Customer Reviews

Her Secret Self

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I liked "Her Secret Self" published by Bantam Books in paperback in November 1982, copyright by Rhondi Vilott. The novel is one (#25) of many (#233?) titles in the Bantam Sweet Dreams (Romance) series for readers age 11 and up. I reviewed the novel solely on its own merits and did not compare it to other titles in the series. The book is about an academically-challenged high school senior named Joanna Palmer who in the past has not applied herself to her studies and now because of accumulated failed classes must follow a special school schedule (an American History class was added, a study hall was eliminated, and a journalism class replaced an English class) and attend adult evening classes (for civics and economics) to graduate with the rest of her class. In additional to attending evening school, her parents have grounded her (no dances, no dating, no driving) and re-imposed a strict 10 PM, seven-day-per-week curfew. To add to her misery, Joanna is totally in love with her ex-boyfriend Rob McAllister and is determined to win him back at great expense to her own well-being/best interests. As has been her habit in the past, to get through difficult situations in school and life, Joanna pretends to be famous actresses, singers, etc. Will Olivia Newton-John, Brook Shields, Barbara Walters, Barbara Streisand, Miss Piggy, and Katharine Hepburn completely eclipse Joanna Palmer's own personality, or can Joanna somehow muster up the strength and courage to be herself? Will Joanna pass her American History, civics, and journalism classes to graduate on time with her class? Will Joanna be able to kick her addiction to her ex-boyfriend and find true love with someone else (Cliff Wright)? To find out the answers to these questions and at the same time be thoroughly entertained, you'll have to read "Her Secret Self."

Weird and a little annoying, "Her Secret Self" provides an odd new take on the old "just be yourself" mantra that is at the heart of so many books in the Sweet Dreams series. This novel may just be the one case in which the main character is not being "herself," because she is instead being a motley crew of 80s personalities like Barbara Streisand, Barbara Walters, Miss Piggy, Brooke Shields, and Doonesbury.

Joanne Palmer, in addition to being an airhead senior who has flunked one too many classes and is now at risk for not graduating, is a master of impersonation. Of course the guises are just a far too thinly veiled avoidance technique Joanne employs whenever she lacks self confidence, but they are also rather bizarre and borderline creepy, as is Joanne's "fatal attraction" to ex-boyfriend/resident slimeball Rob McAllister, who has since moved on to dating blonde vixen Christina Roe. Naturally, sweet school president Cliff Wright is a far better match than the manipulative and shallow Rob, but it takes flaky Joanne most of the novel and several melodramatic episodes to figure that out.

The real problem with this novel is that it's pretty hard to have much sympathy for a girl who has somehow made it to the 12th grade and still thinks that she should fill in a multiple choice American History exam answering every question with "C" because she misunderstood her BFF's Lynn's test-taking advice. Cliff Wright can certainly do better than this, and so can the reader.