Sweet Valley High Magna Edition: Jessica’s Secret Diary, Volume 3
Synopsis:
Jessica breaks up with a guy named Michael Lewis because he wants to go steady. Then she doesn’t have a date for the dance on Friday. She stays home and Alice gives her a tape to watch. It’s a movie called Checkered Houses by Charles Sampson. I have no idea why, but Jessica starts crying. She runs up to her room and starts reading her old journals.
83: Steven’s Bride – Cara moves to London.
84. The Stolen Diary – Kris Lynch is an ass. No new information.
85. Soap Star – The twins guest star on a soap opera, which puts a strain on Jessica’s relationship with Sam. The day after they stop filming, Jessica is stopped in the street by a guy named Charles Sampson. He says he wants to make her famous and gives her a business card. Jessica tucks the card into her diary.
86. Jessica Against Bruce – Jessica gives in and calls Charles Sampson. They meet at a coffee shop and he says he’s a movie director. He wants to cast Jessica as the lead in a movie he’s trying to get financing for. Jessica turns him down because she doesn’t want to further jeopardize her relationship with Sam. She joins Bruce’s stupid club and gets distracted for a while, and then she starts thinking about Charles’ movie again.
87. My Best Friend’s Boyfriend – Sam cancels a date with Jessica, so she calls Charles. They meet and talk a little about the movie. Jessica is definitely interested. Then she talks to Sam about it in a hypothetical way. Sam says he would want to break up if Jessica got involved in another professional acting project.
88. Love Letters for Sale – Jessica reads the script for Checkered Houses and decides she really wants to do the movie. She sneaks out of the house one night to meet Charles at a party in Malibu. The next day, Sam says he came by the house after midnight and threw pebbles at her window, but she never opened it and the Jeep was gone. Jessica lies and says she spent the night at Lila’s.
89. Elizabeth Betrayed – Sam starts to suspect Jessica is hiding something. Jessica goes to Charles and tells him she can’t do the movie. Charles kisses her in response. Jessica pushes him away and leaves.
90. Don’t Go Home with John – Jessica worries about Lila.
91. In Love with a Prince – Lila goes nuts trying to get Prince Arthur to like her. Jessica worries about her. After Arthur leaves town, Jessica wishes she could work on Charles’ movie, but she’s glad she has Sam.
92. She’s Not What She Seems – Jessica is stalked by a crazy chick.
93. Stepsisters – Annie and Cheryl move into the house next door. Jessica gets a call from Charles. He says he has potential financing for the movie, but the company wants to see a read-through. Jessica says she’ll do it. After the reading, she tells Charles she wants to be in the movie. Charles is driving Jessica home when his car breaks down on a deserted back road. He and Jessica camp out for the night. Charles tells Jessica he’s in love with her. Jessica says she can’t do the movie.
94. Are We in Love? – Charles sends Jessica a letter to tell her Sam is a lucky guy.
Epilogue: Jessica misses Sam.
The Cover: I don’t understand what any of those things have to do with what I just read.
Tags: *Magna Edition
December 9th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Don’t go home with John. A classic. It’s totally reminding me of the song title, Don’t mess with Bill.
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Shannon Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 8:43 am
And now I’m thinking of Jim Croce’s You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.
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Lindsay Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Uptown got its hustler, bowrey got its bums…
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Shannon Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Forty-Second Street got big Jim Walker, he’s a pool shootin’ son of a gun…
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December 9th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I need to track one of these diaries down so that next time I have trouble sleeping I can start reading it and instantlzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Shannon Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Really, I could hardly stay awake.
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December 9th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
“The Cover: I don’t understand what any of those things have to do with what I just read.” Haha — it IS a mystery!
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December 9th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Geez, what a snooze fest! Isn’t Jessica suppose to be the exciting, rebel twin?
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Lindsay Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Seriously
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Shannon Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 8:44 am
I thought so, too.
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December 10th, 2009 at 12:35 am
The way-too-old Bruce Patman from the TV show has a cover! I’m ridiculously excited about that!
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December 10th, 2009 at 3:31 am
I wonder if the ghostwriters thought they were doing Sam’s fans a favour by starring him (in flashback/journal entries) in these 2 Secret Diaries. You readers miss him? So do the twins! Let’s go back in time and give you more Sam! And then the proceed to character-assasinate him (’cause he needs to be killed some more) by revealing he was into Liz first (ewww…why *do* the twins always have to date eachothers’ boyfriends? It’s sick!), and was a controlling, unreasonable, ultimatum-delivering boyfriend to Jessica – who, for all he knew, was destined to be a great actress someday and Sam really had no right to stand in the way of her career, y’know?
Oh Shannon, I admire you so. Stay brave and snarky! (Recapping Gilmore Girls must be a relief, eh? But I can’t go read those recaps because I’ve only seen certain episodes here and there on tv, and never saw all of season one, although I *do* own all the dvds – that’s how much my random spotty tv viewing impressed me
– and plan to watch ‘em all in order someday when I have more time. So, no recap-spoilage for me.)
Of course, I haven’t read *all* the Sweet Valley books (and definitely not in order) either…but somehow I don’t feel the same way about that series.
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Lindsay Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 6:18 am
Yeah, that ultimatum crap is BS. Why couldn’t they have just let Sam rest in peace like he deserves after dating a crazy sociopath and getting killed by a condescending do-gooder.
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Shannon Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Poor Sam. He was so cool before he died.
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Shannon Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Everything you said was spot on. He’s really shown in a terrible light in these diaries. What’s the point of that? Are we supposed to be okay with him dying now because, well, turns out he was an asshole anyway?
Thanks for reading, Christine! I hope you’ll check out the Gilmore Girls blog (which is, in fact, a relief) after you’ve watched some more of the show.
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December 11th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Um, what are the twins running from on the cover?
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Shannon Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I have NO earthly idea. They just threw together a bunch of pictures and, I don’t know, figured there are enough books about the twins running for their lives that it was a pretty good chance that happened in this book. Unfortunately, they were wrong.
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Kate Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
Ha! That was my exact question too! You read my mind.
Jessica also runs like a freak.
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