Sweet Valley High #13: Kidnapped!

Front Cover: Elizabeth's nightmare is about to begin...

Back Cover: A living nightmare...

Elizabeth Wakefield never imagined that her evening of volunteer work at Sweet Valley's hospital would turn into the most horrifying night of her life. but when a strong hand clamps a chloroformed rag over her mouth and she is pulled from her car, Elizabeth's hellish ordeal begins.

When she regains consciousness, Elizabeth finds herself tied to a chair in an isolated shack. She has been kidnapped - by Carl, a lonely and disturbed orderly from the hospital. Elizabeth doesn't know what Carl wants from her, but it's clear he's on the brink of insanity. Somehow Elizabeth must escape - before it's too late!

I actually read this a few days ago, but didn't have a chance to blog about it until now, so my feelings are kinda blasé now.

I'm really confused about Carl. In some ways, he's portrayed as an innocent mentally disabled person, who doesn't know how to act/treat people. Elizabeth is nice to him, so he thinks that must mean she loves him, so obviously he wants to love her, and when people are in love they run away to be together forever, so he can take care of her and live happily ever after. That's the kind of thing that would get him caught in a heartbeat. Elizabeth would've only been kidnapped for a few hours. She might not have been kidnapped at all: Carl might have just gone around telling everyone about his "new girlfriend Elizabeth", and people would've figured out what was going on and put a stop to it right away. But then they have him chloroforming her, and he's careful to keep going to work so as not to arise suspicions, and he knows not to buy stuff from the hospital itself. This sounds much more like a mentally capable creepy adult man, who wants Elizabeth for his own nefarious means. You can't really have it both ways, and I'm kinda pissed that they tried.

I want to know how long Elizabeth's been volunteering for. I know the last book took place over the span of like, a week. So is this next week? Has Carl only been watching Elizabeth for two weeks? Cuz if so, I can see why she hadn't said something. But has she been volunteering for a month? Cuz a month of Carl being creepy is definitely cause for concern.

Again, I hate Jessica. She had no real reason to lie to Todd about where Elizabeth was. All she had to say was, "I don't know! I'm not my sister's keeper! Maybe she got held up at the hospital or at Max's. Why don't you try calling those places?" Then afterwards, Todd would have a serious case about why they should be concerned about Elizabeth's whereabouts and Jessica could either be mature or immature.

Hook: Will Elizabeth leave Todd for Nicholas?

I'm guessing no, but she'll probably go on a few casual dates with Nicholas, trying to play it off all innocent like, "We're just friends; I'm allowed to hang out with guys, aren't I?" all the while knowing full-well that she hasn't made things clear to Nicholas. She'll probably feel guilty about it, but when confronted, she'll get all defensive, like she's done absolutely nothing wrong. It's a fine line, and theoretically it'd be possible for her to go out with Nicholas without her violating her relationship with Todd, but I'm guessing she'll cross the line and yeah. But everything will work out cuz she's a Wakefield haha

What I can't figure out is why Nicholas is so gaga over Elizabeth. Like, wtf, that escalated quickly. My guess is that he's smitten with their looks, but realizes that Jessica is too immature and vapid and irresponsible: so let's try the mature twin that Jessica's been singing the praises about!