This is a new retelling of a story I am so fond of. Jessica and Elizabeth have always been 2 of my favorite book characters. This took me back to my childhood and had me giggling and smiling throughout. The graphic novel of SVH was different but good. I will always have warm memories about the girls, their family and their friends!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for sending me an advanced e-copy of “Sweet Valley High: Academic All-Star” in exchange for my review.

I have to admit, Sweet Valley High used to be a guilty pleasure when I was growing up. Even though I have not read all the books in the original series, I have read quite a few to know the characters and the situations. Having said that, this comic revamp was a lot of fun to read and does not disappoint!

The characters still have the same personalities, but they are updated for the present world of social media. Jessica and Elizabeth are still the same beautiful twins going through the perfect life with turbulent friendships and boyfriend drama. Jessica’s story-line of falling for the teaching assistant was much more interesting than Elizabeth’s drama with Todd. It was a little creepy to see the lengths at which Jessica would go to get what she wants.

I thought the illustrations were average. I felt like the sisters did not look really beautiful and came off as a bit trashy, even Elizabeth. The colors also did not feel vibrant enough for the book to stand out. I think the book would have been perfect if they illustrations were crisper. However, I liked the angles in which the panels were drawn, like showing the dialogue through chat windows.

As always, the book ends with a beginning of a new story-line, which makes me want to read the next book once it is published. Overall, I loved reading this for the most part and think it is a great way to restart the series. It gave me the nostalgic feeling of reading the old series, but made it fresher for new generation of readers to relate to. I think this series will go a long way and it would be interesting to see how it turns out.

This updated millennial retelling of Sweet Valley High Twins Jessica and Elizabeth was super enjoyable. I think that it was great to discuss flaunting on social media and creating a fake life, I would have liked to have seen more diversity with their friends though!

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

Sweet Valley High holds a special place in my heart. I used to love reading the novels growing up. The graphic novel was okay but I was not a huge fan of the style or the plot. And Todd got my nerves the whole time XD

When I was a kid it was the biggest treat when my Grandpa would take me out to the diner for pie and we would stop at the bookstore and he would buy me a Sweet Valley High book. My associations with this series are so tied into those memories that I can’t help feeling warm and fuzzy about it. This was about 30 years ago so I was curious how my deep love for SVH would hold up and how the stories would be updated. I was hoping for a diverse, feminist take on the Wakefield twins similar to the new Jem and Nancy Drew series.

The art style and colouring were just OK. It was nothing especially beautiful or interesting but it got the story across just fine. I appreciate that the girls weren’t overly sexualized. They are sixteen after all and I didn’t want to see a focus on T & A. Thankfully the depictions are age appropriate.

The storyline was a bit of a miss for me. It’s great that this tackles the perils of social media and the contrast between Instagram image and reality. It’s certainly a timely, relevant topic. I was a little squicked out by the “affair” between Jessica and her adult T.A. but Elizabeth was suitably vocal and outraged so it was not presented as an ordinary relationship. For both of the twins their relationships with boys seemed to be a defining feature of their lives. Yes, I remember what it was like to be sixteen and this was completely true but I guess I was hoping for something a little deeper from the story, not just “boy trouble.” Yes, Elizabeth has a lot of other things in her life and is kind of amazing but it feels like she is a bit of a failure because her boyfriend doesn’t feel that she makes time for him. When did Todd become such a jerk anyway? I remember book Todd as being the perfect boyfriend, and maybe for my ten year old self he was a dream but this Todd is far from ideal. He’s awful and I’m crushed!

I don’t know if my fond childhood memories glossed over the issues with SVH and if I went in to this with super high expectations that could never be met but I was disappointed. I think there was the potential to do so much more with these characters and the opportunity to be really modern and progressive was not taken. It wasn’t a terrible graphic novel by any means but it could have been so much more.

Thank you to Diamond Book Distributors and Dynamite Entertainment for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

Oh my childhood! This was so much fun! A blast from the past, that truly reads as one of the 1980's young adult novels. However this graphic novel is updated for the new generation and shows the twins texting and using Instagram! This wasn't perfect but so much better than the adult follow up "Sweet Valley Confidential" which essentially distorted the beloved characters beyond recognition. I truly enjoyed this one and I kinda love that it is marked as book#1.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

I'm not going to lie, I LOVED Sweet Valley High books when I was in elementary school and junior high, so when I saw this on Netgalley I got SO excited. This is as good as the original with our twin sisters getting into trouble, however, this is definitely updated with the technology that is around today and how THAT can get you into trouble too. This was a fun troublesome twin adventure and I am excited what more is in store with Sweet Valley High coming back into my life!

The new Sweet Valley High graphic novel takes an updated approach to the ongoing drama of the infamous Wakefield twins. Anyone who remembers the stories from the 80's and 90's will probably catch a few continuity errors. For example, Jessica refers to her high school cheerleading squad as the Boosters, but that was actually the name of the middle school cheer squad in the Sweet Valley Twins series, not the name of the Sweet Valley High cheer squad. Also, Amy Sutton is supposed to have ash blond hair, not brown. But continuity was always as issue in these books (as anyone who read the adult sequel, Sweet Valley Confidential, will tell you), so really, not much has changed, except now everyone has smart phones and social media accounts.

In this story, Jessica develops a crush on a teaching assistant. She convinces herself that this guy is The One, just as she did in just about every installment of the original series. Elizabeth, meanwhile, is volunteering in a variety of of do-gooder initiatives, which creates some friction with on-again, off-again boyfriend Todd, who feels she should devote more time to him. Elizabeth could be pretty sanctimonious in the classic series, and I suspect the writers of this graphic novel were poking fun at her self-righteousness.

Of course, no Sweet Valley story is complete without a twin switch or a misunderstanding based on confused identities. Naturally everything works out for the twins in the end. But the story leaves some loose ends dangling, with the promise of more drama to come--which is just the way I like it. Hopefully this graphic novel series will continue with future installments. I have missed Lila Fowler bragging about all the presents her rich father has bought her.

Also, I am still holding out for another installment of the adult miniseries, The Sweet Life, to find out what happened to the 30-year-old twins. Please, Francine, give us some closure!

This graphic novel is breezy, frivolous fun. Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.