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Take Two
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Take Two (MSTV #5)
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Sophie, The Joker
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Jun 15, 2014 07:03AM
Here's where you can discuss the 5th MSTV book, Take Two. Remember there may be spoilers so watch out if you haven't read the book yet!
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We are reading this this month aren't we?
Yep, I read it like two days ago. And loved it BTW!
I think this one is the funniest of all the ones up to this one (that's to say, the first five), probably because of all the crazy fangirls and the way they faint and stuff whenever Jackson says anything. No seriously, it's the truth:"If you haven't heard, I'm filming a romantic comedy." [said Jackson]
More shrieking and Olivia saw one girl faint.
(quote from Take Two pg 136)
And there's that really funny bit where Ivy and Olivia do a switch for Olivia's audition and Ivy does a dance to the coconut gods! I think that proved Ivy definitely isn't a good actress . . .
This is my favourite of the first 5! I love that Sophia and Camilla are in it a bit more and the part where Brendan points out that Charlotte's bag is a cheap rip-off is so funny!!
Yeah, you're right, Sophia and Camilla do rock. :)
I've just been rereading this book, and this part made me laugh:They wove their way through the crowd that was still pressing forward to catch a glimpse of Jackson.
"Excuse me," Olivia said, squeezing past three little girls jumping up and down.
"Sorry." Camilla bumped into a skinny pizza delivery boy, still holding warm pizza boxes.
"Careful!" Sophia said as a woman with her Pekinese dog knocked her camera.
Ivy took control. In her loudest voice she said to Olivia, "What do you mean you don't like Jackson Caulfield?"
The crowd gasped and parted - almost afraid to be infected by anti-Jackson sentiment.
"You think he's a bad actor?" Ivy called out and their path got even wider. Olivia had her face in her hands. "Ivy!" she whispered with gritted teeth.
"We're getting through, aren't we?" Ivy whispered.
Classic Ivy. :D
This may be my favourite of the first five books, LOOOVED rereading it and have lots of things to discuss so here we go! I'm sure we've established by now that nearly everything I mention after MSTV rereads at this point is crazy insignificant and won't at all be of interest to you unless you are also an obsessive, vampalicious, blood-sucking MSTV nerd. If so, welcome my friend, let's do this...On page 7 it says: 'Ivy had seen more convincing smiles on corpses.' Does this mean Ivy has seen corpses? Could this be the answer to where vamps get their blood fix from? Just an expression?
When Ivy and Charlotte are talking about her not moving to Europe: '"Did they refuse to let you in for crimes against fashion?" Charlotte smirked. Katie and Allison giggled. "It turns out I'm needed here," Ivy retorted, "for a campaign against conformity." - I've always been a little confused by this quote before this reread, as I don't think I knew what conformity meant then. But now I really love it - definitely a score for Ivy! I feel this really sums up Charlotte and Ivy's characters - Charlotte is quite cliche and predictable, whereas Ivy is smart and original.
In the Switched discussion Sophie noticed Olivia comparing nerves to cheering at nationals, and wondered whether Olivia actually had done that (message 35). Well, I've found more proof that she might have: 'Walking around a movie set with Jackson Caulfield was even better than cheering at nationals.' (page 78) This sounds like proof to me, but this is probably one of those things that we will only ever be sure about if Sienna Mercer could (somehow!) directly answer our question.
Every time I read this book (and many of the other books), I am impressed by the research Sienna Mercer seems to have put into making things convincing, even in a kids' book. What I'm specifically talking about in terms of this book is the movie speech - terms like 'continuity editor', 'craft service' and 'blocking' are thrown around casually by Jackson, and it really makes him sound like the experienced actor he is. Mercer might just have experience on movie sets, but the same know-how is true for Justin and his football and Daniel and his music, both in MBTW, Olivia and her cheerleading and probably a ton of other stuff I'm forgetting throughout the two series. Either Sienna Mercer is has some very widespread talents, or she does her research - either way, I appreciate the hard work!
The moment on page 80 when Amy asks Jackson, in his security guard disguise, where Jackson is, and he replies, "Who's Jackson?", making her really frustrated, always cracks me up. Jackson and Amy have a great relationship. :D
Here's something else I found interesting - this is Ivy: '"Honestly, Olivia and Jackson are like Romeo and Juliet - meant to be together!" [...] They did seem to be a great fit, except for Olivia wanting a 'perfectly normal' boyfriend.' Aside from being potential foreshadowing for (view spoiler) (spoilers for Lucky Break {MSTV#7}), I'm wondering if this whole 'normal boyfriend' thing is hinting at (view spoiler). (spoilers for Stake Out {MSTV#12} I think?? Don't quite remember, but I don't think it's any later than that) Whether it was a purposeful hint or not, this does seem to have been a possibility (perhaps even an inevitability) from the beginning of their relationship, which I think makes the whole thing flow really well.
Another thing related to Olivia and Jackson's relationship is this paragraph: 'Olivia crinkled her nose [on seeing Jackson supposedly eating a meat burger]. It was the only thing about Jackson this whole morning that surprised her; it looked like Jackson's taste buds were more in line with Ivy's than her own. She couldn't help feeling it made him a little less . . . perfect. Honestly, I find this whole 'perfect boy for her' thing kind of problematic. Because, in reality, you're never going to find the perfect person for you - we all have imperfections - and especially not when you're thirteen. For once, I feel like Sienna Mercer is sending the wrong message with her romance here. The only flaw Olivia found in Jackson turned out to be a misunderstanding in the end, and I think it sets up unrealistic expectations for young people reading this. I guess the subject of working through relationship problems is addressed more in some of the later books. Do you guys have any thoughts on this?
All right, just as we were beginning to get onto something actually worthy of discussion, I'm going to mention something tiny again - Olivia and Ivy's brief mention of the fake "computer repair man" who came to install a VVV chip in Olivia's computer. Olivia says he was wearing "a Hawaiian shirt and sandals with socks", presumably in an effort to hide his vamp-ness. This really reminds me of Arthur Weasley and many of the other wizards in the Harry Potter series, who work for the government but have no clue how to blend in with muggles, and end up wearing ridiculous clothes. It's the younger generation, who actually live alongside the bunnies/muggles who know how to act around them. Love!
Now something more ominous, on page 141 - 'I can't blurt out that Jackson is a vampire without proof, Ivy thought. But if they ended up starring in a movie together, Olivia could totally end up falling for him. What should I do? Could this be the start of the renowned 'one twin can't share their suspicions that end up being true because they don't have PROOF' thing we've talked about before? It helps keep the story going, I suppose, but I dislike this plot device. It feels convenient and out of character.
Then there's this quote which warms my heart every time, when Ivy is preparing to audition in Olivia's place: 'Ivy had always liked Camilla, but today she had learned what a good friend she really was. Camilla had come up with a set of hand-signal codes to help prompt Ivy if she forgot her lines.' CAMILLA IS THE BEEEEEST. <3
There's also this, when from Ivy about Jackson: 'She decided, if he wasn't a vampire, she would definitely approve of him for her sister.' It's little things like this - Ivy being protective of Olivia - that I love to see in sibling relationships. Cute!
Moving on, I feel like the auditioning process is really strange. The girls stand in front of the camera and answer questions about themselves? Is this a normal way of cutting down auditionees? I'm not sure. Maybe the purpose is to measure how comfortable each person is in front of the camera, or how they perform under pressure? It could also be to measure their understanding of character - by showing how they understand themselves?? I guess it's not that bad of a method then.
So let's talk about the ending. I really like how it didn't end with Olivia getting the part of Mia in the movie. That would be way too predictable and perfect. I loved the progression of Olivia and Jackson's relationship (the most that happened between them was their first date was arranged, and even that took basically the whole book to happen) and I think this small part Olivia's got to begin her acting career reflects that. Good stuff! I also loved it when Ivy said only she could mistake a vegetarian for a vampire. I can't remember what I thought the first time I read this, but I'm interested if there's any first-time readers lurking - did you believe Jackson was a vampire?
OKKK that's the end of the longest comment we've probably ever had on this group. ...Not even sorry. :D
The Ivy corpse thing has to be an expression right? Even if that's where vamps get their blood fix from (which I don't think it is, they get it from animal meat nowadays don't they) surely they're not just letting 13 year olds drink straight from dead people. That seems very disturbing and unlikely to me.Yes I loved that conformity quote too. Go Ivy! That's awesome that Olivia has likely cheered at a national competition. I wonder how old she was when she did it. I don't think your spoiler tag worked properly as you've left quite a major spoiler for a later book outside of it. Might want to fix that!
The perfect boyfriend thing is weird. Like you said no one is perfect. But maybe it is realistic that a 13 year old might idolise the boy she's had a crush on for ages. As we see in later book he's obviously not perfect. I didn't love it when Ivy said "It would be totally killer for you to have a boyfriend, even if he wouldn't be exactly 'perfectly normal' like you said you wanted." Olivia doesn't need a boyfriend to be killer! We have discussed the idea that Ivy and Olivia having boyfriends may set an unhealthy messages for young readers over on our What the Critics are Saying thread (I recommend you check out that thread if you haven't already, there are some great points made). Basically this series has so many healthy and empowering messages for young people throughout. If parents are concerned about something they should talk about it. Perfection doesn't exist and kids aren't stupid.
Yay Harry Potter! The similarities are so true, haha. And yes I loved Camilla and Ivy's relationship in this book! That quote is life.
The auditioning process was strange. The other thing that I didn't find very realistic but that might be, do they really have posh food on a movie set? Olivia said the food truck looked like a gourmet restaurant. "The chefs were serving out everything from duck salad to pasta with truffles to fancy-looking mini pizzas, and even rows of sushi on ice." I always imagined they'd just have a couple of burger vans or something. Maybe it depends on the show and who is working on it.
On this re-read, Take Two is not my favourite book so far, even though I've said it is before. Bringing in the movie set, as much as I liked that and it definitely added drama, meant that we saw less of the cast together, what with Olivia spending time just with Jackson and Brendan not coming on set. Luckily Sophia and Camilla were in it lots so that was fine. There was still an element of comedy but not nearly as many laugh out loud moments as in the previous books for me.
The part where Olivia just runs off to help Ivy without a second thought for her audition shows just how much she cares about her sister. "She'll need someone with her, not a voice on the phone." Aww.
Charlotte is not nice in this book. How she just expects everything to be hers, and how she tried to make it so Olivia couldn't get to her audition, not cool Charlotte! It's awesome that the main characters don't hold grudges against her, they don't stoop to her level.
Yeah, I suppose it's more likely they get their blood from animals. Now you say it, they might even have mentioned that at one point. I didn't really think they drank straight from dead bodies - that would be suuuper disturbing and might lead to vamp kids thinking it's OK to kill people! Scary thought. Still, the way it says "Ivy had seen more convincing smiles on corpses." seems to blatantly say she's SEEN dead people. I'm sure you're right though - it must just be an expression. (hopefully)Oh, wow, thanks for pointing that out! I have hidden the spoiler now.
I like what you said about Olivia idolising Jackson. That makes what she said more realistic, but I still don't think it sends out the healthiest message. Although, to reiterate what I said before, later in the series I think more problems in relationships are explored and Olivia and Jackson's relationship is certainly not always perfect.
I'm going to have to disagree with you about the "It would be killer for you to have a boyfriend" quote - I don't have a problem with that at all personally. I can definitely see where you're coming from, but I don't think Ivy is saying here that NOT having a boyfriend makes Olivia any less killer. I like how positively this quote (and the series as a whole) presents relationships - it's a nice thing and Ivy's excited for her sister to have the chance to experience one with someone she really gets on with.
Hmm, yeah, the food quality could be unrealistic, but then again this is a really high budget movie, and maybe the director really likes his food so he specially requested it to be all fancy?! If I ever get to be on a movie-set, I'll check back here on my findings. :D
I guess that's a good point about not seeing as much of the old gang, and I think you're right it probably stems from the storyline Sienna Mercer chose for this book. But within the restrictions of that storyline, I think she did really well at including them. There was that awesome scene with all the friends going to the Meat and Greet at the start, and then Brendan did point out he was kind of being pushed to the side. I don't think Sienna Mercer forgot about all our old favourites by any means!
That's a great point about there being less comedy. Making readers laugh is a tricky thing to do and I think Sienna Mercer still pulled out some hilarious moments in this story.
Yep, Charlotte is the definition of stuck-up. I love what you said there about the main characters never stooping to her level. I think that sets a fantastic example to us readers.
Well they eat raw-ish meat don't they? Or am I just thinking of MBTW?Daisy wrote: "I like how positively this quote (and the series as a whole) presents relationships - it's a nice thing and Ivy's excited for her sister to have the chance to experience one with someone she really gets on with."
Oh I like this more positive spin on it. I still find it quite an unnatural thing to say ("it would be cool for you to be a relationship" to someone who is not in one) but maybe that's just me.
I had a quick search for what food on movie sets is like. I found this article that says you should never serve pizza on set and that "the best and simplest way to make your crew happy is by keeping them constantly fed. And not only with plentiful food, but with quality food." I guess Mercer knows what she's talking about.
It's interesting that I mentioned the gang not really being in this one and maybe that factoring in to why I didn't love it as much but then I finished Love Bites which had even less of the side characters in but that's one of my favourite of the series. This one has less heart-warming moments maybe? (still love it obvs)
Yeah they do but they also drink blood I think. I remember Ivy putting it on cereals at the start of the second book. ;DThat's a good point - I can't really imagine myself saying to someone "It would be killer for you to have boyfriend" either. But it is what it is I suppose.
That article makes the lavishness of the catering on The Groves movie set seem more realistic. But I don't get why you shouldn't have pizza on a movie set...
Eww that's so gross!
