Sweet Valley Twins books have a fine tradition of bullying, so there's no surprise at all to discover that the sixth book in the series involves the entire population of Sweet Valley Middle School ganging up on one girl. She's a new girl, too, which is distinctly reminiscent of book two, but this time the reason for the vendetta is not a pair of scary (read: old and disabled) grandparents, but rather the behaviour of the girl herself. This is what makes The New Girl a much better book than The Haunted House. Brooke Dennis deserves the contempt of her peers. She's a nasty little piece of work, quick to hate everything and everyone in her new town, and very happy to declare her feelings out loud.

If this were an Enid Blyton book, Brooke would be shown the error of her ways through kindness and gentle involvement in the activities of her new school. This is Sweet Valley, however, so the kids decide to teach Brooke a lesson. Jessica invents a third Wakefield sister: Jennifer, the identical triplet of Jess and Liz. The whole school quickly gets involved in the charade, identifying Jennifer by her ever-present hair bow and whispery voice.

As far as putting a mean girl in her place goes, what they do to Brooke is pretty minor. Pretending that the twins are triplets is the kind of thing I can see happening in real life, and the fact that they think the best way to humiliate her is to make her chair collapse is very sixth grade. Okay, it's on her birthday, which is not so nice, given that twelve-year-olds actually care about birthdays. But on the whole, no worse than her calling Jess a cry-baby after ruining what is probably the only school assignment she ever gave a damn about. (And, while we're on the subject, who ever took Jessica for a Nancy Drew fan? It's the eighties, so long before Gossip Girl, but I feel like she would've been more of a Judy Blume girl. Can't you just picture her and Lila giggling about the rude bits in Forever?)

The worst thing that they do to Brooke is make her think that someone actually likes her. For the first time since her mother left, which shows just how unlikeable she's been acting for a very long time. But there's the twist, and it's an expected one if you know anything at all about these books. Brooke is not nasty just because she's a terrible person! She's actually a tortured soul, a poor-little-rich-girl who is lonely because her mother has a new partner and a new baby and her father is a top Hollywood writer who is too busy making money to be around as much as she'd like. So, basically, she's Lila. Minus the style.

Of course, the moment everyone finds this out, they're completely repentant and decide to throw Brooke a surprise birthday party, because now they like her. I don't know about you, but I was not even remotely that evolved at the age of twelve. My response would've been more along the line of “sucks to be her, but she's still a rude cow”. Then again, I never went to school with the daughter of a Hollywood big-shot, so perhaps that's where the difference lies.

It's all quite shallow, but rather enjoyable anyway. It's always good when Liz gets involved with Jessica's dastardly schemes, instead of just tut-tutting from the sidelines. I feel like she's much more genuinely loyal to Jess in the SVT books, and I like that.


Moral of the Story? Nasty people are really just lonely lost souls.

[re-read]

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