Sweet Valley High Magna Edition: Jessica’s Secret Diary, Volume 1
Jessica’s boyfriend, Jack (who?), tells her he’s really in love with Elizabeth. Jessica decides she hates being a twin and she’s going to run away. As she’s packing her things, she comes across a bunch of diaries that she’s never told anyone about:
First we recap the Jessa Fields incident in #32, The New Jessica. Then the Prince Albert fiasco in #33, Starting Over. There’s a recap of #34, Forbidden Love, even though Jessica is hardly in that one. And then there was Tofu-Glo. The only thing we learn from #35, Out of Control, is that Jessica actually gets stage fright.
In #36, Last Chance, Jessica tries to break up Cara and Steve. While recapping #37, Rumors, Jessica actually uses the phrase “piss off,” which kind of has me floored. During the recap of #38, Leaving Home, Jessica confesses that she’s in love with Jeffrey. Apparently, she pretended to be Liz at one point and asked how he felt about her going to Switzerland. She briefly considered breaking up with him as Liz so she could go out with him as herself while Liz was at Interlochen. But her loyalty won out and she and Steven carried out their horrible plan to keep Liz in the States. After that, we get into #39, Secret Admirer, and hear about Lila and Jessica getting the same guy through The Oracle’s personal ads.
Then, while recapping #40, On the Edge, we learn that Jessica pretended to be Liz and went on a date with Jeffrey. They went for a walk on the beach and then started making out. After a minute, Jeffrey realized he was making out with the wrong twin, but then he pulled Jessica to him and started kissing her again. What a couple of jerkfaces. I always liked Jeffrey, dammit. Then Regina died and that’s pretty much the end of the diary. Jessica realizes she loves her sister and doesn’t really want to run away.
These diaries are super lame.
The Cover: Why are Michael and Maria stuck in there? Who cares about them?
Tags: *Magna Edition, Bad Boyfriends, Jessica: Manipulation, Twin Switch
September 25th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Dude, my copy of this book is so not that awesome. It’s Brittany Daniel wearing a God-awful shade of dark lipstick with “Shh! Don’t tell anybody! — Jessica.” scrawled on the front. FOREVER JEALOUS!
Michael and Maria shouldn’t be A) on the cover, B) in this book or C) in ANY Sweet Valley books. God, the diaries were lame — they were the book equivalent of clip shows. Should’ve been titled “So It’s Come To This — Jessica’s Secret Diary.”
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Shannon Reply:
September 25th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Lorelai, does it look like this? http://shannonsweetvalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Diary-Jessica03-Outer-178×300.jpg
That’s my cover of Volume 3.
The diaries really are super lame. I hate them all.
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September 25th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I’m trying to work out which diaries I’ve read, but I’m pretty sure that they all have exactly the same plot (one of the twins secretly hooked up with the other twins’ bf! Oh noes!) so it’s pretty hard to tell.
Also, at least it kind of makes sense for Liz to have a secret diary. Can you imagine Jessica being bothered to carry on a journal after the first entry?
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Anonymous Reply:
June 15th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Yeah Jessica never seemed the diary type, but in #116 – Nightmare in Death Valley, everyone has journals/diaries.
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September 25th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Helen, that’s pretty much it. They’re all exactly the same. I had the bright idea to read them all one after the other since they don’t really need to be read in chronology with the rest of the series. It was the worst weekend I ever spent, lol.
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September 25th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
How old is Jessica/Daniel twin on that cover? She looks 25!
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September 25th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I don’t know what’s harder to believe Jessica keeps a secret diary or that her diary would be that lame. I expected psychotic rantings, list of every boy she ever “loved” and fun filled stories of all the people she screwed over would be in Jessica’s real secret diary if she ever bothered with it.
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September 25th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Merrie, I know! No way is that chick sixteen.
Lori, it really is way lame. And it’s written exactly like Liz’s. “Dear Diary…” “You’ll never guess what happened, Diary…” It’s so annoying.
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September 25th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Heh, I think my cover is even worse than yours, Shannon:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n16/n80566.jpg
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September 25th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Oh, wow. That lipstick is horrendous on her!
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September 25th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Damn these were lame. Although I do vaguely remember the kiss with Jeffrey and Jessica being sorta hot. Still, not enough to save it from death by lame. AND then the diaries got even more rubbish.
Ugh.
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September 25th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
OMG, when I clicked on Lorelai’s link I gasped out loud! So bad. And I agree with Lori, psychotic rantings would have been much more believable.
This book was so bad, I’m commenting on comments. Ha ha!
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September 25th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Oh and I just read that you had the Sweet Valley game??? That commercial jingle is still in my head. “You can be a Sweet Valley girl, living in a Sweet Valley World”. Followed by “Our school is so cool!”
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September 25th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Oh man, Sandy, I don’t even remember the jingle! Ha ha.
I don’t blame you for commenting on the comments. There’s not much to say about the book except that it’s terrible.
Ash, yeah, the kiss was okay, but as you said, not good enough.
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March 1st, 2010 at 11:06 pm
I sooooo love the thought that Jessica has a diary. That fits right in with her personality type hahaha
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April 11th, 2010 at 5:34 am
So the only time Jess likes to be a twin is when she can switch with Liz to get a guy/sneak out when grounded/get Liz to cover for her (the list can go on) but then when something isn’t an advantage for her she gets all pissy and hates it? Christ I’d love to do a jumanji into the book and punch them both in the face and take over their lives and teach them how “hot twins” are meant to be….I think I kinda like Margo….
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Shannon Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Christ I’d love to do a jumanji into the book and punch them both in the face
Ha! I could fall in love with you based on this comment alone.
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September 25th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
This really was like a book version of a clip show! There was almost no original material in it
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April 7th, 2011 at 1:07 am
Dude….Jessica looks dead up like Annette O’Toole up on that cover up there. If you don’t know who she is, look her up. She was great in Stephen King’s “It” and she’s married to Michael McKean.
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