What do you think?
Rate this book
Sweet Valley University #11
Take Back the Night
A wound that won't heal...
Jessica Wakefield's dream relationship has turned into a nightmare. Assaulted by James Montgomery on a date, she finds the courage to report the crime. Now it's James word against hers, and the whole university stands in judgment.
Elizabeth Wakefield is on a crusade to help her sister. She's found a witness to prove her sister's case, but can she convince the witness to step forward before it's too late?
Haunted by her troubled past, Alexandra Rollins makes a desperate call to the university hot line. The man who answers has a wonderful voice and a genuine desire to help. Will she fall in love with just a voice?
Jessica Wakefield's dream relationship has turned into a nightmare. Assaulted by James Montgomery on a date, she finds the courage to report the crime. Now it's James word against hers, and the whole university stands in judgment.
Elizabeth Wakefield is on a crusade to help her sister. She's found a witness to prove her sister's case, but can she convince the witness to step forward before it's too late?
Haunted by her troubled past, Alexandra Rollins makes a desperate call to the university hot line. The man who answers has a wonderful voice and a genuine desire to help. Will she fall in love with just a voice?
230 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
5 people are currently reading
240 people want to read
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,139 books1,843 followersFrancine 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 28, 2012
This book is completely un-cannon. It handles a serious issue in a pretty non-snark-worthy way.
Campus rape is a very big deal, even in 2012. Take Back the Night has Jessica dealing with the aftermath of being assaulted by James Montgomery who, on the cover, looks like a serial killer. The book progresses and Jessica finally decides to press charges against James after the Take Back the Night campus march for women's rights and victims of sexual assault. The girl who was actually raped by James, Maia Stillwater, says over and over again that she just cannot confront James. During the hearing the Wakefields are made a mockery of without this missing piece. The leader of the hearing says that Jessica does not have sufficient evidence to prove her accusation. Lo and behold, Maia comes in at the last minute to save the day. She moves everyone with her confession. James ends up weeping in his hands. That's not snark... he actually does that.
So I need to back the truck on up and say a few things.
1. Why now, Francine? Bruce has been an attempted rapist in Sweet Valley forever, to say nothing of John Pfeiffer raping Lila (she has her own problems now, but I wish Jessica had told her to see if the continuity would have stuck). Whenever Jessica and Liz were almost raped in SVH, they never even thought about pressing charges. It was all quickly laughed off. It's comical the ghostwriters are pretending like this is the first time this has ever happened to Jessica. She's certainly acting like she's never gone out with a douchebag before.
2. Speaking of Bruce, what he says at the end to the Sigmas is so fucking comical. He tells them to stop threatening Jess and leave her alone... WHEN HE HAS TRIED TO RAPE HER TOO BEFORE!! He also says, "If there is one thing Jessica Wakefield isn't, it's a liar." I honestly have no valid response to that. I guess she's not, since she doesn't consider cheating on all of her boyfriends to be a lie. I guess it's not since they all know she's a cunt anyway.
3. And speaking of that, let me be clear to those reading this review that might have been raped or almost raped: Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, deserves to be raped. But let us all agree that Jessica Wakefield has proven herself again and again to be a first class cunt. This is a ridiculous fictional world, and I can understand you getting mad in the real world at somebody saying that a person deserved it, but you cannot even get angry at me for saying what I'm about to say. While Jessica did not deserve to get assaulted by James in the previous book, she did deserve it, in some measure, if only because of the karma she has put out in the world. Now, all the men of Sweet Valley are cunts too. But Jessica is horrid at picking men (since they are usually just playthings anyway). If you don't think I'm right, please go read Double Love, Power Play, and the entire Margo miniseries.
4. Jessica has a talk with her former husband Mike in this book. It's so funny that now that they are separated he is such an angel. Maybe it's not that every guy in SV is an asshat, just that the Wakefield twins bring out the worst in them. There's a theory with merit.
Okay, onto the subplots.
Lila and Bruce are still stuck in the wilderness by page 100. I am quite sick of this, though I absolutely adore Lila and Bruce as a couple, which makes Liz and Bruce of today so fucking ridiculous. I want to stab a fork in Francine for writing off Lila and Bruce as nothing. They are adorable. Also, everyone kind of shrugged off Lila and Bruce's disappearance until this book. Didn't they disappear on the plane more than a week ago? Jessica not giving a shit is completely normal, but Lila's and Bruce's parents? The Sigmas and Thetas also suddenly decide to organize a search party. How magnanimous of them. So they are rescued and blah blah. They finally have their grand passionate kiss (that I would care about if I weren't so bored with this book) and everyone throws them a welcome back party.
Alex loves TSquared, a hotline operator at SVU, but she also loves Noah, he of the charming smile and psychology class. She is so dense that she does not, throughout the course of this book or the previous one, ever realize that Noah and TSquared are the same person. So she thinks she is in love with two different people and conflicting emotions ensue. But these people are so dumb. Wouldn't she have recognized his voice right away for how much time she spent talking to him? Honestly.
Isabella and Danny... why are you in this book? Why does Francine insist on making you feel like legitimate characters? Their anniversary is coming up, and Isabella claims that Danny is not romantic, and he says that she is afraid of doing anything rugged. So hijinx follow when she prepares to go camping for their big day and he steals a date idea from Tom to be super romantic for Isabella. Their wires get crossed and neither one of them show up for their date zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry, I fell asleep just typing this. Moving on.
Andddd Dizzy Lizzy. She is being stalked by William White, STILL, but she, also, is too fucking stupid to realize who her stalker is. Thankfully all this nonsense comes to a head in the next book which I have unfortunately never read: "He's Watching You." I loveddddd The Return of William White Part 1 when I was younger because of all the virtual reality stuff. Despite the "Return" part of the title, I thought that William White was making his mostly first appearance. Then I learned that he's in all of these first ten books. Wow. So we get out of all of Jessica's drama with two different guys in the span of only ten books only to arrive at another Margo-like psycho, William White, who will terrorize Liz (and probably Jess, too), in the next book.
However, I won't be reading it soon. I will be reading the Return of WW Part 2 (that's William White, not World War), and this will conclude my Sweet Valley readings (for now - and I do have to finish the Margo miniseries. I saved the best for last.) I'm ready to move on to the ridiculousness of Fear Street. At least every person in those books was written deliberately as a sociopath. I still do not think Jessica was ever supposed to have any mental disorder, but she so clearly, clearly does.
Campus rape is a very big deal, even in 2012. Take Back the Night has Jessica dealing with the aftermath of being assaulted by James Montgomery who, on the cover, looks like a serial killer. The book progresses and Jessica finally decides to press charges against James after the Take Back the Night campus march for women's rights and victims of sexual assault. The girl who was actually raped by James, Maia Stillwater, says over and over again that she just cannot confront James. During the hearing the Wakefields are made a mockery of without this missing piece. The leader of the hearing says that Jessica does not have sufficient evidence to prove her accusation. Lo and behold, Maia comes in at the last minute to save the day. She moves everyone with her confession. James ends up weeping in his hands. That's not snark... he actually does that.
So I need to back the truck on up and say a few things.
1. Why now, Francine? Bruce has been an attempted rapist in Sweet Valley forever, to say nothing of John Pfeiffer raping Lila (she has her own problems now, but I wish Jessica had told her to see if the continuity would have stuck). Whenever Jessica and Liz were almost raped in SVH, they never even thought about pressing charges. It was all quickly laughed off. It's comical the ghostwriters are pretending like this is the first time this has ever happened to Jessica. She's certainly acting like she's never gone out with a douchebag before.
2. Speaking of Bruce, what he says at the end to the Sigmas is so fucking comical. He tells them to stop threatening Jess and leave her alone... WHEN HE HAS TRIED TO RAPE HER TOO BEFORE!! He also says, "If there is one thing Jessica Wakefield isn't, it's a liar." I honestly have no valid response to that. I guess she's not, since she doesn't consider cheating on all of her boyfriends to be a lie. I guess it's not since they all know she's a cunt anyway.
3. And speaking of that, let me be clear to those reading this review that might have been raped or almost raped: Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, deserves to be raped. But let us all agree that Jessica Wakefield has proven herself again and again to be a first class cunt. This is a ridiculous fictional world, and I can understand you getting mad in the real world at somebody saying that a person deserved it, but you cannot even get angry at me for saying what I'm about to say. While Jessica did not deserve to get assaulted by James in the previous book, she did deserve it, in some measure, if only because of the karma she has put out in the world. Now, all the men of Sweet Valley are cunts too. But Jessica is horrid at picking men (since they are usually just playthings anyway). If you don't think I'm right, please go read Double Love, Power Play, and the entire Margo miniseries.
4. Jessica has a talk with her former husband Mike in this book. It's so funny that now that they are separated he is such an angel. Maybe it's not that every guy in SV is an asshat, just that the Wakefield twins bring out the worst in them. There's a theory with merit.
Okay, onto the subplots.
Lila and Bruce are still stuck in the wilderness by page 100. I am quite sick of this, though I absolutely adore Lila and Bruce as a couple, which makes Liz and Bruce of today so fucking ridiculous. I want to stab a fork in Francine for writing off Lila and Bruce as nothing. They are adorable. Also, everyone kind of shrugged off Lila and Bruce's disappearance until this book. Didn't they disappear on the plane more than a week ago? Jessica not giving a shit is completely normal, but Lila's and Bruce's parents? The Sigmas and Thetas also suddenly decide to organize a search party. How magnanimous of them. So they are rescued and blah blah. They finally have their grand passionate kiss (that I would care about if I weren't so bored with this book) and everyone throws them a welcome back party.
Alex loves TSquared, a hotline operator at SVU, but she also loves Noah, he of the charming smile and psychology class. She is so dense that she does not, throughout the course of this book or the previous one, ever realize that Noah and TSquared are the same person. So she thinks she is in love with two different people and conflicting emotions ensue. But these people are so dumb. Wouldn't she have recognized his voice right away for how much time she spent talking to him? Honestly.
Isabella and Danny... why are you in this book? Why does Francine insist on making you feel like legitimate characters? Their anniversary is coming up, and Isabella claims that Danny is not romantic, and he says that she is afraid of doing anything rugged. So hijinx follow when she prepares to go camping for their big day and he steals a date idea from Tom to be super romantic for Isabella. Their wires get crossed and neither one of them show up for their date zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry, I fell asleep just typing this. Moving on.
Andddd Dizzy Lizzy. She is being stalked by William White, STILL, but she, also, is too fucking stupid to realize who her stalker is. Thankfully all this nonsense comes to a head in the next book which I have unfortunately never read: "He's Watching You." I loveddddd The Return of William White Part 1 when I was younger because of all the virtual reality stuff. Despite the "Return" part of the title, I thought that William White was making his mostly first appearance. Then I learned that he's in all of these first ten books. Wow. So we get out of all of Jessica's drama with two different guys in the span of only ten books only to arrive at another Margo-like psycho, William White, who will terrorize Liz (and probably Jess, too), in the next book.
However, I won't be reading it soon. I will be reading the Return of WW Part 2 (that's William White, not World War), and this will conclude my Sweet Valley readings (for now - and I do have to finish the Margo miniseries. I saved the best for last.) I'm ready to move on to the ridiculousness of Fear Street. At least every person in those books was written deliberately as a sociopath. I still do not think Jessica was ever supposed to have any mental disorder, but she so clearly, clearly does.
August 15, 2024
Reading sweet valley again is rather nostalgic at this age... I'm not sure if my review would be objective.. But it's a break from the adult reading I've been doing... It is a refreshing read although its all quite predictable... All's well that ends well kind of stories... But I'm enjoying nonetheless... reliving my teenage reading euphoria!
December 19, 2024
Rather amazing how much these same two girls get into! If I were them, I would never date again, what with all the werewolves, vampires and rapists running about! It was a good book, though, for what it is.
January 9, 2020
Sweet and interesting
February 26, 2017
SWEET VALLEY UNIVERSITY
Written by Francine Pascal
General Review for series as I cannot remember each novel.
I read Sweet Valley University when I was in junior high school to high school. While there is sexual content it is very mild (not explicit) compared to teen books today. If you like the Sweet Valley High you will love this series as it continues with the twins' story as they attend University and are away from their parents. I am not sure how they would relate to teens today as this was before cell phones were common and social media. They are fun teen romances with "real-life" situation. I did not complete the series as I started to save for school so I wasn't able to collect them any further (they are out of print). I still have the books I bought and may try to read one again (I did reread the series a few times).
Written by Francine Pascal
General Review for series as I cannot remember each novel.
I read Sweet Valley University when I was in junior high school to high school. While there is sexual content it is very mild (not explicit) compared to teen books today. If you like the Sweet Valley High you will love this series as it continues with the twins' story as they attend University and are away from their parents. I am not sure how they would relate to teens today as this was before cell phones were common and social media. They are fun teen romances with "real-life" situation. I did not complete the series as I started to save for school so I wasn't able to collect them any further (they are out of print). I still have the books I bought and may try to read one again (I did reread the series a few times).
June 25, 2017
Don't get me wrong; I still love the series, but this installment definitely wasn't my favorite.
Hopefully, if you've made it this far, you've read them in order, so you know what has happened to one of the Wakefield girls in the previous book No Means No. The message of this book was a little too heavy-hitting for my taste. Pretty much every character kept badgering the poor traumatized Miss Wakefield into telling the school what happened to her. Although her friends were well-intentioned, she wasn't ready to take that step. I felt she was peer-pressured into it and rushed through her healing process. However, since this is a fast-paced series, each book running a little over 200 pages, I understand why she couldn't let her refusal to speak out last longer than a couple of volumes.
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-11...
Hopefully, if you've made it this far, you've read them in order, so you know what has happened to one of the Wakefield girls in the previous book No Means No. The message of this book was a little too heavy-hitting for my taste. Pretty much every character kept badgering the poor traumatized Miss Wakefield into telling the school what happened to her. Although her friends were well-intentioned, she wasn't ready to take that step. I felt she was peer-pressured into it and rushed through her healing process. However, since this is a fast-paced series, each book running a little over 200 pages, I understand why she couldn't let her refusal to speak out last longer than a couple of volumes.
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-11...
March 26, 2011
This book details the aftermath of the incident with James. Jessica is pressing charges, and requires the help of Steven, Billie and Elizabeth to prepare. There is a Take Back The Night march on the SVU campus. Jessica has a nice talk with Mike, he says that they have to live their own lives now but that he'll always care for her. Lila and Bruce finally return to SVU.
September 13, 2007
a raping upsets the delicate and picturque balance in sweet valley. the girls decide they are not going to take it...this book shaped me as a strong woman (and created a deep hatred and distrust of all men). Breath taking.
July 26, 2015
The Sweet Valley books has become my guilty pleasure reads. This book dealt with some serious topics, but still kept it quite PG.
My only problem with the book is the varying point-of-views in one chapter, it had me guessing during the start of the book and it kinda needed some getting used to.
My only problem with the book is the varying point-of-views in one chapter, it had me guessing during the start of the book and it kinda needed some getting used to.
June 21, 2010
love these books
November 14, 2011
It's the best book to read if you have a great imagination and heart. Love the book when i read it.
June 22, 2013
I remember the cover but just not the story
April 30, 2017
It is a great book to read
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews