The Beast Must Die

Sweet Valley Twins #99

by Francine Pascal (Creator)

On a hill on the outskirts of Sweet Valley sits a beautiful old Victorian house. It stood empty until a few weeks ago, when a big family moved in . . . the perfect clients for Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield's new baby-sitting service . . .

When identical twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield began baby-sitting for the Riccoli family, they soon learned of the kids' bad dreams. Overactive imaginations, they thought. But slowly, the terrifying truth becomes undeniable. The nightmares are real. Something evil is in the kids' house and in their dreams. Something that wants them dead.

Elizabeth and Jessica try to keep the Riccoli kids from falling asleep, but how much longer can any of them stay awake? There's only one thing left to do: The baby-sitters and the kids must enter the deadly world of their dreams. And morning is a long time away.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Horror, Fiction, Mystery

135 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steven is not useless in this one - at least at first. He saves little Andrew Riccoli from a fire started by Freddy Krueger - I mean Eva Sullivan. Then his plot goes back to being the worst. He and Joe are competing for the attention of a girl named Karen whose lawn they mow. The loser who cannot ask her out first has to join the twins in babysitting the Riccoli kids. Steven loses, obviously, because he thinks he is hot shit but isn’t.

Now on to the purpose of these books. Alice is still being shady about the Riccoli mansion and what she knows. But, as it turns out, Amy, Winston, and Todd’s parents all know something about Eva Sullivan as well. But none of them are fessing up. We get flashbacks that are clearly leading to disaster... it’s obvious Eva is dead, because she is haunting everyone in their dreams... and out to kill them as well. Now the twins and Todd are all being stalked by Eva. Amy, Todd, and Winston come together to help the twins get through a weekend of babysitting the kids. Jessica thinks they can stay awake with coffee, but it turns out to be decaf, and Jess doesn’t make it right. So then Amy suggests they play board games to stay awake. That sounds like an idiotic idea to me but whatever. Then Jess comes up with a plan to stay awake that involves everybody sleeping in 15 minute intervals. Only Winston wakes up and trips over the alarm clock cord at one point, while Eva cackles to the reader that all her plans are coming together. None of them recognize lucid dreaming for what it is, but Liz somehow knows that if they wake up after five minutes Eva won’t have time to get to them in their dreams. But after the alarm clock doesn’t work, they all head up (in the same dream, apparently) to the roof of the house, where Eva traps them. That’s where the story ends, for now. Next is the conclusion that I’m hoping has 100% more Eva and 100% less Steven.

[Nicole Power]

When I was a kid, someone gave me this book, but not the previous two or final one in the series, so I was stuck on this cliffhanger for 20 years

[Kathryn]

Scared myself to death with this miniseries when I was in middle school, and frankly it was still a little creepy as an adult.

[Marian · Rating 2 out of 5]

What. The. Hell?

First off, the cover is too awesome for the contents of this book. Second, so much wtf and so little time.

Did you ever think it was just not believable that parents would leave their kids with the BSC in super specials overnight? I know some of you did because I had to slog through many a review that said just that.

The Riccoli parents are the absolute worst and should perhaps be under investigation if for nothing else other than what they choose to do at the start of the book. When your kid nearly burns down his room/the house/everyone inside, you don't leave the very same babysitters who were there for this catastrophe in charge of your kids (including the firestarter!) to skip across the country. You don't. I get that Mrs. Riccoli's mother is ill and needs her daughter, but Mr. Riccoli also left to go to Florida. If the dude could leave where he was, he could have just spent the weekend in Sweet Valley watching his kids. Or they could've dragged everyone along. Or at the very least, begged Ned and Alice to let the kids stay at Casa Wakefield. I know babysitting plots require a serious suspension of disbelief but even younger!me would've thought this insane. Which is probably why I remember NOTHING about this arc beyond the memory of finding them and haunting Kmart for the next one. The covers are amazing.

I also can't accept this weird retcon of SV lore where Todd's father (pretty sure his name isn't Jim), Amy's mother, and Winston's father (but why is his mother the one acting squirrelly?) were all super best friends with Alice when they were kids. I really hate Eva's parents guilt tripping poor Alice into giving up her Halloween to babysit their kid so they can go to a party. Annnnnnnnnd I super hate that they're stretching this flashback out over four books.

Steven continues to be the worst, only moreso because I'd forgotten that he's got a girlfriend which means him chasing after his new client's daughter is just eye-rolling at best. His best moment is at the start of the book when he saves the day but even that only happens because he's set out to scare his sisters- AGAIN.

All of this and we haven't even really hit the WTF moment of the monster haunting everyone's dreams in no time at all, so the solution is to have everyone fall asleep at the same time. I... really? Not sleeping in rounds or trading shifts like the night before or something else that doesn't hinge on there not being a power outage or someone knocking the alarm a little too hard? Really?

I know plot has to plot but geez.

Unexpected takeaway from this book- I would read a book about plucky Dyan not!Sutton and her adventures. I'm not sure why, but I would.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ew, Alice and Todd's dad?

Also, didn't they start an entire baby-sitting company? Why on earth are they only sitting for these kids over and over again? And who flies to another state for a weekend and leaves TWELVE YEAR OLDS behind to take care of their kids?!

[MK · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're getting there. We're getting there.

[Dove Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literally nothing happens. This is the absolute lowest point of the entire Twins run.

[Goge (BARRONS) le Moning Maniac, · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Taylor Troncin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live Sweet Valley and I loved this series-within-a-series! Spooky!!

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover just not the story.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thsi little mini-series within the series was just SO over the top. I loved it of course!