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impybelle's review
2.0
What. The. Hell?
First off, the cover is too awesome for the contents of this book. Second, so much wtf and so little time.
Did you ever think it was just not believable that parents would leave their kids with the BSC in super specials overnight? I know some of you did because I had to slog through many a review that said just that.
The Riccoli parents are the absolute worst and should perhaps be under investigation if for nothing else other than what they choose to do at the start of the book. When your kid nearly burns down his room/the house/everyone inside, you don't leave the very same babysitters who were there for this catastrophe in charge of your kids (including the firestarter!) to skip across the country. You don't. I get that Mrs. Riccoli's mother is ill and needs her daughter, but Mr. Riccoli also left to go to Florida. If the dude could leave where he was, he could have just spent the weekend in Sweet Valley watching his kids. Or they could've dragged everyone along. Or at the very least, begged Ned and Alice to let the kids stay at Casa Wakefield. I know babysitting plots require a serious suspension of disbelief but even younger!me would've thought this insane. Which is probably why I remember NOTHING about this arc beyond the memory of finding them and haunting Kmart for the next one. The covers are amazing.
I also can't accept this weird retcon of SV lore where Todd's father (pretty sure his name isn't Jim), Amy's mother, and Winston's father (but why is his mother the one acting squirrelly?) were all super best friends with Alice when they were kids. I really hate Eva's parents guilt tripping poor Alice into giving up her Halloween to babysit their kid so they can go to a party. Annnnnnnnnd I super hate that they're stretching this flashback out over four books.
Steven continues to be the worst, only moreso because I'd forgotten that he's got a girlfriend which means him chasing after his new client's daughter is just eye-rolling at best. His best moment is at the start of the book when he saves the day but even that only happens because he's set out to scare his sisters- AGAIN.
All of this and we haven't even really hit the WTF moment of the monster haunting everyone's dreams in no time at all, so the solution is to have everyone fall asleep at the same time. I... really? Not sleeping in rounds or trading shifts like the night before or something else that doesn't hinge on there not being a power outage or someone knocking the alarm a little too hard? Really?
I know plot has to plot but geez.
Unexpected takeaway from this book- I would read a book about plucky Dyan not!Sutton and her adventures. I'm not sure why, but I would.
First off, the cover is too awesome for the contents of this book. Second, so much wtf and so little time.
Did you ever think it was just not believable that parents would leave their kids with the BSC in super specials overnight? I know some of you did because I had to slog through many a review that said just that.
The Riccoli parents are the absolute worst and should perhaps be under investigation if for nothing else other than what they choose to do at the start of the book. When your kid nearly burns down his room/the house/everyone inside, you don't leave the very same babysitters who were there for this catastrophe in charge of your kids (including the firestarter!) to skip across the country. You don't. I get that Mrs. Riccoli's mother is ill and needs her daughter, but Mr. Riccoli also left to go to Florida. If the dude could leave where he was, he could have just spent the weekend in Sweet Valley watching his kids. Or they could've dragged everyone along. Or at the very least, begged Ned and Alice to let the kids stay at Casa Wakefield. I know babysitting plots require a serious suspension of disbelief but even younger!me would've thought this insane. Which is probably why I remember NOTHING about this arc beyond the memory of finding them and haunting Kmart for the next one. The covers are amazing.
I also can't accept this weird retcon of SV lore where Todd's father (pretty sure his name isn't Jim), Amy's mother, and Winston's father (but why is his mother the one acting squirrelly?) were all super best friends with Alice when they were kids. I really hate Eva's parents guilt tripping poor Alice into giving up her Halloween to babysit their kid so they can go to a party. Annnnnnnnnd I super hate that they're stretching this flashback out over four books.
Steven continues to be the worst, only moreso because I'd forgotten that he's got a girlfriend which means him chasing after his new client's daughter is just eye-rolling at best. His best moment is at the start of the book when he saves the day but even that only happens because he's set out to scare his sisters- AGAIN.
All of this and we haven't even really hit the WTF moment of the monster haunting everyone's dreams in no time at all, so the solution is to have everyone fall asleep at the same time. I... really? Not sleeping in rounds or trading shifts like the night before or something else that doesn't hinge on there not being a power outage or someone knocking the alarm a little too hard? Really?
I know plot has to plot but geez.
Unexpected takeaway from this book- I would read a book about plucky Dyan not!Sutton and her adventures. I'm not sure why, but I would.
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