History Literature / SweetValleyHigh

* CupidHatesOddCouples: The twins are constantly stealing each other's boyfriends and fighting about it, only to realize that sisterhood was more important. It happened repeatedly with Todd, as well as several less important boyfriends, but the worst example stemmed from Jessica's jealousy over Elizabeth and Sam dancing at the Jungle Prom, which only happened due to Jessica spiking Elizabeth's drink.

** Kimberly Haver in the "Unicorn Club" (middle school) books

* PaletteSwap: Margo and her long lost twin Nora are identical to Elizabeth and Jessica but with black hair and gray eyes, which they have to conceal when impersonating the twins.

%%ZCE* RichBitch: Lila Fowler
%%ZCE* RoomFullOfCrazy: Margo

* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: The ItsAWonderfulPlot episode shows the school without the twins has an empty trophy case because Jessica to lead the cheerleaders, all the good players left the team. When Jessica asks the angel about Enid's cheerleader outfit, he explains she only wears it to look hot.

* RealityEnsues: One book involves a girl having vicious rumors spread about her by [[AlphaBitch her rival]]. Sure enough, she's ostracized and her crush dumps her. While the rumors are eventually proven to be false and the AlphaBitch punished for her actions, the girl and her crush never reconcile. Aside from being hurt and angry over how he treated her, she realizes how [[DirtyCoward spineless he is]] and that she can't trust him.

* KidnappersKFC: In ''Kidnapped!'', Elizabeth's StalkerWithACrush, Carl, buys her fast food and leaves her hands tied so he can feed her by hand.

* TwinTelepathy
* TheBoardGame:
--> "You can be a Sweet Valley girl. Living in a Sweet Valley world. Our school! is so! cool! Sweet Valley High!"

** ''The Roommate'': ''Film/SingleWhiteFemale'' in SWEET VALLEY.

** In the high school books, the Lila Fowler/Cara Walker/Amy Sutton/Jessica Wakefield GirlPosse socially rules the school, and they can make or break the lives of the other students (girls especially). All three are superior--or feel/act they are--to the other students, but within them, Lila Fowler is the queen bee, mostly because she's the RichBitch of the lot (and that says a lot, given that by normal standards ''everyone'' in Sweet Valley is rich and Jessica herself lives a luxurious life). Elizabeth often remarks that she doesn't understand that Jessica is so deferential to Lila. Jessica acted as the AlphaBitch to other characters, though, most notably in "Wrong Kind of Girl" against Annie.

* PutOnABus: Todd moves away to Vermont at a certain point, so his character is absent from then on. [[spoiler:Or, at least until he comes back later]].

* RunawayBride: In the first ''Saga'' book, Alice (the twins' mother) ditches her fiance Hank Patman (who would later become Bruce's father) at the altar, partly because she's suddenly realized he isn't the man for her, but mostly because she's fallen in LoveAtFirstSight with Ned Wakefield--and as you recall from the book, their ancestors have missed numerous chances to get together in the past.

* SecondLove: After her First Love with Todd ends because he moves away, Liz soon finds love with a second great guy, Jeff. Later when [[spoiler:Todd returns, she must choose between her first and second love]].

** You would think that everything the twins have gone though (trials for manslaughter, abductions, attempts on their lives, being stalked by identical impersonators) would qualify them for months and months of therapy. Nope, doesn't happen.
** Steve has psychological issues after a girlfriend of his dies. He tries to mold every girlfriend he has after that, to her image. He doesn't seek help for this unhealthy behaviour.

** Sam, Jessica's boyfriend who dies in a drunk driving accident. Unlike a lot of men Jessica dates, Sam is pretty much a nice guy who brings out the best in Jessica and makes her want to be a better person. So naturally he ends up dead. This also applies to:

** An extreme example occurs in ''The Roommate'': [[spoiler:Lisa/Helen Mueller's]] parents locked her in a dark basement while lavishing affection on their other daughter.

** Not to mention the twins' appearance: they're both 5'6", with perfect size 6 figures, matching dimples, sparkling blue-green eyes, golden tans and sun-kissed blonde hair...

** In SVU, Steven had a live-in girlfriend named Billie. They were engaged and expecting a child [[spoiler:but she had a miscarriage]]. Then she just disappeared with no explanation. [[note]]Though in the 2010's sequel book set 20 years later, Steven is revealed to be gay and in a relationship with Aaron, so probably we can assume he realized at a certain point that he was gay and in love with Aaron, and then broke up with Billie.[[/note]]

** Nina Harper also suddenly disappeared. She lived with the twins and two male friends, but got fed up with Sam's messiness and moved out with no further mention. Although she was Elizabeth's best friend, there was no explanation given for her disappearance.

* FormerlyFat: Robin Wilson is introduced in book 4 as an overweight character, but by the end of that book has drastically lost weight. The rest of the series (the vast majority of the books), she's always referred to as the girl that used to be fat.

* {{Irony}}: in #88:Love letters for sale, Elizabeth and Jessica start a letter-writing business for people who can't or don't want to write the letters themselves i.e. One man wants to quit his job but can't write the resignation without telling his boss what he really thinks of him. Elizabeth takes part because she's saving up to buy her and Todd matching designer warm-up jackets (possibly NBL merchandise?) as a surprise gift. But by the time she's earned the money, Todd has picked a bad fight and teeters on the verge of breaking up with her because he feels so neglected. Todd even anonymously hires the letter-writing service (he doesn't know it's Elizabeth and Jessica running it) to write a break-up letter... and simply signs his name to and sends Elizabeth the typed copy he's issued, [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking not even bothering to copy it in his own handwriting]]. [[StatusQuoIsGod (Of course, they make up]] and debut the matching jackets in the final scene.)

* {{Irony}}: in 'Love letters for sale', Elizabeth and Jessica start a letter-writing business for people who can't or don't want to write the letters themselves i.e. One man wants to quit his job but can't write the resignation without telling his boss what he really thinks of him. Elizabeth takes part because she's saving up to buy her and Todd matching designer warm-up jackets (possibly NBL merchandise?) as a surprise gift. But by the time she's earned the money, Todd has picked a bad fight and teeters on the verge of breaking up with her because he feels so neglected. Todd even anonymously hires the letter-writing service (he doesn't know it's Elizabeth and Jessica running it) to write a break-up letter... and simply signs his name to and sends Elizabeth the typed copy he's issued, [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking not even bothering to copy it in his own handwriting]]. [[StatusQuoIsGod (Of course, they make up]] and debut the matching jackets in the final scene.)

* PassFail: One book focused on Rosa Jameson, a white-passing Latina girl who lies about her background in an attempt to hide her Mexican ancestry. She does eventually learn to be proud of her heritage.

** Elizabeth frequently comments negatively on Jessica's boy-craziness, [[{{Hypocrite}} conveniently forgetting that she herself often cheats on her boyfriends]]

* AdultsAreUseless: This applies to Ned and Alice, as well as many of the parents in the series (to the point of neglect or even abuse in some cases). The twins' parents can't even tell when complete strangers are impersonating their daughters. ''Todd'' notices a difference in the fake Elizabeth before her own parents!
** All this was going on during Liz's trial for manslaughter. Mrs. Wakefield had a nervous breakdown and morphed into this obsessive-compulsive June Cleaver-type mom who only cared about a clean house and homemade dinners. Mr. Wakefield was defending Liz, and Jessica was mad at everybody, so it was the perfect time for Margo to slip in and fool the family. They got fooled again by ''both'' Margo and Nora in the sequel, when they have no excuse.
** They were also quick to make excuses for Elizabeth's misdeeds while reading Jessica the riot act for hers--in one especially bad example, they blame Jessica for something they KNOW Elizabeth did (though Jessica usually manages to weasel her way out of punishment), not to mention completely oblivious and insensitive to Jessica's genuine insecurity about Elizabeth's "perfection." It took Jessica ''running away - twice -'' for it to dawn on them how troubled she was.
** In the original series, it seems that Mr. Collins (the English teacher) is the only helpful adult as most of the kids at SVH talk to him about their problems.
** The inevitable outcome of this can clearly be seen in ''Sweet Valley Confidential'' where we see how screwed up everyone has now become! Good job, Ned and Alice!
** Although Jessica and Elizabeth are adults in ''The Sweet Life'', their lives are falling apart. Where are Ned and Alice? On a cruise. They don't bother to come home when [[spoiler: Steven and Aaron's baby is kidnapped]]!

[[folder:#-A-C]]

%%ZCE* YourCheatingHeart: Sweet Valley is the town for this trope.

** In the high school books, the Lila Fowler/Cara Walker/Jessica Wakefield GirlPosse socially rules the school, and they can make or break the lives of the other students (girls especially). All three are superior--or feel/act they are--to the other students, but within them, Lila Fowler is the queen bee, mostly because she's the RichBitch of the lot (and that says a lot, given that by normal standards ''everyone'' in Sweet Valley is rich and Jessica herself lives a luxurious life). Elizabeth often remarks that she doesn't understand that Jessica is so deferential to Lila. Jessica acted as the AlphaBitch to other characters, though, most notably in "Wrong Kind of Girl" against Annie.

* FatGirl: Lois Waller. Also Robin Wilson for most of her first book.

* BlackBestFriend: Maria Slater to Elizabeth in ''Senior Year'' and Nina Harper to Elizabeth again in SVU. Danny to Tom Watts in SVU and Andy to Neil in "Friend Against Friend".

* SuddenlySexuality: Steven comes out as gay in ''Sweet Valley Confidential'', despite having supposedly been heterosexual for the whole of the original series, being married to Cara at the start of the book, getting engaged to Billie (who, [[GenderBlenderName contrary to what her name might make you think]], is a girl) in ''Sweet Valley University'', and having a nervous breakdown over the death of ''another'' girlfriend (Tricia Martin--see IdenticalStranger above). His eventual boyfriend [[spoiler: (and later, in ''The Sweet Life'', husband)]] is Aaron Dallas, whose case of the trope is even more pronounced as it is stated that he "became" gay simply by living in San Francisco.

* RealityEnsues: One book involves a girl has vicious rumors spread about her by [[AlphaBitch her rival]]. Sure enough, she's ostracized and her crush dumps her. While the rumors are eventually proven to be false and the AlphaBitch punished for her actions, the girl and her crush never reconcile. Aside from being hurt and angry over how he treated her, she realizes how [[DirtyCoward spineless he is]] and that she can't trust him.