Power Play: Sweet Valley High

Trivial as this book is, it has an unpleasant flavour, which is characteristic of the series. 'A game of double love, with Todd as first prize', 'vicious gossip', 'sink her hooks into rich, handsome Bruce' --- these are blurb come-ons for the previous titles. Each book features twin sisters, equals in beauty, opposites in character. In Power Play, Jessica uses and humiliates a fat girl who is desperate to join Pi Beta Alpha, 'the snobbiest sorority at Sweet Valley High', while her twin, Elizabeth, champions the victim. We are intended to feel that social and sexual glamour, designer clothes and model figures are worth less than sincerity and loyalty. But the heroine, Elizabeth, has all those attributes and the ugly duckling loses weight, acquires stylish outfits and beats Jessica in the Miss Sweet Valley contest. Clearly, being a nice person is not enough: you much be nice and the 'right' shape Perhaps the Americanisms --- sorority pledging. Calvin Kleins --- will put teenage girls off. Certainly the shallowness --- of style as well as theme --- suggest that we steer well clear.