The Curse of the Golden Heart

Sweet Valley Twins Super Chillers #6

by Francine Pascal (Creator), Jamie Suzanne

It's spring break, and identical twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield are taking a scuba diving course at Pirates Cove. On their first dive the twins discover the remains of an old pirate ship, and half a golden heart buried in the sand.

Soon the twins receive spooky chain letters demanding that what was taken from the sea be returned. Jessica continues the chain; Elizabeth doesn't. Suddenly terrible things start happening to Elizabeth. She finds threatening notes in her room and a live scorpion in her lunch bag.

Can Elizabeth discover the secret of the golden heart before the curse destroys her?

Genres: Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Horror, Fiction, Teen, Chick Lit

183 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

About the author

Francine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.

Reviews

[kylajaclyn]

So since this is a Spring Break book, I had assumed that the Wakefields were going somewhere away from Sweet Valley. I was confused to read that Pirates Cove is apparently very near their house. Of course it is never mentioned again in any book. Perhaps if they had gone somewhere further away this book would have been more interesting. But probably not. It's the same old Pirate tale for the ages. Red Beard (the pirate) meets the girl (Carlotta), aboard his ship, which, of course, gets caught in a storm and wrecks because the Bosun isn't paying attention. Red Beard and Carlotta are separated, along with the two halves of the golden heart they wear around their necks. Liz, treasure collector and mystery lover, finds the half of a golden heart on her first day of Scuba lessons. But it's so covered with detritus that she just thinks it's a rusty old nail. Their scuba instructor, Joshua Ferrell, is actually the captain of the ship that went down. He sees in Liz a chance to set things right. So he sends out chain letters to everyone posing as Carlotta in order to find the missing half of the golden heart. Liz is too stubborn (read: stuck-up) to respond to the chain letters, along with Lila. But when Lila refuses to respond and things go comically wrong, she reluctantly types up some letters that hilariously get sent to her father's entire company. Jessica thinks Liz is insane for not cooperating. But Liz, believing herself the patron saint of solving problems, is determined to get to the bottom of everything. When Steven almost throws away the golden heart half in her trash can, she realizes what must be done. They uncover that it's not a rusty nail after all. And on the back they find half of a treasure map. Steven and Jess comically plan everything they will buy. Liz recruits Jess and Steven on her mission to reunite the two halves and stop her dreams and hallucinations. They find the other half of the heart stuck in a rock in Pirates Cove. Steven chisels it out and Liz reunites the two pieces, which magically fuse together. Then John Filbin, descendant of the Bosun on duty, comes along and snatches it away. The heart ends up in the sea, and unfortunately this love story isn't nearly as interesting as Titanic (also: no Leo). The next day Steven and Jess realize only Liz had the hallucinations and dreams and that she took a calligraphy class the previous summer, so they begin to believe she scammed them in a major way (except she's not that clever). Liz doesn't care; she's just happy to take credit for solving another mystery that wasn't even half as scary as an Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode.

[Diana Keto-Lambert]

Man, this book was more terrible than I remembered. Elizabeth, the smartest girl in school, took half of the book to realize that the rusty old nail she tossed in the garbage was important? After racking her brain for so long and going through her crappy other treasures and coming up empty-handed?

Also, the weird supernatural stuff annoyed me, and the ending was like 5 pages and still made no sense. Elizabeth would NEVER go to the beach when it was storming, much less let her brother go in the water, regardless of whatever plot was happening. Then, Elizabeth just goes “oh I figured it out, this guy was a ghost” and that’s that? What happens to John? He just popped in to fuck things up and take off? Idk, this book was a lot of filler and not much fun. Also, I caught 3 editing mistakes and was annoyed that no one used spellcheck. Maybe they didn’t have it in 1994. 1.5 ⭐️

[demicaractere]

This one I read maybe 3 times in elementary school. The Curse of the Ruby necklace was definitely my favorite of the only two Sweet Valley books I read but this one was still fun. The Curse of the Golden Heart seemed a little dated even for me in the early 2000's though, with the chain emails ans some of the phrasing used. Even so, this book was a part of my childhood I didn't forget.

[BookBitchhh]

Five stars just for the nostalgia.

[Alex]

So ridiculous, and yet so fun.

I also love that the title and summary ruins the ENTIRE book, because the fact that it is a golden heart isn't revealed until the very end.

[Toni]

Love these books- remind me of when I was a kid

[Kyle]

Cute. Fun. Good read for a beach spring break. B+

[PurplyCookie]

It's Spring Break and the Wakefield Twins (with their friends) are at the beach, having a good time. Jessica and Elizabeth decide to go snorkeling at Pirate's Cove, an area in the corner of the beach hardly anyone ever goes to. Deep underwater, Elizabeth starts collecting knickknacks, including (unknown to her) a piece of a golden heart ornament (covered with rust and barnacles). As soon as they reach the surface, a strange looking man watches them from a distance.

A few days later, Jessica and Elizabeth decide to take scuba diving lessons, and Elizabeth is surprised to see the same man who was watching them as their instructor. He introduces himself as Joshua Farrell and keeps a close eye on Elizabeth.

Later, Elizabeth and Jessica receive chain letters about the "Curse of Carlotta", warning them to pass it to 6 other people to avoid the curse. Elizabeth doesn't take the chain letter seriously, and strange things start happening to her. A scorpion ends up in her sandwich. She starts dreaming about being in a shipwreck with Carlotta and her lover, Red Beard. Afterward, a man named John Filber shows up at her doorstep asking about the chain letters. Can Elizabeth solve the mystery of the curse before she is cursed?


More of Purplycookie’s Reviews @: http://www.goodreads.com/purplycookie


Book Details:

Title: The Curse of the Golden Heart (Sweet Valley Twins and Friends Super Chiller, #6)
Author: Francine Pascal
Reviewed By: Purplycookie

[Nadia Hana Hana]

This is a cute little story. I'm only reading this to remember my childhood, I guess.

[Bri]

This may be a Sweet Valley book but it can get helluh scary in some parts! I wouldn't read this at night if you have a low tolerence for that type of stuff. I reallly like this book. I wish I owned it.

[Sheila Read]

I remember the cover just not the story.

[Samantha Glasser]

I loved this story so much I checked it out from the library a few times. I loved when the twins went on tropical adventures and I especially loved mysteries.

[Natsu]

nice story with a great mystery..

[Jenny]

20/25
4 original
4 good topic
5 fast read
4 plot
3 opinion

[Atikah Wahid]

Yas, I remember this! This was also one of my favourites as a kid, mainly because it is an adventure novel and kinda spooky. It also has a pretty good mystery plot for a middle grade book!