Sweet Valley Twins

With the nostalgia kick I have been on lately I decided that I needed to revisit another series...Sweet Valley Twins. Sweet Valley Twins had the stories of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield who were blonde haired blue eyed twins who lived in the affluent neighborhood of Sweet Valley CA. Sweet Valley was quite the franchise and sweet Valley Twins was actually the younger sister to the Sweet Valley High Books which chronicled the same twins in high school. Sweet Valley Twins was about their life in junior high. These series were soap operas for teenagers in book form. Sweet Valley Twins had their regular series, super specials and their chillers.

However the ones that I remember loving the most were the Sweet Valley Chillers...which were the sub series that included ghost stories. I wondered if now that I am older and a horror buff how well the plots would stand up.

I would like to start out by saying that my more modern progressive mindset does remember that the stories center around white rich girls dilemmas. And I do remember that notions like beauty and popularity were sought after in many of the plots.

However while being able to constantly return to a carnival in The Carnival Ghost may be elitist, this story wasnt as problematic as I remember the regular series to be.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised how well The Carnival Ghost held up as an actual ghost story with some chills. It wasnt the kind of story where the ghost turns out to be something else. There was actually a ghost that Elizabeth associated with named Claire that she didnt know was a ghost. Elizabeth did things that were out of character to her very responsible self like not making her bed to 8bdicate that she was somehow possessed. And when her twin found out she was hanging out with a ghost her twin saved from being murdered by a ferris wheel.

Having actual looming danger that put ne to the edge of my seat was a pleasant surprise as I revisited the book. I felt like it did stand alone well as a ghost story for tween girls. While there could have been a lot more danger for my taste, considering the audience and the type of books the rest of the series were it was deliciously scary. It was a fun gaunt down the terrors of memory lane!