Review: "The Twins Hit Hollywood" by Jamie Suzanne (created by Francine Pascal)

The Twins Hit Hollywood by Jamie Suzanne (created by Francine Pascal)
First published 1997
★★★

We had a copy of this in the house well into my teenage years, so I remember it better than most of the series. In The Twins Hit Hollywood, Elizabeth and Jessica have the chance to audition for a role that could catapult them into stardom—if they can avoid total sabotage by the other twelve-year-olds in contention.

Jessica is maybe less sociopathic than usual in this one, mostly because the other twins are even worse. The book builds on Breakfast of Enemies, although it manages to get the few Breakfast details it mentions wrong. I have to imagine that the books were being written roughly at the same time, and by the time someone on the editorial team noticed (if ever they did) it was too late.

The filming ends up being a nightmare, and that's the end of the twins' acting careers—but not to fret! They get white velvet sailor suits out of the deal, and yes, I absolutely was obsessed with the idea of this when I read this as a kid. I wasn't sure what a sailor suit was, but I knew that I wanted one, and I wanted it to be velvet. (Shockingly, this never transpired.)

I don't think the Sweet Valley High books ever went the Twins Hit Hollywood Again route, which is sort of too bad—imagine Jessica old enough to be an actual terror on set! But maybe it's just as well. Because...Jessica as a terror on set.