica is the outgoing, flirty, boy-crazy one who's into clothes and being the center of attention. We're introduced to the Unicorn Club in this first book, as Jess is determined to be one. It's a mix of girls from grades 6-8. They're the popular pretty girls and their meetings consist of them talking about boys, clothes and gossip. The Unicorns are also sometimes the mean girls and will remain so for the entire series, if I remember correctly. Other notable characters are Bruce Patman (spoiled, sometimes mean boy), Caroline Pearce (the school gossip), Winston Egbert (nerdy, only shows up briefly, clearly likes Jessica), Lois Waller (bullied for being overweight), and Elizabeth's friends Amy Sutton (the tomboy) and Julie Porter (the nondescript...seriously, she's so forgettable).  

#2: TEACHER'S PET

I just learned something. Best Friends was actually published one month before Kristy's Great Idea. So anyone who says SVT exists because of BSC is wrong. The series are concurrent. I was comparing the timeline of Teacher's Pet to Jessi's Secret Language, because both of them involve the ballet Coppélia, but it must just be some odd coincidence. Ballet was obviously the go-to dance for young girls in the 80s and Coppélia is a famous ballet and perhaps also easy enough that such young girls can perform it. After all, we've got multiple 11-year-olds chosen to play Swanilda. The twins are in sixth grade, just like Jessi and Mal. Anyway, this was never one of my favorites because it's so focused on the twins. Hardly any characters outside their family and dance class are present at all. The Unicorns have a brief showing, but I think that's about it. Amy Sutton was actually the star of the book, if you ask me. The premise is that there's a recital coming up and the twins' class is going to do a scene from Coppélia. Both twins want the lead role of Swanilda. The problem with this book is that it's incredibly unbelievable that this many people were this blind. Jessica has always been more interested in dance than Elizabeth has. It's the one thing she's devoted to and that's admirable. But she made the mistake of making her outfit more flashy for their first class and the instructor yelled at her. That was in the last book, but it's the root of the problem here. I don't remember it being mentioned that she knew she was putting on accessories or colors that weren't allowed, so if she didn't know she was doing wrong, she didn't deserve to be yelled at. Uniform guidelines should have been given to the girls before their first class. Jessica spends most of this book convinced she's not getting a fair shot at the part because no matter how well she does, Elizabeth gets praise while Jessica gets ignored. No one seems to see how good Jessica is. That's the unrealistic part. Elizabeth, who practices with her, doesn't see how good her sister is. The teacher is completely blind to her. On the day of the audition, Elizabeth goes with her mom to the mall, while Jessica stays home. A call comes from the instructor that the audition has been moved up four hours. Not realistic there because people have lives and plans. You can't just change an audition time an hour before it starts. Jessica leaves Elizabeth a note, this being 1986 and no one having a cell phone. She almost doesn't and she's relieved she won't have the competition from her teacher's pet sister, but in the end, she does leave the note. So naturally, Elizabeth makes it to the studio right at the end and is able to audition. Predictably, she gets the part. The twins are now not speaking at all, though Jessica wavers once as she watches Elizabeth practice and she helps her with two steps she's struggling with. That's when Elizabeth realizes her sister is GOOD. Way better than she is. So now the pieces start fitting together in her head and she realizes that she IS the teacher's pet. No one had believed Jessica before, which I thought was really unfair. Elizabeth and both parents can see how much she practices. The only reason no one believes her is because she's Jessica and they think she only wants to be the center of attention, but that's not fair to the obvious amount of time she's given to practicing. Elizabeth fakes a twisted ankle so Jessica can take her place as Swanilda, though they don't tell the teacher. Amy, who's terrible at dancing, had actually stolen the giant Coppélia doll so she could volunteer to just sit onstage in her place and not have to dance. She gives up her place to Elizabeth so she can be onstage and not have to move. Again, no one tells the teacher. So there's Amy in the chorus and I'm not sure who the teacher thought was playing the doll because it obviously wasn't Amy. But the book ends well, as the teacher realizes she never once paid proper attention to Jessica, having written her off as not being serious after the flashy outfit incident. And the Wakefield parents both see that Jess had been right all along. Jessica finally earns respect as a strong dancer from her teacher and hopefully a bit of credibility in the eyes of her family. All's well that ends well, even though it was pretty unrealistic. I do love how the end of each book teases the next. I had forgotten they do that. 

#3: THE HAUNTED HOUSE

I'm pretty sure I get book amnesia every time I read this one. I always remember Nora being cooler than she really is, because she spends the entire book being bullied and does nothing about it until the very end. It's rather painful to read because the Unicorns are of course completely awful and Jessica goes along with them so you can't like her, but Elizabeth, who's supposed to be Nora's friend, also never tells a single adult that Nora is being heavily bullied. Neither does Amy. Nora Mercandy just moved to town to live with her grandparents. The problem is that the Mercandys are reclusive and so all these rumors about Mrs. Mercandy being a witch who keeps her husband locked in the attic have sprung up. These kids are too old to seriously believe this shit, yet it goes on for the entire book. And Jessica even makes bitchy comments in front of her parents and they do nothing. Elizabeth doesn't tell them about Jessica's bullying either. So pretty much, the character I ended up liking the most was Rick Hunter, another new student who loves tennis, so he's interested in playing with Nora because she's really good. He's the only one who's completely supportive of her, though sadly he's hardly in the book. I think I want to love Nora because she's sort of the spooky girl. She looks awesome with that long black hair and minorly over it expression. Turns out, her grandfather was a very famous magician but he had a stroke, which is why her grandmother rarely leaves the house. He's partially paralyzed so he can't speak. But he's been teaching Nora some magic and she saws Elizabeth in half in front of all the guests of Lila's Halloween party, who all chased after Nora when she learned Bruce Patman and some other assholes were going to vandalize her house. No shame is expressed by the idiot children who all believed in witches when it was a harmless old couple all along. It's one of those books that's frustrating because you feel like no lessons were learned and no bullies were ever punished, though Lila and Nora seem to declare a truce. I'm not sure we ever see Nora again, so in the long run, it doesn't really matter, but it's still annoying. 

#4: CHOOSING SIDES

Oh, it's the one where plain tomboy Amy wants to join the Unicorns' new cheerleading squad. Lila had the idea to create the Boosters, so she, Jessica, Ellen and Janet are automatically in, but they have to do open tryouts for the other four spots. Amy Sutton learned how to twirl a baton from her aunt and she's obsessed with becoming a Booster. The Unicorns have made it clear (to everyone except the adults) that it's going to be Unicorns and Unicorn friends only, so they do their typical scheming to get the other girls to drop out, but it doesn't work on Amy. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Amy befriend Ken Matthews, the shortest boy in school, who wants to try out for the basketball team but keeps getting bullied by Bruce Patman. Both Ken and Amy persevere and make it onto their respective teams. Amy is the star of this book because not once does she give up. She even turns the Unicorns' final public humiliation stunt to her advantage. Jessica spends the entire book looking like her snobby self, but Elizabeth once again drops the friendship ball. She's really not doing too well in these early books, is she? She tries repeatedly to get Amy to drop out. I get that she's trying to save Amy from humiliation, but she doesn't believe in Amy's ability, even though she knows it's more than what the Unicorns think it is. Not great, Lizzie. Not great at all. At least she usually learns from her mistakes. Side note: We do see Nora Mercandy for a brief scene at the beginning of this book. I'll be keeping an eye out for her for the entire series. 

#5: SNEAKING OUT

I have the updated Twins & Friends version of this book that's missing the dog on the cover. Might have to track down this version instead. I like the color, but I also like Sally the dog being present. 

Jessica is once again selfish and not thinking of the consequences of her actions. Rockstar Johnny Buck is in town, but the twins' parents decide they're too young to go. Jessica takes a dog-sitting job to earn money for her ticket, then foists most of the work off on Elizabeth and Steven because she's terrified of dogs. Then she plans a slumber party with Lila so the two of them can go to the concert with Janet and her older brother. When the dog's owner can't make it on time to pick the dog up, Jessica ties her to a tree in the back and while she's off having a really shitty time at the concert, the dog goes after a cat and gets lost. Elizabeth was equally infuriating in this book because she should have just told her mom what was going on, but she covers for Jessica so well that the Wakefield parents never learn Jessica made it to the concert. Elizabeth, WTF. She's such an enabler. They end up finding the dog back at her own home. She's even inside because there's a doggie door. Turns out the older lady that owns her just lets her roam free. I had assumed there was a fenced in yard, but then she couldn't have made it back into the house that way. Ah, the eighties. Jessica's penance is walking the dog twice a day for a month. Maybe she learned something this time? Nahhhhhhhhhhh.

#6: THE NEW GIRL

Brooke Dennis, the new girl on the cover, already made a brief appearance in the previous book, and she was a total bitch. She even shoved Sally the dog away from her with her foot. So I'm looking forward to seeing what Jessica has in mind for her. It's not like Nora who did nothing to the Unicorns. This time, I want the full scheming power of the Unicorns directed at this nasty little girl. 

And that's exactly what we get. Brooke makes Lila and Bruce look like complete angels. She's nasty to absolutely everyone she meets with zero provocation. She's so mean that she even smiles when Jessica falls while cheering, which makes Elizabeth really angry. And angry Elizabeth is glad to participate in the school-wide scheme to make Brooke believe there's a third Wakefield sister. Jennifer Wakefield quickly becomes Brooke's only friend. As time passes, she slowly reveals that she barely sees her father, has her clothes chosen for her with no say, and her mother moved to Europe with her new husband and baby, so she doesn't have time for Brooke. While that is a pretty miserable life, it's not a reason to bully every single person you meet. The major trick everyone plans to play on Brooke goes down perfectly and she's humiliated at being lied to by the twins and devastated Jennifer is not a real person. Elizabeth had tried to stop the trick after learning why Brooke was so nasty but she failed. When they learn about her life, everyone just miraculously forgives this horrible mean girl and gets together to give her a huge surprise party for her birthday. Her father says he'll change his ways and tells her that her mother is planning a visit in the summer. So once again, we've got negative behavior with it being questionable that a lesson was learned, but Brooke is a good character from here on out, though I don't think she appears much. So let's say she learns better than Jessica. (Setting the bar really low but still.)

#7: THREE'S A CROWD

Three's a Crowd is SVT's first foray into a rather fantastic story. Mary Giaccio has been spending a lot of time at the Wakefields' because she's become friends with both Jessica and Elizabeth. Mary's been a character from the beginning, but she used to have brown hair and be meaner. Now she's blonde, looks a bit like the twins, and is the nice Unicorn. Jessica is bothered by Mary's obsession with her mother and forces Elizabeth to keep her away from the house. The twins' issue finally comes out and Mary is embarrassed, but then rallies and makes up with Jessica, so she's allowed in the house again. Her dramatic backstory comes out eventually. This is where things get a little wild. When she was four, her parents divorced and her mother wanted to move to California. They made it to Kansas before her mom ran out of money. While there, they met Annie who became a family friend. Mary's mother left Mary with Annie while she went to Florida (I think?) to tend to her sick mother. Annie told Mary her mother was dead and then took off with her, eventually abandoning her in California. so Mary was kidnapped at four years old and then abandoned into the foster system. She loves the foster parents she has, but rejects their offer of adoption because she's convinced her mother is alive and looking for her. Well, she's right. Mary's mom shows up at the school and Elizabeth actually thinks it's her own mother, which makes Mary's obsession with Mrs. Wakefield make sense, even though she may not have been able to explain it. So a happy reunion takes place. The B storyline has Elizabeth working hard on The Sixers because it's up for some sort of award, but Jessica fucks it up a couple times. Though Mr. Bowman actually likes the article Jessica changed. Turns out she can write a little bit. Elizabeth is surprised but melds their styles and gives credit to both of them in the by-line. The Sixers wins the award. Next up: Lila wants a horse and Elizabeth loves horses. 

#8: FIRST PLACE

I swear, Lila is the only character the cover artist makes unattractive. I think my initial exposure to Lila was actually SVH Lila's Story. I'm not sure though. Did I really not read SVT for three years after it came out? I do know I only started buying SVT much later into its run. I'm pretty sure #50 was my first purchase. I guess  it's possible I ignored SVT for a while, because I was heavily focused on Sleepover Friends, BSC, Fabulous Five, and Bad News Ballet. Anyway, young Lila should be prettier than this. 

So Lila gets a horse. Elizabeth is obsessed with horses. Elizabeth pretends to be Lila's friend so she can work with Thunder, while Lila has no real interest in him at all and is more than happy to let Elizabeth do the dirty work. This goes well for a while, with the people at the stable even believing Elizabeth is the owner, including a stableboy that she befriends. He becomes a quick friend of the family and he and Jessica seem to share a mutual interest. Dude, you're a freshman. Do not date a sixth grader. Ew. Jessica is jealous of Lila's new friendship with Elizabeth. Elizabeth accidentally blurts a secret of Amy's at Lila's slumber party and of course the Unicorns tease her about it. So Amy gets revenge by telling Lila that Elizabeth is entering her horse in a competition without her permission. Lila gets pissed. Everyone ends up at the stable. Elizabeth tells Lila off and then won't ride Thunder, even though Lila now wants her to. The stableboy ends up taking him through the advanced course and winning the competition, then offers Lila a down payment for him. She accepts. He says Elizabeth can ride Thunder anytime. So I don't think anyone really learned a lesson about not using people for your own advantage. Elizabeth maybe but I could see her doing it again. Lila definitely always will. 

Not a horrible book but certainly not interesting either. I had more patience for horse stories when I was a kid. One odd moment to note is that Elizabeth feels completely left out of the slumber party at Lila's, but Mary's name is mentioned as being there. She and Mary are friends so couldn't Elizabeth have tried to talk to her? Weird. 

#9: AGAINST THE RULES

Now we get to know Sophia Rizzo, a new addition to the cast. Not that she's new in town. She's just never been mentioned before. Speaking of, where is Winston? I always remember him being more of a presence, but I don't think we've seen him since that brief moment in the first book. It'll be interesting to note when he starts showing up more often. 

So Sophia is from a lower income family. Her mother has a physical disability and doesn't speak English well, though there's basically zero evidence of that in the book. Her English is just fine. Her older brother once stole a VCR and went to reform school. Now that he's back, naturally the more privileged people of Sweet Valley are going to never let him fit in and blame the entire family for his actions. (Likely spurred by their absent father.) Elizabeth gets to be friends with Sophia when the latter wants to join the paper and Liz sees what a skilled writer and nice person she is. Jessica, being a snotty asshole, only judges Sophia on her old clothes and her brother's reputation. The problem comes when her brother punches Steven after he's one of a group of kids bullying him. The Wakefields very incorrectly ban Elizabeth from associating with Sophia outside of school. I can understand not letting her go to the house where the brother might be, but there are lots of other places she and Sophia can spend time together. This is simply prejudice and it's infuriating. Elizabeth sticks to her guns and keeps seeing Sophia. They're part of the six student group that's writing the school play this year. Sophia is doing most of the writing because she's really good at it. Jessica and the Unicorns are telling everyone not to try out because the play is written by Sophia. The thing about this is that Mary is one of the seventh grade writers and not once is there a confrontation between her and the other Unicorns about it. Not once. What horrible writing. Mary is an interesting character because she's in both of the twins' worlds and this would have been a good opportunity to at least have one solid scene with her pushing back against the Unicorns' privileged prejudice. But no. All she says once is that she thinks what they're doing is terrible. 

Anyway, the B plot is that one of the twins gets to go to LA and see some musical with Mr. Wakefield's clients or something or other. I wasn't paying attention. The parents decide to choose the twin fairly, despite Jessica being a huge fan of this musical and Elizabeth not really caring. This was a ridiculous plot because Elizabeth really doesn't care if she goes and this is one of Jessica's interests. It's incredibly unfair of the parents not to listen to either twin. Elizabeth gets to go and Jessica is distraught. However, the trip is the day after the play and it's also the day of Sophia's birthday. She's never had a birthday party, so Elizabeth concocts this Jessica-level scheme. Jessica will go on the trip pretending she's Elizabeth. The twins' parents will be gone already on some boat trip thingy and Steven I think had some basketball thing to do. Then Liz has the house to herself and gets everyone over there to prepare for Sophia's party. Naturally, a storm happens and the parents head home to pick up Jessica and bring her back to their friends' party. They walk in and everyone yells "surprise" because they think it's Sophia. Not long later, before the kids can run around and take the decorations down, Sophia shows up and the Wakefields aren't heartless so they go along with everything and even go get Mrs. Rizzo to join the party. Mrs. Wakefield even hooks her up with a job! And Mr. Wakefield gave Sophia's brother the contact info for a therapist. Things they should have done in the first place instead of blindly judging the entire family. Sophia is finally accepted by everyone because they saw what a great writer and actress she is. Even Lila is there and Bruce was actually pretty supportive through the whole book. Punishments for both twins will be doled out, but at least the parents see Elizabeth's heart was in the right place and it was she who was in the right all along. 

I do think continuing to go to the Rizzos could have been avoided. Liz is such a goody-goody that I'm surprised she didn't suggest going to the library or somewhere else to work on their play. Her parents said she could see Sophia in school, so why not stay in the school? She never stopped being afraid of Tony Rizzo, although she did really like Mrs. Rizzo. Still, Elizabeth, Amy, Julie, Brooke (making a solid appearance as a nice girl), and adorable Sophia herself were the most solid characters of the book. Honorable mentions to the other four co-writers of the play who never once judged Sophia. I think Elizabeth could have been improved by having her light into Jessica about not judging people based on their clothing or where they live, discussed in terms of Jessica needing to check her privilege. This lesson could have also been backed up by the parents once they realized they were being assholes. But this was the 80s. Sigh. 

#10: ONE OF THE GANG

Jessica is in charge of the Mini Olympics, which the fifth and sixth graders put on for the "lower school" kids. Not sure how exactly that works because even during the competition no one under fifth grade is mentioned. She's very excited about it, but Lila isn't. She was made Jessica's assistant. Now Jess is pretty athletic, what with her ballet and cheerleading and swimming, but Lila? Why in the world would Lila Fowler want to organize an athletic competition? It's weird. 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth befriends Pamela Jacobsen, a new student that year, and learns that Pamela's life is pretty limited because she has a rare heart condition. She used to attend a school for kids with different needs, but wanted to try a "regular" school. Her father doesn't support the idea, though her mother does. 

When Jessica sprains her ankle during a silly prank on Steven, she suddenly sees how hard it is to be limited in ability. She's even more annoyed when Lila starts to undermine her during their Olympics planning meetings. Elizabeth, ever mindful, suggests Jessica try to make the Olympics more friendly to anyone not just athletes. Mostly motivated by wanting to participate herself and by wanting to one-up Lila, Jessica agrees and works together with Pamela to retool the entire event. Naturally, the adults are all for it being more inclusive. 

The weird thing is, the events could still be challenging for some people and the way they pick who does what is by drawing numbers out of a hat. What if someone isn't able to do their event? In one event, the contestants walk from one end of a pool to the other while balancing an egg. Seems simple but walking in water provides a lot of resistance so how could a student like Pamela do that? She can't even run briefly. It seems counterproductive to the original idea of inclusivity. Although at the end, Pamela takes part in the wheelchair race and wins. That seems like it would take more exertion than she's used to, but hey, let's just write illogically. We're in Sweet Valley. There was also a pretty out of character line from Ken Matthews during that scene. Didn't care for that. 

So Jessica comes out smelling like roses. Her team wins the entire competition. In typical Jess fashion, she cheats and draws her own name for the crutch croquet event. She also gets a good citizen award from the PTA. But it's Jessica. She's not going to stay good. (Even Elizabeth seems relieved about this.)

Not a bad one, but not a great one. Winston Egbert was mentioned though! Apparently, he's going to be one of those names I'm going to be watching out for, along with Nora, who has vanished. (Ha. Magician girl. Vanished.) 

The next book has Jessica and Ellen finding an old box in Ellen's backyard. And they even already found it at the end of this book!

I enjoyed returning to Sweet Valley, so I'll definitely be continuing my reread and little review blurbs.

Monument 14

I have an odd liking for series where kids handle apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic situations that goes back to my first read of Battle Royale. That's still the best, hands down. Higson's The Enemy series is by far the best "zombie" series I've ever read. That one involves no adults. 

Monument 14 is almost entirely about kids, though there is more potential for adult survival than there was in The Enemy. 

The premise is that a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands triggered a massive tsunami that struck the US East Coast and somehow led to a series of weather disasters. The first one is a catastrophic hailstorm that leads to our 14 kids taking shelter in Greenway, which is like a Target or Walmart. 

Somehow there are no employees present, aside from a few bodies outside that were killed by the hail. This seems very unlikely, considering stores like this should definitely have staff present at the same time kids are on their way to school. But we'll just write it off a little, shall we? It's more like Target in that there's no humongous food section with a deli or bakery, which is where a lot of those early employees would be. 

So our cast is six high schoolers, two eighth-graders, and six elementary age children. 

They're stuck in the store because the "riot gates" come down outside and now no one can get out or in. Thankfully, one of the high school girls (Astrid) worked in the Pizza Shack at the front of the store, so she's able to make food for them. Another high schooler (Niko) is a Boy Scout who works with one of the eighth graders, a tech genius, to figure out the best way for them to survive. There are two goof-offs. One's a popular jock (Jake) and the other more the popular bad boy type (Brayden). The second girl (Josie) is traumatized for the first half of the book or so, then goes into Mom mode and takes care of the little kids. The final high school age character is Dean, our POV guy. He's a writer with a crush on Astrid. Alex, his younger brother, is the tech genius. Sahalia is the other eighth grader, who tries really hard to act older than she is. 

The little kids are decent characters, too. Chloe is the oldest. She's in 3rd grade and pretty much a brat. Batiste is a 2nd grader who comes from a very religious family and tells everyone they're sinning. He's an annoying character at first, but comes into his own later on. I didn't like that Dean described him as "vaguely Asian." I get not knowing what he is, but the author could have had him mention it casually later on. Max and Ulysses are in 1st grade. Max has Seen Some Shit. He's hilarious. Ulysses is Hispanic surrounded by people that don't speak Spanish, so you feel bad for the little dude. Twins Caroline and Henry are Dean's neighbors, so they know him. They're the youngest at 5.

Most of the book is the kids figuring out how best to live in a giant store. They can't go outside because, guess what, a huge earthquake that hit the second day triggered friggin' chemical warfare. NORAD is nearby and it's leaking chemicals that have different effects based on blood type. Type O people become ragingly violent. Type A develop blisters that bleed and this can get so bad that they die. Type AB become paranoid and hallucinate. Type B has no outward effects but basically suffer reproductive failure. There are two incidents where the kids are exposed to the compounds, including one where it's apparently in the water system and they can't use the bathrooms now. I thought that was a bit much. Oh, and the lice outbreak was also unnecessary. 

One thing this book has that others that are similar tend to gloss over is a sexual element. There's a scene where Astrid and Jake are about to have sex and Dean spies on them. He didn't mean to stumble upon them in the dark so I'd get if they played it where he was scared they'd hear him so he was stuck nearby, but he watches for a bit. I won't be surprised if they end up making Dean and Astrid a couple eventually, but I didn't care for this bit of Dean's character. Then there's Sahalia. She's trying to be cool enough for the older boys, but they're paying attention to the older girls, so what does she do? Wears shorts you can see up and then does a wet t-shirt contest moment while everyone is washing their hair with lice shampoo. She does get the interest of the popular boys, but that's put a stop to by Josie. However, there's a horrible scene later on after two actual adult men come and one of them almost rapes her. SHE'S THIRTEEN. I actually find Sahalia really interesting as a character and I'd like to get into her head, but I will be glad if they get rid of this sexual element that surrounds the poor girl. 

Oh, speaking of sex, when the others all try to get to Denver airport where people are being evacuated, Astrid can't go...because she's fucking pregnant. Ugh. She and Dean are Type O so they turn into the rage monsters and it makes sense they stay at the store, but also she's afraid the baby might somehow be hurt by the chemicals. So at the end, the pair of them stay, along with Chloe, who's also Type O. Then Henry and Caroline run off the bus and stay, too. The next book I think is going to be split into at least two POVs.

I liked this book, but some of it was definitely overkill. The chemical agent getting into the water. The lice thing. The pedophilia. A lot of bad shit happened and it would have been enough without those incidents. I definitely got into it and I want to see what happens in the next two. I have less attachment to the characters though. Like there were characters in Battle Royale with two-page scenes that I cared about more than any of these kids. I'm hoping that improves in the next two books.