The first of this year's nostalgic Halloween read-a-longs with Impy. Last year, we read SVT #96-#100, and boy, was that a disappointment. This book, on the other hand, was a grand slam, hit outta the park.

The plot is exactly what it says on the tin: Elizabeth finds a mysterious, ghoulish mask and starts wearing it around the house. Her personality deteriorates at a rather amazing clip, until she's a horribly mean human being - even worse, Jessica thinks, than she is on her "bad" days 😂 Jessica becomes concerned about her twin, especially after Elizabeth starts acting like a horrible bitch even when not wearing the mask. She realizes that it's up to her to save Elizabeth from doing something truly horrendous during the lunar eclipse on Halloween night.

The ghostwriter gets major points for the following:
(1) Steven is not an asshole, and is in fact rather helpful in the climax of the story
(2) Jessica's amazing self-awareness, at age 12, of her own sociopathy
(3) the inclusion of Betsy Martin as a major player in the second half of the story
(4) sticking the landing - unlike last year's miniseries, this one sticks with its supernatural elements, with the bonus of a rather ambiguous ending (did the previous owner of the mask live or die after killing her family?)
(5) THAT COVER OMG

Sweet Valley logic still abounds - witness Steven's astronomy teacher claiming that blood moons don't exist - but there's enough meta here to make up for it. I, for one, appreciate the nods to classic SVH and SVT canon, which are quite rare in the latter part of a series. Reading this makes me want to re-read SVT #3 The Haunted House based on that nostalgia factor alone. ( )