My Sibling The Mythical Being! discussion

Hi all, welcome to our discussion all about Twin Spins, the ninth MSTV book, also known as Twin-Tastrophe. Let's talk about the ups and downs of this cool story!

If you haven't read this book yet, you might want to stop here, as spoilers ARE allowed in this discussion. :)

I read a bit of this yesterday and when Olivia was on the phone to Mr. Harker, he said the Hollywood writers have gone on strike, and that with nobody to write the scripts, all the movies and TV shows have been put on hold, including Eternal Sunset. I was just wondering about this because surely the script for Eternal Sunset had already been written? Because Olivia said she would be learning her lines over the summer. Am I missing something here?

I am still trying to figure out what month this book took place in?

I'm pretty sure it was the beginning of the summer holidays so that's got to be .... July? I live in England so it might be different in America where they are. But, yeah, I think it was the start of the summer.

It mentions at one point in this book that Sophia couldn't be there because she had to 'make her shift at the Meat and Greet Diner' (not the exact quote). Sad as I was to hear that Sophia wasn't going to be in that scene, I was wondering about what this meant. Does it mean she works at the diner? (erm, isn't she a bit young?) Or does it just mean she had a table reserved there or something?

Not a clue. I'll be reading this sometime this week so will be able to go into a bit more detail with you!

Cool, I look forward to it!

@message 2 You're right, at first I thought it meant that she would have had to practice her lines if the writers hadn't gone on strike but then Lilian said that at least she would have a year to practice her lines. Strange, maybe the whole script wasn't finished or the strike affected other divisions?

@message 5 I'm guessing that's her summer job.

The thing I love about this book is the party planning committee and the whole storyline with the bullies and Charlotte Brown. Great stuff!

Ohhhh, right. Thanks!

Oh man I noticed that line about Sophia working in the Meat and Greet and was so excited to discuss but I see we already noticed it.

This is the book where I lose a lot of my respect for Jackson. In the previous books he's rushed off his feet with work so he ends up surprising Olivia. In this book he's literally lying to her and causing her pain...

"I'm so sorry, but I've been invited to a live TV interview in Boston and I couldn't turn it down. I don't know what to say. You understand right? That's why I bought the boots, to make it up to you."
The boots were beautiful, but they didn't stop Olivia's heart from dropping down into her slippers.

... so he can surprise her and seem like the good guy later on. Not cool. I do think Jackson is a good guy, he's super nice, I just find his habit of ignoring Olivia until he is ready to surprise her super disrespectful and annoying. At one point he was like "It was tough to keep this all from you" and I was screaming at the book WHHHHHY do you even need to keep the fact you're coming to see her from her??!??! Haha.

I think that's really cool that Sophia works at the diner, and I can imagine her enjoying it (especially if she got free burgers, haha). But it does seem slightly at odds with her photography apparently taking off as we saw the previous few books. The reveal is so throwaway that I am tempted to think Sienna Mercer just threw it in there to explain why Sophia was absent during that one scene. If it was explored just a little bit more it wouldn't seem so random, and as I said, I think it could be very cool.

Wow, I can't believe how much I just ranted about a single line. Don't worry, folks, there's plenty more where that came from...

I agree completely with what you said about Jackson, Sophie. It is an extremely similar storyline to him surprising Olivia just a few books ago (Love Bites, MSTV#6) so I'm not really sure why SM decided to do it again. That's a really good point about him planning the surprise, not just getting the night off at the last minute: it really makes him come across as disrespectful, as you said. I appreciate that he had good intentions and you're right, he's not an outright jerk buuut that doesn't stop this just being a stupid thing to do. Like, when he phoned Olivia on the morning of the dance to tell her he couldn't come, he literally made her CRY and she felt sad throughout her entire day of planning for this awesome event she organised. If he'd just said that morning, "Surprise, I'm coming tonight!" she would have been just as excited as she was later on except without all the turmoil of missing him. Honestly I can't blame her for being slightly clingy at certain points in this book (at one point she tells him he needs to phone her because she has something urgent to tell him; later revealed to be "I miss you") with him deliberately distancing himself from her. To me this whole storyline seems to be simply building up suspense towards a plot twist at the end of the book - not something the characters would realistically do. I feel like SM could've come up with something more original - I'd actually like to see conflict between Olivia and Jackson that isn't "he's crazy busy with his career" one of these days.

Something else I wondered about this Jackson thing was how he said he took "one night off" to come to the dance. Surely he doesn't work every day and every night? It really comes across like he just works 24/7, now I think about it. Is Hollywood really that crazy? I'm not sure.

Another thing that's never really made sense to me in this book is how Olivia's movie is postponed because the Hollywood writers went on strike. Didn't she already have the script? I don't really see how the writers going on strike pushes back a film that's already been written...

This one's a small thing but on page 61 it says Horatio has a plaster on his forehead after Ivy hit him with her coffin lid. How did her opening a coffin injure his head?

I think the introduction of Wallachia was a very interesting idea and it was great to see more of the Count and Countess - particularly in a different light, beginning to perform their role of grandparents. It kind of frustrated me how they said Ivy couldn't tell Olivia about it though. It's just a school!! I guess the vamps don't want the humans freaking out that there's a place where vamps can hone their powers and grow stronger? Maybe that makes sense then.

One thing I really loooved was Charlotte's evolution in this story. She could so easily have gone back to being the mean girl after her brief gesture of friendship to Olivia in the last book - but she didn't. It's great to see this kind of progression in a long series like this. It's mad to think that just a few books ago she was so jealous of Olivia being with Jackson that she talked about kissing him in the school play just to get back at Olivia - and in this book she cries as she watches them slow dance together! That's so adorable.

At the end of this book there's an interview with Georgia Huntingdon, and at the end of it Olivia and Ivy say "Bye, Gloria!" This confuses me so much. Is it meant to be a joke? Or is it SM forgetting the name of the character, and it somehow slipped through proof-reading??

Overall this isn't one of my favourite books in the series, but I like it a lot. It took the series in some new directions (Wallachia, Charlotte being nice, Olivia party-planning, intro of new characters etc.), some of which paid off, some of which didn't in my opinion. But at the end of the day, experimentation is a good thing I think. Twin Spins was refreshing but was still a classic MSTV book. I noticed how lots of events take place within the same day, which reminded me of the early books in the series, so that was really nice. I also liked how we saw the twins making mistakes more in this story (i.e. Olivia fighting back against the bullies with bullying, and Ivy responding to her grandparents with frustration and not noticing Brendan's feelings) and how other characters influenced the story a little more (i.e. Jenny dealing with the Terrible Trio).

The more I think about this whole Jackson thing, the more it gives me the creeps. He should not be messing around anyone like that, especially not his long-distance girlfriend who already has to go through so much anguish from him being famous. Jerk move J.

Wow haha, that does make it sound like he works 24/7. His work probably involves a lot of publicity, script memorising and travelling as well as the filming, writing and attending premieres. It all sounds exhausting. I hope his parents are looking out for him. Speaking of, are his parents ever mentioned in the books? I don't believe they are, that could be an interesting story line.

Maybe they can't use the script material if the writers have gone on strike because although it exists, it's their creative property. If they haven't agreed terms then they can't use it?

Horatio was bending over the coffin to wake Ivy up, maybe.

But it's Olivia!? Do they really think she'd freak out about that? It does make sense because they're so obsessed with tradition but that doesn't make it right. You think the whole Charles/Susannah situation would have opened their eyes. What was their plan anyway. If Ivy went away to boarding school, I'm pretty sure Olivia would have noticed her missing!

Love your last paragraph. I think I agree with all of that.