Sweet Valley Diaries

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A correction email about ROSA'S LIE and truly the most epically hyperbolic Reader of the Month winner to date! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

When there's an exclamation point in the name of the book, you know it's going to be a good one. But will KIDNAPPED BY THE CULT! ever deliver on the promise of its title? Find out with filmmaker Sam Wineman as he falls in love with every character in Sweet Valley and Marissa dreams up some new cult-themed merch. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Christian Dueñas is back for more on Rose Jameson/Rosa Jimenez. We also imagine an all-boys Jesuit version of Sweet Valley High and read a particularly purple Reader of the Month letter. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Welp, Season 9 is starting with a bang. We've got another racism book on our hands. Thankfully, no one gets hurt this time (though a certain Nana Jimenez would probably be pretty darn hurt if she found out what her granddaughter did with her cake!). Christian Dueñas, host of the brand new music show PRIMER , is our guest and guide through this wild and barely-tolerable tale of Pi Beta Alpha an...

Oh-h My-y God, we've got an EXTREMELY special episode at long last! As only the Super Star books can, BRUCE'S STORY brings you a ridiculous Sweet Valley Saga from the POV of one of its richest and least likable characters. Bruce Patman (or, if you prefer, "Pac-Man") sits at the center of this one, looking really dumb but in a way that's unsettlingly...endearing? Maybe? STRANGE...

Don't forget about the Reader of the Month letter from book 80! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

It's another mis-titled misadventure of random characters, and this time All Time Favorite guest Don Flaxbart is here to simultaneously despise the book and read deep into the twisted heart of its male lead. A thrilling, dirt-bike filled mega finale to Season 8 of Sweet Valley Diaries! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Bryanna McGeough joins Marissa again and shares her criteria for choosing with Sweet Valley books to read and her personal tales of being an Elizabethan high school journalist. Plus, Reader of the Month for October 1991! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

What could be worse than having a twin brother who stole a car? For Sarah Eastborne, the answer is: that twin brother getting clean, being released from his rehab facility, and coming to live with you. Social worker and BSC/SVH reader Briana McGeough joins us to discuss this book, which also shoehorns in some info about 12-step programs. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Claire and Marissa explore the dreamworld of Jessica Wakefield. Plus, a particularly lyrical Reader of the Month essay. Come along, if you choose! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

At long last, we will find out if Scott Trost is as sexist as he seems. Or, we'll at least find out if his TRUE self is sexist. Like, maybe society made him sexist? Or something? Todd will explain it to you, ladies. With special guest Claire Sharood! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

I got my hands on a US edition of CHEATING TO WIN, but it didn't arrive until after last week's extra drama came out. I'm between two short weekend trips, so please accept this dramatic reading as this week's little episode! Follow Sweet Valley Diaries on Instagram and TikTok Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Guest Tabatha Myers tells us about her history with Sweet Valley; then, a close look at the copyright pages of a British edition of CHEATING TO WIN, and a call for ghostwriter intel. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

The latest in our series of Very Special Episodes, this is the one about accidentally being on sports enhancing drugs some shady dude sold you in a baggie. Lifelong SVH reader Tabatha Myers joins Marissa to get super serious on this very serious and seriously handled subject. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Let's rap about the ethical implications of beauty pageants! Plus, the second Reader of the Month wants to make sure you know she doesn't LOOK like a bookworm. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In this book, Jessica asks Elizabeth how being named the prettiest, smartest, and most talented can be demeaning. And she has a point. Kind of. In a book that is both frivolous and substantive, and which is unafraid to let a gray area issue be solidly gray, we find identical twins once again at odds. Denise Boylan joins Marissa to laugh at them. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

More excuses for Amy's behavior, tips for how to look like you're paying attention, and the first ever SVH Reader of the Month! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

"Tennis" anyone? Marissa is joined this week by Brian Duss for a Very Special Episode. Why so special? For starters, we learn Amy Sutton has some hidden depth of character. But mostly it's because we're getting some **sound trumpets** explicitly gay characters! Alas, "explicit" only in one sense of the word. But still. *** Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Mary Kate and Marissa share stories from middle and high school and beyond about the effects of diet culture, generational baggage around eating and weight, and trying not to perpetuate a cycle. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Only the very best of friends agrees to read the Robin books. This week, Marissa's BFF since high school, Mary Kate Battles, is back for more punishment as we watch Robin destroy herself. Fully 70 books after her maltreatment in POWER PLAY, this one attempts to atone for that sin, but fails at every turn, because it's 1991. CW: Eating disorder, body shaming, weight talk. Oh my. Advertising...

Episode 74 has been delayed by a week, so this seemed like a great time to try something new! Marissa catches you up on a character's arc over the series. In this case, Robin Wilson, whose first appearance in Book 4 made a thud so resounding that it's echoed through the entire series. Robin is the star of Book 74, so why not get up to speed by listening to her most recent star turn, in Boo...

As our first Gen Z guest, Phoebe explains the concept of "Warrior Cats" to Marissa. Also, how is Sweet Valley High like the Duggar Family? What's Jessica really up to? And more questions Marissa's guests can't stop asking her/answering for her. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

It's a camera. Regina's legacy is a Nikon film camera. And when you take a photo with the camera, and squint at the negatives just so, maybe you'll see Regina's ghost giving you a thumbs up for thwarting a drug cartel. Phoebe Danaher is here to help Marissa explain all this, and to spotlight our scary, older, date-of-the-month, Chad! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/bra...

All of the name-dropping, none of the star-fucking Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands