Sweet Valley Twins Read Along | Frightening Four Miniseries - #098: The Beast is Watching You

[luxken27]

Read-along master post here





Pre-read initial thoughts: Sounds like the ghost who's haunting Juliana's dreams has taken it up a notch and is now showing herself to two of the other Riccoli kids. Would be interesting if the ghost was pushing Juliana to do her dirty work, but I think that's going to be too sophisticated a tactic for a SVT story.

I wonder if Winston will start baby-sitting for the Riccolis, or if he will have another Wacky Hijinks subplot instead?

Comments

[impy]

This is why you don't go into walled off rooms that house vengeful ghosts, Jessica!

[luxken27]

I have so many questions.

First of all, this book takes places mere days after the first one, but suddenly all of the Riccoli children are experiencing the nightmares (except maybe Nate, the 2-year-old), not just Juliana. And of course the Riccoli parents have sudden explanations for everything: Gretchen is a sleepwalker. Andrew plays with matches. These things just oh-so-convienently slip the parents' minds to tell their baby-sitters. Right.

Jessica has her own nightmare of the monster girl, a lucid dream throwing her back to win Eva was alive. Eva tries to push her off the balcony in the secret room. Three guesses as to how Eva died!

And we learn more about Alice's ties to all this: she was a 12-year-old baby-sitter for Eva Sullivan back in the day, and apparently she, too, was creeped out by the sleepwalking Eva, who loved to wear her bunny slippers to bed, and which oh-so-convienently muffled her footsteps until it was almost too late.

Too bad nobody has opened their mouths yet so that they can compare notes - so frustrating!

The subplot in this book was really, really dumb. Steven and Joe Howell are absolute assholes to sneak up to the Riccoli house to scare the twins, and their asshole behavior earns them the dreaded "you have too much time on your hands, thus you should get jobs" speech from Mr. Wakefield. Said father then goes out and buys a fancy riding mower, which gives Steven the Great Idea to start a lawn care business. Being a 14-year-old boy, of course he thinks instruction manuals are for idiots, and of course *he* is not an idiot. Wacky Hijinks ensue as, of course, Steven does everything to that riding mower except actually mowing the lawn.

The lawn mower manual is ridiculous, though. Seriously, what kind of instruction manual goes into great detail about something and then is all like, "nevermind, for this model that you've purchased, just ignore those instructions because the opposite of what you think will happen, will happen"?

There is a creepy intersection between main plot and subplot, when Steven and Joe somehow manage to get the riding mower all the way up in the hills, where it stops in front of the Riccoli house, and Mrs. Riccoli comes out just in time to offer them a job mowing her property.

Mrs. Riccoli is seriously The Worst: a bad combination of Sharon Schafer and Mrs Barrett from BSC. She's supposed to be a university professor but apparently she isn't organized in any sort of meaningful way and constantly loses things, like her shoes and her keys. She doesn't seem to be that concerned about her five kids, either, leaving them for five hours a day (on weekdays!) in the hands of a couple of 12-year-olds. Seminars don't last five damn hours a day, now, c'mon. AND THEN, when Mr. Riccoli finally comes into town for the weekend, the two of them go off for date night! What the hell!!

Ugh, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. They are terrible, irresponsible parents - almost as assholish as Steve and Joe.

There are mere cameo appearances by Todd and Winston as co-baby-sitters in this story, and Amy is conspicuously absent.

[luxken27]

As terrible as this book is (see below), that was a decent cliffhanger. I kinda want to reach for the next book just to see how the writer get out of this corner, considering that they are implying not only that the twins are trapped in the secret room, but also that Andrew's room is on fire - and so is he!

a little late

[impy]

Sweet mother of mercy, this was just bad. Like the cover is all you need. Admire it, commend them on a purple cover for Jessica (I might've just put that together this year. Whoops.) and keep on trucking because ugh! I really hope this one wasn't written by the same person as the previous book because so many things don't match up.

I thought I was losing my mind when Eva was suddenly a kid-kid instead of the teenager mentioned at the end of the last book (y'know, the cliffhanger?) and yet no, I triple checked and #97's picture wants us to believe Eva's a teen and here she's most definitely not. I'm assuming we're meant to just assume the teen thing was a mistake but dude, I think I'd rather be dealing with a vengeful SV teen Carrie style than firestarter Eva.

SVT Steven is frequently a butt monkey in service to the B plot of comedy but dude, this is a bit much for even him. I know he's too good to be true in SVH but this? Ruining things every time he even gets near the new mower but still refusing to read the instructions? SERIOUSLY? Also, Steve- things are only gonna get worse for you since California has all these extra caution warnings for everything. I still can't visualize how Steve or Joe's legs would be in the way to work the brakes when they're sprawled across the hood of this mower and I'm too lazy to look it up and figure it out. So it will continue to vex me. I did enjoy the visual of Steve and Joe circling the house a billion times and neither of the twins helping and Jessica wanting to record it.

Winston should sue for being made to be an utter ass for his one appearance and I'm not sure managing to catch Gretchen (thus making the cover a liiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee) without even trying makes up for it. Seriously, when telling parents their kid nearly fell to her doom, maybe don't be a jester at that point. And I know Winston knows better than that. :/

The Riccoli parents are the worst. Maybe when the first kid presents with night terrors it would be a good idea to mention that at least two of the others also have things that might pop back up? I kinda get not mentioning Andrew and the matches as that does seem like something he outgrew (and he did, but they don't know that) but Gretchen being a sleepwalker? Fucking mention that to anyone who's going to babysit your kids at night. Even if it's just a "btw, used to do this years ago, shouldn't be a problem, but keep an ear out just in case" kinda deal. I also get the desire for date night but also... maybe spend the weekend with your family and have snuggle time after the kids go to bed?

Amy was smart to sit this one out and I don't blame Todd for calling off his second appearance in the book. $20 (is that per sitter or do they have to split it?) a night ain't worth it.

[impy]

I've actually gotten a few instruction manuals that will go into great detail about How To Do The Thing and then mention that for Model Q, it's the exact opposite. Most are pretty good about making that really obvious in the section though or have different sections for each model. Also, I assumed they were doing that because they were cutting costs by printing just the one manual for everything.

Steven does everything to that riding mower except actually mowing the lawn. *snort*

Clearly Mr. Riccoli goes to the Watson Brewer school of parenting kids you don't see often enough. Must leave them in the care of babysitters for plot even if it makes you look like an ass!

Re: a little late

[luxken27]

commend them on a purple cover for Jessica

I didn't get that until just now, so don't feel bad, LOL.

I still can't visualize how Steve or Joe's legs would be in the way to work the brakes when they're sprawled across the hood of this mower

Yeah, that was one of those things that I didn't think too hard about because WTF. This subplot was already stupid, no need to hurt my brain trying to visualize *all* of the ways it was stupid.

I did enjoy the visual of Steve and Joe circling the house a billion times and neither of the twins helping and Jessica wanting to record it.

YES, that was definitely the best part of this stupid subplot! 😂

The Riccoli parents are the worst.

ARGH, HARD AGREE! WTF is with them just ~forgetting~ to mention important things to their baby-sitters? And WTF with having 12-year-olds watch your kids for 5 HOURS A DAY ON WEEKDAYS AND WHO THE HELL KNOWS HOW LONG ON WEEKENDS?! How are these kids not resentful of their lack of actual parents?? Only in the Valley, I swear!

Amy was smart to sit this one out and I don't blame Todd for calling off his second appearance in the book.

I kinda missed Amy's level-headedness. Hopefully she'll reappear in Book #3. I'll take Winston the Jester over Awkward Todd any day of the week, tho.

Re: a little late

[impy]

Woo! Not the last one on the Jessica revelation and also not the only one unable to visualize the mower brake issue. Huzzah!

I think what this arc needs is Amy writing to Kristy and getting Kristy to show up and muscle this babysitting misadventure into shape. Just imagine how thrilled Claud and Dawn would be to have an actual ghost to investigate? And Mal and Jessi could resent the twins for being in sixth grade but being the mythical ~12~ rarely seen in the 'Brook. If it's late enough in the series, Abby could maybe be the skeptic (or would she be into it?) while Kristy is just SUPER focused on what the hell is going on in the family dynamic and why the hell is Mr. Riccoli just not being with this kids, while MA is there for the kids as she's got experience with firestarters and whatnot. Stacey could go so many different ways on this one (perhaps with an eye on Steven?) and now I'll hush because clearly this just spiraled right out of control.

Re: a little late

[luxken27]

A BSC/SVT crossover is just about the only thing that can save this pathetic miniseries. BSC has form for haunted mansions, too, with Super Mystery #1 which is actually a good book even umpteen years after it was written.