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A review by impybelle
All Night Long by Francine Pascal, Kate William
3.0
I will always love classic SVH. Always. But this book is basically just remembered for the pornstache on the cover (it is, in fact, the picture I used to show my mother what was meant by the term 'pornstache' and she immediately understood) because the contents of the actual book don't matter a damn bit in the long run.
Elizabeth freaks out when Jessica stays out... All Night Long... because it means she has to cover for her twin. Again. I must admit that I will forever love a good Wakefield twin switch and I love that Liz manages to fool her mother and was so out of it as she attempted to work up the courage to pull said switch that she forgot that she'd have to eat two breakfasts. She gets to school, dressed as Jessica, and as far as I can tell doesn't actually go to any real classes? She takes her tour guide test (why is it being given during school hours?) and does reasonably well. She plays up the being confused for Jessica angle by giving Cara a (fictional) rundown of Jessica's outing with Scott, and then freaks out when she realizes that Jessica isn't going to make it in time for her own tour guide test. So Liz takes the test for Jessica and bombs it because she's not a cheater and also she and Todd just kinda broke up when he doesn't mince words when pointing out that Jessica is being selfish and treating Elizabeth rather poorly.
Rule #1 of dating Elizabeth Wakefield (or being her best friend) is that no matter how shitty Jessica has been to you, or is being to Elizabeth, only Liz can talk shit about her. And even that she's going to backpeddle in record time anyway, so don't agree with her or risk her wrath.
This, btw, is insane because at this point in the series both Todd and Enid have exceptionally valid reasons for outright *hating* Jessica but Elizabeth doesn't seem to realize how lucky she is that these two are both content to just bite their tongues 90% of the time and then make a quick sarcastic comment the other 10%.
The kicker for the book is the tour guide thing which is given SO MUCH importance that Elizabeth is willing to compromise her own morals in order to make sure that Jessica has even a shot of getting? Is literally not something that ever happens in the later books. Instead they spend their summers interning at the newspaper for the Thriller series or that time they were au pairs in Malibu. They're never official Sweet Valley tour guides and I, for one, am sad this was never a thing.
OH, and this is also the book that introduces the idea that Lila Fowler's father is someone other than George Fowler. It's included in the little character spotlight thing at the end of the book (Bill Chase is the other, and it's funny that they immediately start off with how handsome he is despite that Enid is given the "girl, please" look when she halfheartedly says she finds him "kinda cute" in the regular part of this book) and then nothing ever comes of it again.
Elizabeth freaks out when Jessica stays out... All Night Long... because it means she has to cover for her twin. Again. I must admit that I will forever love a good Wakefield twin switch and I love that Liz manages to fool her mother and was so out of it as she attempted to work up the courage to pull said switch that she forgot that she'd have to eat two breakfasts. She gets to school, dressed as Jessica, and as far as I can tell doesn't actually go to any real classes? She takes her tour guide test (why is it being given during school hours?) and does reasonably well. She plays up the being confused for Jessica angle by giving Cara a (fictional) rundown of Jessica's outing with Scott, and then freaks out when she realizes that Jessica isn't going to make it in time for her own tour guide test. So Liz takes the test for Jessica and bombs it because she's not a cheater and also she and Todd just kinda broke up when he doesn't mince words when pointing out that Jessica is being selfish and treating Elizabeth rather poorly.
Rule #1 of dating Elizabeth Wakefield (or being her best friend) is that no matter how shitty Jessica has been to you, or is being to Elizabeth, only Liz can talk shit about her. And even that she's going to backpeddle in record time anyway, so don't agree with her or risk her wrath.
This, btw, is insane because at this point in the series both Todd and Enid have exceptionally valid reasons for outright *hating* Jessica but Elizabeth doesn't seem to realize how lucky she is that these two are both content to just bite their tongues 90% of the time and then make a quick sarcastic comment the other 10%.
The kicker for the book is the tour guide thing which is given SO MUCH importance that Elizabeth is willing to compromise her own morals in order to make sure that Jessica has even a shot of getting? Is literally not something that ever happens in the later books. Instead they spend their summers interning at the newspaper for the Thriller series or that time they were au pairs in Malibu. They're never official Sweet Valley tour guides and I, for one, am sad this was never a thing.
OH, and this is also the book that introduces the idea that Lila Fowler's father is someone other than George Fowler. It's included in the little character spotlight thing at the end of the book (Bill Chase is the other, and it's funny that they immediately start off with how handsome he is despite that Enid is given the "girl, please" look when she halfheartedly says she finds him "kinda cute" in the regular part of this book) and then nothing ever comes of it again.