"Did I pass the antiromance test?" I joked. #127 Abby's Un-Valentine

I personally think Abby has the worst taste in fashion, out of all the girls in the club, even Kristy. (Although the one bikini she wore in Hawaii was pretty cute, even if it did give her the body of a Playboy bunny.) Look at what she's wearing on the cover here: brown pants and brown beret with black leather jacket and black boots. On the cover of SS #14, BSC in the USA, she looks worse, and one of her interior pictures takes the cake. She looks truly awful on the cover of SS #15, too. Interestingly enough, she doesn't talk about her own fashion (or lack thereof) in Chapter 2, just everyone else's. Which reminds me, I am going to tell you what Claud and Stacey wore to the first meeting of this book, because I have the pages flagged, so it must be good.

This book is really terrible. Valentine's Day is approaching the hallowed halls of SMS, and Abby doesn't want anything to do with it. For some reason, she hates Valentine's Day. (I think it's because she hates boys.) She hates that everyone gets all mushy, she hates PDAs, she hates Shakespeare's sonnets, and especially hates red paper hearts. In English, Abby is taking her stance about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry and unintentionally catches the eye of Ross Brown, who falls shamelessly in lust with her. She is too dense to realize that Ross is trying to ask her out, and she keeps blowing him off. Eventually, after inadvertently switching places with Anna, Abby realizes that Ross is a better match for Anna and she sets them up. Things work out snacky for them, and off they go to the the big V-Day dance at school. (I almost typed "VD dance" but that won't work, will it?) Abby winds up spending Valentine's Day at the movies with Kristy. She also wins a humongous box of chocolates from the movie theater, which she decides to share at the BSC meeting on Monday, because Valentine's Day was conveniently on a Saturday.

(Side note: I read this book only about two weeks ago, before we left for our "vacation", I even took notes, and I still can't remember the plot. So forgive me if there are holes in this post, mainly cause I can't remember what happened.)

Subplot: Scout the Guide Dog-in-training is getting ready to leave the Thomas/Brewer mansion, and Andrew can't take it. He thinks that Scout is his dog, because David Michael has Shannon, and Karen has the kitten (?), Pumpkin. Everyone's trying to getting Andrew to understand that Scout's not his, Scout can't have treats all the time, snore, Scout this and that. Andrew freaks out about it, and finally, D.M. offers to share Shannon with him. Yeah, it ended that easily. Snore. Why did the three sane adults of the house not suggest this earlier?



Continuity Issues

*In describing Kristy's family, Abby says that Kristy's brothers, Charlie and Sam, are sixteen and fourteen. They've been 17 and 15 for about fifteen years now, so I call shenanigans! (Nola Thacker wrote this one, and I know she's written others that have the correct ages in them.)

*While describing the Spier/Shafer family, Abby says that Mary Anne's skin tans, but doesn't freckle. Shenanigans again! Just about every book since #8 Boy Crazy Stacey says that Mary Anne has such sensitive skin and that it doesn't tan, it just burns and peels, blah blah blah.

*In the accidental twin switch, I find it hard to believe that Ross can't tell Abby and Anna apart. In the other club members' books, when describing Abby and Anna, they always say that Abby's hair is longer and Anna wears hers short. Ross mixes them up because Abby put on her glasses and Anna is wearing Abby's so-called lucky shirt. Lucky for whom, my dear?

*Abby "bounds out of bed like [she] usually do[es] in the morning." In the Hawaii SS, Abby has to be dragged out of bed in order to get to the school on time.


WTF Moments

*Ok, where did this guide dog thing come from? I realize it was addressed in a Kristy book, but I really don't think that the Guide Dog people really do this type of thing. Nevermind, I just Googled it, and I guess this type of thing really does happen. But the website I looked at says you have to be at least nine years old. Which doesn't apply to half of the Brewer household. Whatever.

*Outfits!

Today [Claudia] was dressed in ski-lodge mode. That meant a woolly sweater, long black tights with thick blue socks, and hiking boots. But these weren't just any hiking boots--they were tied with shiny silver shoelaces with little snowflakes on the ends. They'd also been decorated--by Claudia-- with a motif of snow-capped mountains running along the outside of each boot. Claud's sweater was blue, white and gray with a snowflake-patterned yoke. It was enormous, stretching almost to her knees. her hair was pulled back in a long braid. From one ear dangled a silver earring in the shape of a pair of crossed skis, and from the other hung a small silver polar bear. This was actally a somewhat conservative fashion statement for Claudia, but you couldn't help noticing how good she made it look.

For example, today [Stacey] was was wearing a short, dark brown leather skirt over pale stockings. She had on these cool boots that came to just above her knees. Her sweater was the color of butter, and it looked unbelievably soft. There were three pearl buttons at the collar. Stacey had left two of them unbuttoned. Her blonde hair was pulled into a French braid, and she was wearing what looked like real pearl earrings. If there was makeup on her pale, flawless complexion, you couldn't tell.

Yes!! Thigh-high boots!! (Hopefully, with a three-inch stiletto heel!) On a thirteen year old!! The first time I read this, I thought, "If I ever have a blog about the BSC, this is so going in it!" Her "pale stockings" probably also attach to a garter belt. Claud, honey, just tights, no pants? Not even leggings? Nobody else's outfits were worth mentioning. By me or Abby.

*Abby doesn't have any verbal interaction with her mom until page 98. Mom gets a passing mention on page 69, but they don't have a real conversation till page 98. I'm sure they are somewhat more mature than other thirteen year olds, but that doesn't mean they can raise themselves.


That's it for this one. After reading a few Abby books, I've decided that she's pretty much Kristy with a bad sense of humor. And a twin sister. And a worse arrest record with the fashion police.