Sweet Valley Twins Read Along | Frightening Four Miniseries - #099: The Beast Must Die

[luxken27]

Read-along master post here





Pre-read initial thoughts: Per the cover, it looks like the cliffhanger of the house being on fire with the twins locked in the secret room will play a role in this one - but what sort of cop-out will it be? And we're jumping into the uncanny valley with this idea of "entering the dreams to kill the beast" - makes me wonder who came up with that idea! Jessica couldn't do anything in her previous dream about Eva, what makes them think they can do something in this book?

I'm also curious as to what sort of Wacky Hijinks subplot will be present, and if it, too, will defy belief.

Comments

[impy]

OH COME ON, book! You started kinda strong (in that Steven saved the day and did things that kind of made sense, like immediately calling 911 as soon as he entered the house) and then you decide NOPE. We need to drag the parents in on this, too!

NO. NO. NO.

I honestly don't remember where Alice or Ned grew up but I'm fairly confident in thinking/feeling that the idea of Dyan Sutton, 'Jim' Wilkins (is that even Todd's father's name?) and whatever W name they gave Winston's um... dad? It was his dad in the flashback but they mention his mom being weird when asked about the house, right? I know I have a pretty big sinus headache right now but I'm fairly certain that little cluster of 'wait,what' is actually from the book. Anyway, I will not allow the idea of Alice Wakefield lusting over Todd's father, and not just because I don't think Todd's dad ever comes across all that well in the books past maaaaaaybe Todd moving away in SVH? I know he's actively set up to be an ass in SVT so again, no. NO.

Oddly enough, I would love to read about the adventures of Dyan not!Sutton but whose maiden name I cannot recall.

Steven's weird cheating on Cathy subplot while Joe woos the girl without trying all that hard is... a choice. I guess it's a step up from them not being able to work the mower but not really? I did snort when Karen thought he was talking about coming back the following weekend for work related things and told him he'd have to get her dad's okay for that. She's so not into you, Wakefield, and I'm here for that.

Throw all that together with the insanity of sixth graders babysitting for a weekend and Jessica's brilliant plan being for everyone to sleep for ten minutes at the same time when earlier in the book it was established that FIVE minutes was enough for Eva to work her evil mojo and I swear this book made me lose braincells.

Oh, but I did kinda love Jessica making coffee but not knowing about coffee filters and Amy, who was the one who offered to help, not really getting that coffee that chunky is user error and not an acquired taste. I also do not buy for a second that her mother doesn't drink coffee. Nope. But good effort, Jessica. Todd, if you're so smart, you make the coffee instead of trusting Jessica to do it. :P

[luxken27]

This book made me SO MAD. First of all, your point about leaving five kids under the age of 10 with a bunch of 12-year-olds for the weekend. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ANGRY OMFG. Mr. Riccoli isn't even going to tell his kids in person that they aren't important enough for him to stay with them instead of flying off to his mother-in-law's side? WTF WTF WTF!!

And yeah, Steven got to be the hero in calling 911 but he was back in asshole mode, wanting to scare the twins again. Who goes to mow a lawn at night? That was just a bad angle all around to get out of the whole "the twins are locked in a room in a house that's on fire" corner. No, no, no.

And the subplot with Steven and Joe and Karen (ha! Karen!) was just, barf. I wish we'd had a new subplot for the Wacky Hijinks instead of a continuation of this not-funny-lawncare-business. I'm surprised Steven didn't accidentally shred the check when he was trying to get away from Joe in the end. And let's not even get into being stopped by the police. Whyyyyyyyyyyy weren't they stopped in the last book when they were careening down the roadway? Ugh ugh ugh.

Let's see, back to the Riccolis being awful parents. Gotta love Mrs. Riccoli being all, "we asked the neighbors to check in on you but we didn't want to saddle them with our kids because they have young kids themselves" like really?? So instead you're going to saddle them with checking in on 12-year-olds staying by themselves with your kids? What kind of logic is this? Why can't the monster kill her instead of the twins??

And since when did freaky stuff only happen when Liz and Jess were at the house? Todd and Winston and Amy were all present before when weird stuff happened, but now suddenly they're having to be convinced that the house is spooky?

And dear ghostwriter, please to be learning about how sleep and dreams actually work. You don't dream until you're in REM-stage sleep, the deepest sleep, which takes more than 5-10 minutes to achieve. And lucid dreaming (keyword: DREAMING) is the same. This whole plot is just absolutely awful. Even 12-year-old me would've been side-eyeing this business.

Per the back cover summaries, they were supposed to have defeated the monster in this book, but obviously they haven't.

And yeah, the parents storyline is - YUCK! This is the first I've read about Alice having the hots for Todd's dad (gross!) and I'm pretty sure Amy's mother is not a native of Sweet Valley. No idea about Winston's dad, but that's just too pat and convenient for this to be some sort of next-generation bullshit, revenge for mommy's mistakes. And if these parents are all worried about their kids baby-sitting at this house, why won't they tell them why they are so concerned? Dumb, dumb, dumb all around.