Thank you Netgalley and Dynamite Entertainment for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Back when I was in junior high and high school, I read through as many of the Sweet Valley High books as I could get my hands on. I really enjoyed the fact that the books tackled some hard hitting topics which was something that I didn't see too often in the books I read back then. So when I saw this book on Netgalley I knew that I needed to read it and see if the graphic novel would live up to the old books.

For me, Sweet Valley High: Academic All-Stars did feel reminiscent to the old series but I wasn't completely sold on it. If I had to rate the book solely on if it did the original series justice I would probably give it a 4 or 4.5 out of 5 stars but my overall reading experience holds me back from wanting to give this book 4 stars.

The thing that mostly holds me back from wanting to give it 4 stars is the fact that while I enjoyed the art and I enjoyed the plot (for the most part) I felt that the two did not fit well together. For me the art style is closer to what I would expect from old comics but the content of the story tackles topics that are being dealt with in today's time. I think I would have ideally liked either the graphic style to be updated to the style more common today to fit in with the topics covered or the topics to be more along the lines of what the original series covered instead of being updated. In my mind, the art style lead me to believe that this story was probably taking place closer to 20 years ago instead of now.

Also it has been quite some time since I've read the series, so maybe this next point is just due to me forgetting things, but I absolutely hated Todd's character in this story and I remember loving him and Elizabeth when I originally read the series. Again this might be from me forgetting things and not seeing how overbearing he was as a boyfriend to Elizabeth but I feel like if they really had been together since sixth grade he wouldn't be as jealous of Elizabeth doing the things that means so much to her and he would probably believe her and her story instead of discounting anything she had to say.

Jessica was pretty true to character from what I do remember her being like in the original series so that was really nice to see. Of course that doesn't mean that I really care for her character at all, or at least not the way she acts like the world only revolves around being with a boy and needing to capture his attention. I feel like since they updated the overall content of the story including some more hard hitting topics from today that the characters could also be updated to what girls are like and look up to today.

The overall feel and flow of the story was really great though and I was never left confused over any details. I also feel like this first graphic novel did a great job of setting up what is to come in the next.

As an ardent Sweet Valley fan as a kid I read this hoping for some fun nostalgia, but I found the story a little flat and lacking spark. The story focused on Jessica's crush on her adult TA and Liz's boyfriend troubles, both elements of which were fine but unmemorable, and the same could be said for the art. Agreeable enough but not as fun as other recent 80s/90s reboots like Nancy Drew and Jem and the Holograms.

If you were of a certain impressionable age twenty some years ago, chances are you're very familiar with Sweet Valley High, the naughtier counterpart to Babysitter's Club. I was highly anticipating a nostalgic stroll with Jess and Liz, and this somewhat delivered. The different format is a fun concept, and one I think will resonate with younger readers who are just being introduced to the world, but for me it fell flat. The art, in particular, was very hit or miss, sometimes to the point of distracting from the storyline. The characters could go from looking like fresh faced teens who regularly use pore strips to washed out 40 somethings within the same page. Overall, the jaunt back to Sweet Valley was enjoyable and I loved the tongue in cheek references to the older stories and original fanbase and hope to see additional installments. In the meantime, I'll be purchasing a copy for my twelve year old for Christmas.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance ecopy. This did not influence my review.

I knew this would be cheesy, but it was even worse than I imagined. YA books from the time of the original Sweet Valley High were much more simple and innocent; so much more complex now. They were exact lines taken from Mean Girls here, the drawings were pretty awful...I just wasn't into it. I don't think we will be purchasing at my high school library.

On impulse, I requested this from Netgalley, so I read this as an advanced reader ebook. The copy had horrendous resolution, so I can say that the art seemed canned, I can't tell definitively because of the publisher's decision to discourage pirating by making the image quality poor.

This was okay, but not for me. As a caveat, I didn't grow up reading the Sweet Valley High books. I was a little bit too young to read them when they were at peak popularity, but I did enjoy the Sweet Valley Kids series when I was in elementary school. It could be that I'm now too old to enjoy this title, and I don't have nostalgia to make this title more appealing. Both Elizabeth and Jessica were annoying, and this didn't seem particularly woke or relevant for 2019. The only update seems to be that there are smartphones and social media. Other than that, it still pushes traditional gender roles (except some comments about gender binaries when Jessica is in her Shakespeare class, and Jessica quoting "Teen Femme," which was probably supposed to be a stand-in for "Teen Vogue," that felt like the author's demand for a woke cookie). While some people might say that worrying about outfits, boys, and gaining weight are normal preoccupations of teen girls, this felt ick to me. Plus, I don't really need a title in my life that is about twin blonde white wealthy cishet teenage girls with peak privilege, complete with vapid brand name-dropping. Disney Channel has been doing a better job of telling more inclusive, but family-friend and child-appropriate programming, for years...

As someone who grew up reading and loving the Sweet Valley High books, I was super stoked to find out it was being rebooted into a modern day graphic novel, and after reading it, I honestly have mixed opinions on how I feel about it. I liked the graphics and artwork, the story was very cliche but still enjoyable and left me wanting to already pick up the next one in the series. I did however feel confused several times by the story line and trying to keep track of which one was Jessica and which one is Elizabeth, since they are twins and in my opinion this took away from the story.

Sweet Valley High is given a modern graphic novel make-over with booksmart Elizabeth and boy crazy Jessica.

Ehhh….so this wasn’t all that and a bag of chips.

Granted, I’m a couple years younger than the Sweet Valley High audience. While I did read the books, I want to say that I read them in fourth grade? Fifth grade? So I was a little younger than the target audience…and I haven’t read them since.

It’s summer and Elizabeth is juggling her volunteer work (so many!) and lifeguarding job and boyfriend, while said boyfriend is getting jealous over the little amount of time Elizabeth has reserved for him.

Meanwhile, Jessica is stuck in summer school at the local college, but is playing it up by pretending to be dating her hot TA. While this has been updated from the original (I can’t remember if she actually dated him or was just pretending), it was still really cringe-worthy in this year of Beyoncé 2019 for a 16-year-old to be dating her adult TA, even if Elizabeth calls out the attraction/potential dating for what it was—super creepy.

In addition to the dating the professor trope, I wasn’t bowled over by the illustrations. It felt very…80s. Which was nostalgic, but was a sharp contrast when they start talking about instagram and snapchat and there are these super dated illustrations. I dunno.

Finally, the nail in the coffin of my dislike were several blatant Mean Girls quotes that weren’t even credited back to Mean Girls!

Ultimately, I was not impressed by this—and I had been super excited to see Sweet Valley High updated!

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

I thought this one was just ok. I think if I were a teen I would have enjoyed this one more.

I do recommend this and I will be recommending this one to my niece.

After spending much time, effort and money going through an ‘if I could turn back time’ phase several years ago collecting The Baby-Sitters Club books, I turned my attention to another set of childhood memories, those involving Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield. After more time, effort, money and an entire box full of Sweet Valley High books later I realised how impossibly large the task I’d set for myself really was.

It turns out Sweet Valley High series not only contained over 150 books, but it also had multiple Super Editions, Super Thrillers, Super Stars, Magna Editions and TV Editions. Then there were the plethora of spinoffs, which themselves oftentimes had their own special editions:
* Sweet Valley Kids with Super Snoopers, Hair Raiser Super Special and Super Specials
* Sweet Valley Twins with Super Editions, Super Chillers, Magna Editions, The Unicorn Club and Team Sweet Valley
* Sweet Valley Junior High
* Sweet Valley High Senior Year
* Sweet Valley University with Super Thrillers
* Elizabeth
* Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later
* The Sweet Life.

Eek! When I encountered these apparently never ending lists I reluctantly admitted defeat. I had to consider my sanity, budget and let’s not forget the need for magical, never ending bookcases. Then there was the fact that I hadn’t read a single SVH book since the 90’s so who knew if I’d even enjoy them as an adult!

So here we are, several years later and I still haven’t picked up my second hand copy of ‘Double Love’ yet. Stumbling upon this graphic novel feels like cheating in a way but what a fun way to figure out if a SVH readathon will be in my near future or not.

I remember feeling so grown up reading the early books in the series on the beach as a pre-teen and having in depth conversations with friends about whether we were Jessica’s or Elizabeth’s. I always aspired to be like Elizabeth because she was the smart yet still gorgeous twin, the one who liked reading (what a surprise!) and I also aspired to find my own Todd. What was I thinking?! I don’t remember him being so vapid, whingey and clingy. Ugh! Run, Elizabeth, run! Run as fast as you can!

Meanwhile, Jessica is being typical Jessica. She missed too many English classes so she has to take a class at Sweet Valley University, where the boys are older and much more mature than high school boys. Naturally the one she’s interested in is a T.A. Never one to shy away from manipulating a situation for her own benefit, Jessica decides she needs to dress more like Elizabeth so she can appear smarter and get her man!

As usual, Jessica is in love with the idea of being in love but there’s more to this crush than meets the eye. I seem to recall boy trouble and twin swaps being fairly consistent plot points in the original series and they’re front and centre here as well.

Jessica and her friends mention the Boosters several times, which is weird as this is Sweet Valley High. As far as I knew the Boosters were the Sweet Valley Middle School cheerleading squad from Sweet Valley Twins, not the high school one, whose name (if they had one) escapes me.

I wasn’t entirely sure about the introduction of modern technology in Sweet Valley but I didn’t mind after I got used to it. I even liked Jessica’s Instagram name: DEVILINABLUEJESS.

It may be due to the nature of the format or perhaps time has dampened my recollections but all of the characters’ personalities seem amplified in this graphic novel and it makes for a fun, dramatic read. When I was about halfway through the story I wasn’t sure I’d want to continue but with the introduction of a new boy (of course he’s cute! Isn’t that one of the prerequisites for living in Sweet Valley?) and some deviously unanswered questions dangling in the air I think I’ve accidentally gotten hooked. I’ll be there for the next installment and I expect to have as much nostalgic fun as I did during this one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Dynamite Entertainment and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

As a big fan of all things Sweet Valley growing up and a big fan now of graphic novels and comics, I was so excited when I heard there was a Sweet Valley graphic novel coming out! It's summer time and Jessica has to take an English course in Sweet Valley University to catch up. Though she doesn't mind, as her teaching assistant is hot! Her identical twin sister Elizabeth meanwhile is incredibly busy with extra circular activities that'll help boost her college application. Her boyfriend Todd is frustrated and annoyed that she doesn't seem to have time for him. When Jessica starts to show off her new relationship with her TA on social media, Elizabeth is shocked and decides to investigate if this is true.

I feel like parts of the story definitely felt like they were true to the original series. I know some reviews have said they don't like Jessica pretending to go out with an older man and how it could have ruined his life but honestly I think this is very like Jessica Wakefield. In the original series, she really didn't care about the consequences her actions had for other people. The Elizabeth and Todd storyline felt authentic too, a case of crossed wires, miscommunication and Todd being a selfish hothead! I think the story was stretched out a bit though. Other things felt a bit off about the story. There were some things that weren't in line with the original series (the cheerleading called being called The Boosters for example, that was the name of the cheerleaders in Sweet Valley Twins in middle school. Jessica's bedroom in the series is known as The Hershey Bar as it's brown but it's not that colour in this). The twins' friends seemed off as well, maybe just not well rounded enough. I don't think we saw them enough though. The book is also set in modern times, with Snapchat and Instagram being used. I personally didn't mind this, it felt like it updated the series a bit. And there were some subtle nods to different pop culture references, the Mean Girls one comes to mind.

Overall I enjoyed it, I would be interested in continuing on with the series. A fun addition to the Sweet Valley universe

Reading this is sort of a nostalgia trip, but not in as good as way as I thought. In trying to bring the sorts of stories that Sweet Valley High is known for, screaming and kicking into the 21st century, there are some odd moments, such as the use of social media, and the drumming into the story that under age girls should not have relationships with older men.

For those who never read the series, I'm not sure if they would be bothered by the updates, and think of this as a typical story, and have fun with the antics of the twins.

For me, I like better, how the Baby Sitters Club graphic novelization has been handled, keeping it firmly in the 1990s, from where it sprang.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I had high expectations for this one, because I'm one of those women in her thirties who read every possibly Sweet Valley book she could. Unfortunately, it did not live up to those expectations.

Yes, it's a book for teens but it felt very dumb and trying to be hip at times. The writing was cliche and full of phrases we've heard in other media about teens. The attempt at bringing social media and Internet speak into the book felt very heavy-handed. It almost felt like a satire at times weirdly enough. I don't know if I'd recommend this to any actual teens but probably adults who read Sweet Valley in their youth and want to revisit the twins in a more modern retelling.

The only thing keeping me from giving it one star was that I actually liked the artwork, it went well with the story, and the ending did intrigue me. If the whole book had been about that scenario as opposed to what it was, I probably would've liked it a lot more.

This was kind of fun to read since I used to read the books as a teenager, but the writer literally stole some dialogue from Mean Girls (“Is butter a carb?”) and the story was just dumb, spoiled-kid drama. Not my cup of tea.

Graphic novels are a growing market and this cute, fun story will find a home there. The Wakefield twins have always been entertaining, and this updated version, where huge parts of the story are driven by text or Instagram, is perfect for children today. I hope I get to read the next installment, because it ends on a cliffhanger!

The art work is lovely in this, with right, attractive colours and distinct looks for everyone. Even Liz and Jess manage to look different enough to make it easy to follow. This is a lovely package and will hopefully do well enough to start a whole new series.


Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.

This is the first time I have ever read a Sweet Valley High book. I enjoyed it, especially as it had good art work and I loved how it was modern, with smartphones and social media woven into it. The story itself was interesting and would be good for young people. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

I knew I had to read this as soon as I saw it. Like most girls who grew up in the 90’s, I loved the Sweet Valley High series. The updated graphic novel format succeeds in scratching a nostalgic itch, but I feel like the book maybe made fun of itself too much. I wonder if a brand new reader would have the same reaction because it’s hard to approach it objectively when I have so many memories of how the characters and situations are supposed to be based on something I read decades ago. I still recommend this to adults who enjoyed the original series although I probably won’t read more in the series beyond this.

Fun fact about me: though I loved and greedily read through the <i>Sweet Valley University</i> series when I was 8-10 years old, I never actually read the <i>Sweet Valley High </i>books. As a result, it should come as no surprise that I liked Tom far more than I ever liked Todd. The experiences that I shared initially with the Wakefield twins that prompted me to request the newly adapted graphic novel <i>Sweet Valley High: Academic All-Star? </i>by Katy Rex, Andres Genolet, and illustrated by Devaki Neogi from NetGalley were all their college ones. Therefore, getting thrown back into Jessica and Elizabeth's world with many characters I recognized but in completely different points in their lives was interesting. I was thrilled to see, though, that as always I still identified very strongly with Elizabeth, a girl whose name matched my middle one and resulted in that connection feeling even stronger.

The Wakefield twins are back, Elizabeth biting off far more than she can chew with all of her academic and philanthropic projects alongside trying to still make sure she has time for her boyfriend and Jessica acting like her usual boy crazy self and going after a guy far too old for her, her summer school teacher. Very quickly, as you enter this story, you feel like you're back in the world that you remember from before with characters you never really forgot. I was amazed by how brilliantly the characters were captured right from the get go. And the really brilliant thing about this graphic novel is that the world was updated for modern times.

We're not just reading about Elizabeth and Jessica, we're reading about them as they would be if they'd had smart phones and Instagram back when they were teenagers. Phones and texting is a constant piece and it should come as no surprise that Jessica is rather attached to posting her entire life online. And while this adapted piece wasn't the centerfold of the story, it was really fun to see how the lives of these two girls changed just a little bit with that technology. And as the <i>Sweet Valley High </i>series grows older, it's nice to see it modified to bring in a new generation of readers.

The artwork is pretty and accurate. It really does an amazing job of moving the story along and I loved seeing all these characters among the pages rather than just across the cover. The story is pretty typical for the characters, matching everyone quite well. I admittedly have moved far past these kind of stories, but it was nice to take a step back to remember what I did love way back when.

I did really enjoy this story. It definitely brought me back to the days of my childhood when I was reading books that were definitely discussing topics a bit too advanced for someone so young. It was a light and fluffy read that I'm really glad to have gotten the chance to read and does somewhat make me wish that I had all those books still--unfortunately, they were passed on to other readers through a thrift shop some time ago. Fun and quick, this is a book that anyone who loves the twins will enjoy reading. And as for new readers, I hope they enjoy it as well.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

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I've been a massive fan of the Sweet Valley world for as long as I've been alive. God, I sound old. So when I saw that Net Galley had this ARC of this graphic novel of Sweet Valley re-imagined in the modern day, I had to download it. Thank goodness for the 'read now' feature.
I read this in one sitting, and it's so nice to see the Wakefield twins in graphic novel form.

The story reads true to the old Sweet Valley High books - Jessica is Jessica and Elizabeth is forever the overachiever.
The pacing was great, the artwork was fantastic.

The pop-culture references were hilarious and on-point, and it made me enjoy the story even more.

I'm definitely going to get a physical copy when this comes out, and I am eagerly awaiting the next instalment!

4/5 stars

Maybe I was hoping to relive my youth by reading this .

I loved the SVH books when I was a teen, but this just fell short of the mark for me.

My daughter read this and she said that while the storyline was pretty good, she would’ve liked to maybe have seen more to the illustrations. She said that they were kind of fuzzy to her.