Welcome to "Jessica is the Angel of Death" or SVH #122, "A Kiss Before Dying."

This is part 3 of a three-part "gang" miniseries (or betrayal, as stated on the book's side). It appears that after book 100, "The Evil Twin," all subsequent books were part of a miniseries. I didn't read the first two, but it doesn't matter as they spend at least the first 30 - 40 pages recapping. Book 2 in any miniseries is usually pointless; you just need to be introduced to a story and then learn the ending.

The title spoils everything, so what I write here won't be a spoiler. The essence is that SVH is at war with Palisades High. This follows closely after "A Night to Remember" where another of Jessica's boyfriends died and SVH was at war with Big Mesa. In this one, they love Big Mesa; towards the end, Bruce even suggests SVH and BM gang up on Palisades. For what? I'm not sure. Apparently, Ken provoked them in the first book. The guys spend the whole book fighting and plotting (lame) ways to get back at PH for real and imagined slights (the book starts with Winston nearly beaten unconscious).

Jessica is now dating (for two weeks) Christian Gorman, the former PH gang leader. She's completely in love with him, never felt this way before (except for Sam, who just died, and Lucas in the next book, and A.J., and so on). Normally, Jessica is wrong about guys, but in this book, we see (and it's a shock) that Christian is truly no longer interested in violence. He wants everyone to understand his love for Jessica, but they act like buffoons and don't. Naturally, word gets out that they're dating. Who spilled the beans? None other than Elizabeth Wakefield, who naively teams up with PH student Rosie Shaw. We can all see that Rosie is using this to stage the final showdown between PH and SVH. After all, Liz's boyfriend Todd beat up Rosie's boyfriend. But Liz forgets this when Rosie approaches her. So, you could say the whole mess (and Christian's death) is Elizabeth's fault. That's accurate. But here's the crazy part. Jessica forgives her almost instantly. Yet, when Liz accidentally killed Sam at Jungle Prom (but secretly it was Jess's fault for spiking her punch), Jess refused to forgive her for six books. Go figure.

Speaking of which, I decided I couldn't snark on Jessica for this book. Before Christian, she was dating Ken Matthews, the football team quarterback. A chapter opens with Jessica experiencing actual remorse. She hunts down Ken and apologizes. Ken makes fun of her at first, shocked like we all are reading it. But then he gets misty-eyed and says, "For what it's worth, I'm also sorry." That's sadder than Christian's death because you can tell they really had something and Jessica knew it or she wouldn't have apologized. It made me sad for Jessica. If there had been real character development and this was a valid series, she would have sought help. Running from one man to the next, never feeling remorse, always feeling empty, Jessica has extreme issues. That's the real tragedy. Why were we ever jealous of the Wakefield twins? They may have everything materially, but personality-wise, they're emptier than Ted Bundy's heart.