What do you think?
Rate this book
Sweet Valley University Thriller Editions #14
Deadly Terror: The Return of William White, Part II
Immortally yours...
William White's reign of terror continues.
Elizabeth Wakefield thought she was seeing things when William White came back into her life. But William actually survived the accident she believe had killed himand he's changed. His handsome face is heartbreakingly scarred, and he's humble, caring, and sensitive. In fact, William staged the entire Virtual Reality Fair just to win Elizabeth back. And it's working. William's timing couldn't have been more perfect. He breezed into Elizabeth's life just when her love for Tom Watts was falling apart. Once Elizabeth succumbs to William's spell, he's going to make her pay for everything she put him through...and he's going to love every minute of it....
William White's reign of terror continues.
Elizabeth Wakefield thought she was seeing things when William White came back into her life. But William actually survived the accident she believe had killed himand he's changed. His handsome face is heartbreakingly scarred, and he's humble, caring, and sensitive. In fact, William staged the entire Virtual Reality Fair just to win Elizabeth back. And it's working. William's timing couldn't have been more perfect. He breezed into Elizabeth's life just when her love for Tom Watts was falling apart. Once Elizabeth succumbs to William's spell, he's going to make her pay for everything she put him through...and he's going to love every minute of it....
- GenresYoung AdultChick Lit
280 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 12, 1999
3 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,140 books1,851 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 30, 2012
Welcome to "Can you Take the Psychopath out of the psycho? and Can you Take the High School Out of the College Girl?" or SVU Thriller Edition #14, "Deadly Terror: The Return of William White Part 2."
The answer to both of those questions, my friends, is no. And no.
I was OBSESSED with the first part of this William White resurrection thing when I was younger. First, here was someone about as crazy as Margo. Second, it was virtual reality!! That seemed really fucking cool to me in 1999 when I was 12 years old. I do remember being bored by everyone's Virtual Reality dreams who wasn't Liz or perhaps Lila, but I still found it way more intriguing than I would find it now. If I read it today I'm sure I would be bored to tears. So I didn't bother to reread it. I remember enough of what happened in part 1. I always thought I had read part 2, but finishing it today I couldn't place anything as being really familiar. If I did read it it's just been so long that I didn't recall any of this at all.
I am going to review this book chronologically as best I can, the first time I have ever done that for a Sweet Valley book. That's the way most of the other snark is done, but I just usually cannot bring myself to laboriously comment on each chapter. I don't know that I'll go that far, but I have to go chronologically in this case because the foreshadowing will just have you in stitches. Without further hemhawing:
When we last left our fair maiden at the end of Part 1, she was clutching a white rose and seeing William White in front of her for the first time. I mean in real life, not just in her Virtual Reality dreams. We open with William persuading Liz that he is back, he is alive and well, and he has changed. Liz doesn't know what to say, other than to protest him being alive (in her defense, she was just mindfucked by Virtual Reality). She sees that one half of his face is deeply scarred from "He's Watching You," in which Liz thought that he had perished when she drove them both into a tree. She is terrified beyond belief by all of this, and eventually runs away back to her dorm while dropping the white rose on the ground.
Our heroic Tom wakes up and wonders where the hell he is. He was hit in the back of the head at the end of the last book. He remembers vaguely that Liz seemed to be frightened and he was going after her. He gets up and sees a low-hanging branch in his way. He figures that must be what he hit his head on, until he notices that the lump is in the BACK of his head. What could that possibly be about? he wonders. Oh-ho-ho Tom. I've no idea.
Up in Dickenson room number 28, Jessica is being Jessica when the phone rings and she hears that it is Charles Sampson, he from some plotline in SVH that I did not read. Basically, Jessica co-starred on The Young and the Beautiful when she caught the attention of Charles Sampson, who really wanted to put her in his movie Checkered Houses. Apparently, Jessica had to cancel with Charles in order to salvage her relationship with Sam Woodruff (remember him?). In that case, Sam might be the only person that made Jessica slightly less sociopathic. She mourned him the most, anyway (though it was her fault he died). Well - because Jessica is a girl who only lives to relive her high school glory days - she immediately picks up the phone and starts shooting the shit with Charles. He says he can't believe it's been two years, and he expected her to be married with kids by now. Well, he got one out of two sort of right. But kids? At 18? What the fuck is he smoking? He is calling to ask Jessica to the IM Gala awards. Jess bristles at being his second choice, but obviously she is not going to say no to this opportunity. When they hang up she immediately ransacks her room because she has "nothing to wear."
Liz storms in looking for the phone so she can call the police. She starts to get hysterical when she can't find it until she notices that Jessica is in the room with her. She immediately tells Jessica that she saw William White. Jess goes a little pale for a moment until Liz tells her that William is swearing that he has changed. Jess perks right on up, since she doesn't have time for Liz's petty little problems with a psychopath. Can't Liz see that she has absolutely NOTHING to WEAR?! Liz says that he tried to give her a white rose again. "Who doesn't like flowers?" is Jessica's response. Liz is incredulous. "From a psychopath?!" she screams. "Flowers are flowers," says Jessica. Yes, yes. I see her point. A rose from Ted Bundy would smell just as sweet. It goes without saying that Liz is an idiot from the very beginning. Of course she cannot trust her sister's opinion because her OWN SISTER IS A FUCKING SOCIOPATH!! Jessica believing William should be the first red flag. So Liz calls Detective Kaydon, and here is where I take many an issue.
The good old Detective lets her Liz know that HE KNEW that William was not dead this whole time but "he didn't want to worry" her. He says that William was moved around until he found a home with Dr. Denby, his psychiatrist. They were given reports on everything that William appeared to be doing fine. BUT NONE OF THESE DETECTIVES EVER CHECKED ANYTHING OUT THEMSELVES!!!! Oh, why am I surprised?!
Tom shows up at the door to see why Liz was in such distress. He guesses wrong, but I am totally on his side in this book, being that I've recently tried to get a lot of time with my boyfriend but haven't had a lot of luck. I don't think Tom is out of line at all. He's seeing what's wrong with his girlfriend, which is understandable, since the Cyber Fair freaked everyone out. Instead of Liz being glad that she has an awesome boyfriend to come make sure she's okay, she gets snappy and short with him and says that she has to go to the library to work on a new archiving project (like the one in your Virtual Reality dream, Liz? hmmm). Tom is miffed that she doesn't want to spend time with him and collapses on Liz's bed.
The librarian John Petrie leads Liz down through the basement where there are newly discovered tunnels and amazing artifacts. Liz will be doing some cataloging work for John. Hmm. I wonder just if all these tunnels might become a huge part of the plot later on? He tells her that she absolutely cannot eat down there (why not? I'm sure tons of rats are already down there anyway), and when they get to the room she will be working in he shows her a gas pipe and warns her to never mess with it because it could cause a leak. Also, if one of the lights along the wall gets pulled, every other light will shut off. Really, now? Honestly, guys, this book could not be more obvious. As soon as you read that it becomes so very clear as to what exactly is going to happen with Liz and William White later on.
Tom is moaning away at the WSVU station to his coworker Julie. When he unloads his Liz-sized problems on her (perfect size six problems!), she suggests that he give her flowers. After all, it sure couldn't make things worse, right? Oh, Julie. You must be so very new to Sweet Valley. Tom goes out and buys a huge and beautiful flower arrangement of pale pink flowers.
Liz comes out of the passageways up into the slightly better lit basement rooms where Shakespeare has been temporarily moved. She has to collect books on it for an English paper. How convenient. This is the perfect opportunity for William to stalk - I mean talk - with Liz. He creeps around and tries to get her to listen to reason. By which I mean the ramblings of a madman. Liz is wavering and thinking that maybe Jessica is right, maybe he really has changed. Forget sociopathic Jess. Liz is certifiably insane as well. Can you imagine if the one girl who escaped from Ted Bundy talked with him again and said, hmmm, who cares that he tried to kill me? Everybody can change!
Tom comes over the next day to see Liz's reaction to the flowers he sent her. She thinks that they smell horrible and look really tacky, but she tries to be interested in them for Tom's sake. Tom gets pissed that she is not happy that he is apologizing and trying to make things better between them. So they get in another fight. Even if he overreacted this time, I'm still taking Tom's side. Liz is a prude, and if she would have sex with Tom she wouldn't feel the need to stray from him all the time since she'd keep coming back for more. In fact, if both of the twins ever had sex with their boyfriends, they would probably both stop cheating.
Jessica is out with Lila trying to find a dress for the IM Awards. Lila has a bug up her ass from the Virtual Reality Fair (I can't remember what her dreams were about though!), and she has no interest in shopping with Jessica. Jess ends up with a purple dress and dyed shoes to match, but when she sees the Diamond Galleria she knows that she must also have a necklace to go with it, even though the dress just cleaned out all of her funds. Lila is getting sick of all this nonsense, so she tells Jessica just to borrow the jewelry for one night, and then she leaves. The man at the DG just laughs in her face so Jess heads back to the dorm in a fury.
Liz is at the dorm receiving more flowers - this time from William. He sends her wildflowers from his parents' garden. How charming. Liz is ecstatic that someone would know her so well. I, too, say the same thing to myself after receiving bouquets of wildflowers from psychopaths. Accompanied with these flowers is a note asking Liz to meet him in the library at 2:00. Well, that settles it, she thinks. He sent me these wildflowers... he must have changed! *facepalm* It goes without saying (except that I want to) that Liz is without doubt the absolute worst investigative reporter in the world. Throughout the book she does not once even check William's statements to see if he is telling her the truth.
Jess the sociopath barges in to rope her sister into a new mission. They are going back to the mall - so LIZ can convince the jeweler to lend Jessica a necklace. Liz hasn't yet realized that she's codependent, so she thinks (as usual) that she can hold out against Jessica. Wrong. We all know she will give in, so I'll just skip all this. Tom knocks on the door, once again, only to immediately see the new flowers on display and his flowers in the trash. He freaks out, believing that Liz is cheating on him. Well? She kind of is. She is leaving out the part about the fact that a guy that tried to killed both of them is NOW ON THE LOOSE AGAIN. I don't blame Tom at all, like I said. Jessica and Liz storm out to head to the mall, and Tom decides to follow them. Oh dear.
William is at the library being stood up. He realizes that Liz is probably testing him to see if he will freak out. He forgives her for everything she has done. Jessica is right. He is completely cured. No psychopath here!
Jess and Liz are at the mall to get the necklace for Jess (and to be stalked by Tom). Instead of DG, they go into Donantelli's, who apparently sells jewelry more expensive than houses (and houses in California are not cheap). I am completely bored by this filler plot, so I will go ahead and tell you that of course Jessica gets the necklace she wants (the most expensive one). Liz finally notices she's being followed, and while Jess heads back to the Gap or something for a sweater, she confronts the stalker who turns out to be... Tom. They have a huge fight in the middle of the store, and Jess and Liz stalk off back to the SVU quad.
There they find William, fresh from a session with Dr. Denby, who just advised him that maybe it would be okay to bump into Liz at the quad or the library, if he is only trying to get her to see that he's changed. William strikes up a nice conversation with Jess while admiring her necklace. He notices that the latch on the case is loose. Jessica is surprised that Donantelli would give her a broken case. I'm not. *facepalm*
That night William throws pebbles at Liz's room and asks if he can come up, and she lets him. She makes tea and they talk, and this is when she really starts to believe he has changed. She's still a bit conflicted, but, like Jessica, she brushes it off. They lean in for an almost kiss, but Liz can't bring herself to do it. I wonder why. William suppresses all anger, however, and leaves peaceably.
Tom sees all this merrymaking, and can tell from the silhouettes in Liz's dorm that she is about to kiss someone, and it isn't Jessica. He storms up to her room in (rightful) rage. He slams into her room and starts ranting about how if she wants to date some other creep, that's fine, because they are through. Tom and Liz are now broken up.
Jessica has decided to brag to everyone about the necklace but only show it to Lila. When she drags her back to the dorm for the big reveal, can you imagine what happens next? No, I don't suppose you can. The necklace is gone. (Did you guess that William stole it while he was over in order to magically make it appear later so he can win back Liz? If so, your IQ is over 70).
Jess freaks out and begins to search the whole quad with Lila in tow. She, of course, has no luck.
Liz is stuck cataloging when she is drawn to a bright and beautiful old book appearing to be a Poe first edition. She pulls it out... and gets swung around to a different room. A secret passage! Might this come in handy later?
She finally finds the lever to turn herself back around, and she barrels out of there, only to be bombarded by the Case of the Missing Necklace. The only thing she can think of is that perhaps Tom can broadcast an announcement about it on WSVU. Yes, that sounds like a fantastic plan.
However, we get an epic exchange between Liz and Tom where he basically tells her that he will NOT help her, and he is sick of her being Jessica's wingman. When Liz asks what Jess has ever done to Tom, he says, "That's a can of worms you really don't want to open." God, I love Tom so much. Except that he has such bad taste in women.
Liz decides to turn to William, the one person who can understand her. She tells him about the necklace and he agrees to help (Gee, I wonder why?). They finally find it in a shrub that Liz SWORE she searched earlier. No matter, Jessica is happy as a peach and gives Liz permission to be with William as long as she lives. Yep, she actually says that. William asks Liz out again, and she finally agrees to meet him for a date on Friday. At this point, I am really, really, really hoping that he just kills her already.
Their date is in the library, after dark, with not a single other soul around. William claims to know all the secret passageways since his family built the library. Liz, far from being alarmed, is actually in heaven to be in her favorite building at dark. I'm sorry, but I don't care how much you love school, that is fucking creepy! I would never, ever go in a building after dark where no one could hear my screams, even if I knew my boyfriend wasn't a psycho killer. Because there could be other psycho killers around. But my last name isn't Wakefield.
After eating a bit, William leads Liz down to the dark passageways where she's been doing her cataloging. You can all see this so clearly now, can't you?
Tom finally realizes that Liz isn't cheating on him (except that she is), she's just busy at the library as she claimed to be this whole time. He heads over to the library.
Liz finds out that William has been living in one of the rooms down in the dungeon (excuse me, basement). Again, she is all right with this, even when she catches the smell of death wafting around before her. Cue the theme song from Halloween.
Liz starts making out with him, but then she abruptly pulls away and tells him that she wants to take things very, very, veryyyy slowly. Right. Just a few more months and all his creepiness will be forever gone! William can no longer control his rage. This is because there is no cure for psychopath, and Liz is about to find that out.
To try and salvage the situation, she asks to meet Dr. Denby. Oh, Liz. Big mistake. She says that she'll go meet him first thing tomorrow. No! William insists. She can meet him now. So, why does it smell like death? Dun dun dun. Because Dr. Denby is right there in the room with them. Dead. Not to William, however. He talks to the Doctor like he is still alive. If you are thinking that the ghostwriters have watched Psycho one too many times, than you are having the same thoughts about this that I am.
If you were thinking of having some sympathy for Liz at this point, you should really reconsider. After all the foreshadowing I've mentioned (not to mention Will's TWO prior attempts on her life), you can see that Liz deserves every moment of this.
She runs for the door and heads for the maze of corridors. William follows, of course, with threats to cut her throat. Awww. I've missed psycho Will so much. William pulls on the lights to make them go out. (That old John Petrie. He's a psychic.)
Liz screams but keeps plowing on until she finds that old bookcase with the magic lever from earlier in the book. She swings around and heads for the door when she trips over the gas pipe. No way!! This story is just so unbelievable.
William comes to the bookcase and knows that she couldn't have escaped. He cannot believe that there is a hidden passageway he doesn't know about. He finds the lever on the bookcase and holds his lighter up to it. Boom!
Tom is running to the library and feels the ground shake. Earthquakes are actually very common in California, but since a Wakefield twin is involved, he can safely rule out earthquakes. Liz is in the building struggling to climb the stairs to freedom. So dramatic! Just get on with it, we all know that the twins will never, ever die. Not even when they are 110.
She stumbles out to freedom and into Tom's arms. All is immediately forgiven and wrapped up in the next five pages. The detectives apologize profusely for their continued incompetence in trying to run Sweet Valley. Jessica bursts in the room and demands attention with her story of the IM Awards. They aren't even able to tell her about William White. It's just as well. Why waste any more time with PTSD?
Those Wakefield twins are very fucking stupid.
Whoo. I only have 1,700 words left, but thankfully I'm done! This is why I never review these things in detail. I thought I'd do it for my last one though. I probably won't even do it for The Evil Twin, though that one is super epic. I only have those last two to read, but I'm moving on to Fear Street for a while. I need a break from Jess & Liz. They make my head hurt.
The answer to both of those questions, my friends, is no. And no.
I was OBSESSED with the first part of this William White resurrection thing when I was younger. First, here was someone about as crazy as Margo. Second, it was virtual reality!! That seemed really fucking cool to me in 1999 when I was 12 years old. I do remember being bored by everyone's Virtual Reality dreams who wasn't Liz or perhaps Lila, but I still found it way more intriguing than I would find it now. If I read it today I'm sure I would be bored to tears. So I didn't bother to reread it. I remember enough of what happened in part 1. I always thought I had read part 2, but finishing it today I couldn't place anything as being really familiar. If I did read it it's just been so long that I didn't recall any of this at all.
I am going to review this book chronologically as best I can, the first time I have ever done that for a Sweet Valley book. That's the way most of the other snark is done, but I just usually cannot bring myself to laboriously comment on each chapter. I don't know that I'll go that far, but I have to go chronologically in this case because the foreshadowing will just have you in stitches. Without further hemhawing:
When we last left our fair maiden at the end of Part 1, she was clutching a white rose and seeing William White in front of her for the first time. I mean in real life, not just in her Virtual Reality dreams. We open with William persuading Liz that he is back, he is alive and well, and he has changed. Liz doesn't know what to say, other than to protest him being alive (in her defense, she was just mindfucked by Virtual Reality). She sees that one half of his face is deeply scarred from "He's Watching You," in which Liz thought that he had perished when she drove them both into a tree. She is terrified beyond belief by all of this, and eventually runs away back to her dorm while dropping the white rose on the ground.
Our heroic Tom wakes up and wonders where the hell he is. He was hit in the back of the head at the end of the last book. He remembers vaguely that Liz seemed to be frightened and he was going after her. He gets up and sees a low-hanging branch in his way. He figures that must be what he hit his head on, until he notices that the lump is in the BACK of his head. What could that possibly be about? he wonders. Oh-ho-ho Tom. I've no idea.
Up in Dickenson room number 28, Jessica is being Jessica when the phone rings and she hears that it is Charles Sampson, he from some plotline in SVH that I did not read. Basically, Jessica co-starred on The Young and the Beautiful when she caught the attention of Charles Sampson, who really wanted to put her in his movie Checkered Houses. Apparently, Jessica had to cancel with Charles in order to salvage her relationship with Sam Woodruff (remember him?). In that case, Sam might be the only person that made Jessica slightly less sociopathic. She mourned him the most, anyway (though it was her fault he died). Well - because Jessica is a girl who only lives to relive her high school glory days - she immediately picks up the phone and starts shooting the shit with Charles. He says he can't believe it's been two years, and he expected her to be married with kids by now. Well, he got one out of two sort of right. But kids? At 18? What the fuck is he smoking? He is calling to ask Jessica to the IM Gala awards. Jess bristles at being his second choice, but obviously she is not going to say no to this opportunity. When they hang up she immediately ransacks her room because she has "nothing to wear."
Liz storms in looking for the phone so she can call the police. She starts to get hysterical when she can't find it until she notices that Jessica is in the room with her. She immediately tells Jessica that she saw William White. Jess goes a little pale for a moment until Liz tells her that William is swearing that he has changed. Jess perks right on up, since she doesn't have time for Liz's petty little problems with a psychopath. Can't Liz see that she has absolutely NOTHING to WEAR?! Liz says that he tried to give her a white rose again. "Who doesn't like flowers?" is Jessica's response. Liz is incredulous. "From a psychopath?!" she screams. "Flowers are flowers," says Jessica. Yes, yes. I see her point. A rose from Ted Bundy would smell just as sweet. It goes without saying that Liz is an idiot from the very beginning. Of course she cannot trust her sister's opinion because her OWN SISTER IS A FUCKING SOCIOPATH!! Jessica believing William should be the first red flag. So Liz calls Detective Kaydon, and here is where I take many an issue.
The good old Detective lets her Liz know that HE KNEW that William was not dead this whole time but "he didn't want to worry" her. He says that William was moved around until he found a home with Dr. Denby, his psychiatrist. They were given reports on everything that William appeared to be doing fine. BUT NONE OF THESE DETECTIVES EVER CHECKED ANYTHING OUT THEMSELVES!!!! Oh, why am I surprised?!
Tom shows up at the door to see why Liz was in such distress. He guesses wrong, but I am totally on his side in this book, being that I've recently tried to get a lot of time with my boyfriend but haven't had a lot of luck. I don't think Tom is out of line at all. He's seeing what's wrong with his girlfriend, which is understandable, since the Cyber Fair freaked everyone out. Instead of Liz being glad that she has an awesome boyfriend to come make sure she's okay, she gets snappy and short with him and says that she has to go to the library to work on a new archiving project (like the one in your Virtual Reality dream, Liz? hmmm). Tom is miffed that she doesn't want to spend time with him and collapses on Liz's bed.
The librarian John Petrie leads Liz down through the basement where there are newly discovered tunnels and amazing artifacts. Liz will be doing some cataloging work for John. Hmm. I wonder just if all these tunnels might become a huge part of the plot later on? He tells her that she absolutely cannot eat down there (why not? I'm sure tons of rats are already down there anyway), and when they get to the room she will be working in he shows her a gas pipe and warns her to never mess with it because it could cause a leak. Also, if one of the lights along the wall gets pulled, every other light will shut off. Really, now? Honestly, guys, this book could not be more obvious. As soon as you read that it becomes so very clear as to what exactly is going to happen with Liz and William White later on.
Tom is moaning away at the WSVU station to his coworker Julie. When he unloads his Liz-sized problems on her (perfect size six problems!), she suggests that he give her flowers. After all, it sure couldn't make things worse, right? Oh, Julie. You must be so very new to Sweet Valley. Tom goes out and buys a huge and beautiful flower arrangement of pale pink flowers.
Liz comes out of the passageways up into the slightly better lit basement rooms where Shakespeare has been temporarily moved. She has to collect books on it for an English paper. How convenient. This is the perfect opportunity for William to stalk - I mean talk - with Liz. He creeps around and tries to get her to listen to reason. By which I mean the ramblings of a madman. Liz is wavering and thinking that maybe Jessica is right, maybe he really has changed. Forget sociopathic Jess. Liz is certifiably insane as well. Can you imagine if the one girl who escaped from Ted Bundy talked with him again and said, hmmm, who cares that he tried to kill me? Everybody can change!
Tom comes over the next day to see Liz's reaction to the flowers he sent her. She thinks that they smell horrible and look really tacky, but she tries to be interested in them for Tom's sake. Tom gets pissed that she is not happy that he is apologizing and trying to make things better between them. So they get in another fight. Even if he overreacted this time, I'm still taking Tom's side. Liz is a prude, and if she would have sex with Tom she wouldn't feel the need to stray from him all the time since she'd keep coming back for more. In fact, if both of the twins ever had sex with their boyfriends, they would probably both stop cheating.
Jessica is out with Lila trying to find a dress for the IM Awards. Lila has a bug up her ass from the Virtual Reality Fair (I can't remember what her dreams were about though!), and she has no interest in shopping with Jessica. Jess ends up with a purple dress and dyed shoes to match, but when she sees the Diamond Galleria she knows that she must also have a necklace to go with it, even though the dress just cleaned out all of her funds. Lila is getting sick of all this nonsense, so she tells Jessica just to borrow the jewelry for one night, and then she leaves. The man at the DG just laughs in her face so Jess heads back to the dorm in a fury.
Liz is at the dorm receiving more flowers - this time from William. He sends her wildflowers from his parents' garden. How charming. Liz is ecstatic that someone would know her so well. I, too, say the same thing to myself after receiving bouquets of wildflowers from psychopaths. Accompanied with these flowers is a note asking Liz to meet him in the library at 2:00. Well, that settles it, she thinks. He sent me these wildflowers... he must have changed! *facepalm* It goes without saying (except that I want to) that Liz is without doubt the absolute worst investigative reporter in the world. Throughout the book she does not once even check William's statements to see if he is telling her the truth.
Jess the sociopath barges in to rope her sister into a new mission. They are going back to the mall - so LIZ can convince the jeweler to lend Jessica a necklace. Liz hasn't yet realized that she's codependent, so she thinks (as usual) that she can hold out against Jessica. Wrong. We all know she will give in, so I'll just skip all this. Tom knocks on the door, once again, only to immediately see the new flowers on display and his flowers in the trash. He freaks out, believing that Liz is cheating on him. Well? She kind of is. She is leaving out the part about the fact that a guy that tried to killed both of them is NOW ON THE LOOSE AGAIN. I don't blame Tom at all, like I said. Jessica and Liz storm out to head to the mall, and Tom decides to follow them. Oh dear.
William is at the library being stood up. He realizes that Liz is probably testing him to see if he will freak out. He forgives her for everything she has done. Jessica is right. He is completely cured. No psychopath here!
Jess and Liz are at the mall to get the necklace for Jess (and to be stalked by Tom). Instead of DG, they go into Donantelli's, who apparently sells jewelry more expensive than houses (and houses in California are not cheap). I am completely bored by this filler plot, so I will go ahead and tell you that of course Jessica gets the necklace she wants (the most expensive one). Liz finally notices she's being followed, and while Jess heads back to the Gap or something for a sweater, she confronts the stalker who turns out to be... Tom. They have a huge fight in the middle of the store, and Jess and Liz stalk off back to the SVU quad.
There they find William, fresh from a session with Dr. Denby, who just advised him that maybe it would be okay to bump into Liz at the quad or the library, if he is only trying to get her to see that he's changed. William strikes up a nice conversation with Jess while admiring her necklace. He notices that the latch on the case is loose. Jessica is surprised that Donantelli would give her a broken case. I'm not. *facepalm*
That night William throws pebbles at Liz's room and asks if he can come up, and she lets him. She makes tea and they talk, and this is when she really starts to believe he has changed. She's still a bit conflicted, but, like Jessica, she brushes it off. They lean in for an almost kiss, but Liz can't bring herself to do it. I wonder why. William suppresses all anger, however, and leaves peaceably.
Tom sees all this merrymaking, and can tell from the silhouettes in Liz's dorm that she is about to kiss someone, and it isn't Jessica. He storms up to her room in (rightful) rage. He slams into her room and starts ranting about how if she wants to date some other creep, that's fine, because they are through. Tom and Liz are now broken up.
Jessica has decided to brag to everyone about the necklace but only show it to Lila. When she drags her back to the dorm for the big reveal, can you imagine what happens next? No, I don't suppose you can. The necklace is gone. (Did you guess that William stole it while he was over in order to magically make it appear later so he can win back Liz? If so, your IQ is over 70).
Jess freaks out and begins to search the whole quad with Lila in tow. She, of course, has no luck.
Liz is stuck cataloging when she is drawn to a bright and beautiful old book appearing to be a Poe first edition. She pulls it out... and gets swung around to a different room. A secret passage! Might this come in handy later?
She finally finds the lever to turn herself back around, and she barrels out of there, only to be bombarded by the Case of the Missing Necklace. The only thing she can think of is that perhaps Tom can broadcast an announcement about it on WSVU. Yes, that sounds like a fantastic plan.
However, we get an epic exchange between Liz and Tom where he basically tells her that he will NOT help her, and he is sick of her being Jessica's wingman. When Liz asks what Jess has ever done to Tom, he says, "That's a can of worms you really don't want to open." God, I love Tom so much. Except that he has such bad taste in women.
Liz decides to turn to William, the one person who can understand her. She tells him about the necklace and he agrees to help (Gee, I wonder why?). They finally find it in a shrub that Liz SWORE she searched earlier. No matter, Jessica is happy as a peach and gives Liz permission to be with William as long as she lives. Yep, she actually says that. William asks Liz out again, and she finally agrees to meet him for a date on Friday. At this point, I am really, really, really hoping that he just kills her already.
Their date is in the library, after dark, with not a single other soul around. William claims to know all the secret passageways since his family built the library. Liz, far from being alarmed, is actually in heaven to be in her favorite building at dark. I'm sorry, but I don't care how much you love school, that is fucking creepy! I would never, ever go in a building after dark where no one could hear my screams, even if I knew my boyfriend wasn't a psycho killer. Because there could be other psycho killers around. But my last name isn't Wakefield.
After eating a bit, William leads Liz down to the dark passageways where she's been doing her cataloging. You can all see this so clearly now, can't you?
Tom finally realizes that Liz isn't cheating on him (except that she is), she's just busy at the library as she claimed to be this whole time. He heads over to the library.
Liz finds out that William has been living in one of the rooms down in the dungeon (excuse me, basement). Again, she is all right with this, even when she catches the smell of death wafting around before her. Cue the theme song from Halloween.
Liz starts making out with him, but then she abruptly pulls away and tells him that she wants to take things very, very, veryyyy slowly. Right. Just a few more months and all his creepiness will be forever gone! William can no longer control his rage. This is because there is no cure for psychopath, and Liz is about to find that out.
To try and salvage the situation, she asks to meet Dr. Denby. Oh, Liz. Big mistake. She says that she'll go meet him first thing tomorrow. No! William insists. She can meet him now. So, why does it smell like death? Dun dun dun. Because Dr. Denby is right there in the room with them. Dead. Not to William, however. He talks to the Doctor like he is still alive. If you are thinking that the ghostwriters have watched Psycho one too many times, than you are having the same thoughts about this that I am.
If you were thinking of having some sympathy for Liz at this point, you should really reconsider. After all the foreshadowing I've mentioned (not to mention Will's TWO prior attempts on her life), you can see that Liz deserves every moment of this.
She runs for the door and heads for the maze of corridors. William follows, of course, with threats to cut her throat. Awww. I've missed psycho Will so much. William pulls on the lights to make them go out. (That old John Petrie. He's a psychic.)
Liz screams but keeps plowing on until she finds that old bookcase with the magic lever from earlier in the book. She swings around and heads for the door when she trips over the gas pipe. No way!! This story is just so unbelievable.
William comes to the bookcase and knows that she couldn't have escaped. He cannot believe that there is a hidden passageway he doesn't know about. He finds the lever on the bookcase and holds his lighter up to it. Boom!
Tom is running to the library and feels the ground shake. Earthquakes are actually very common in California, but since a Wakefield twin is involved, he can safely rule out earthquakes. Liz is in the building struggling to climb the stairs to freedom. So dramatic! Just get on with it, we all know that the twins will never, ever die. Not even when they are 110.
She stumbles out to freedom and into Tom's arms. All is immediately forgiven and wrapped up in the next five pages. The detectives apologize profusely for their continued incompetence in trying to run Sweet Valley. Jessica bursts in the room and demands attention with her story of the IM Awards. They aren't even able to tell her about William White. It's just as well. Why waste any more time with PTSD?
Those Wakefield twins are very fucking stupid.
Whoo. I only have 1,700 words left, but thankfully I'm done! This is why I never review these things in detail. I thought I'd do it for my last one though. I probably won't even do it for The Evil Twin, though that one is super epic. I only have those last two to read, but I'm moving on to Fear Street for a while. I need a break from Jess & Liz. They make my head hurt.
June 19, 2015
What is not to like about this book? Jessica dating some producer at an awards show and spending more money than she owns, usually enough for its own book, is the C-plot in a book that has Tom Watts being a douche, as well as an inept stalker, and throwing tantrums because Elizabeth did not say thank you meaningfully when he sent her flowers. (Tom Watts is an enormous bag of dicks.) Meanwhile, William White is totally Not Dead, if you couldn't figure out from the title, and is in fact seeing a psychiatrist, and intent on courting Elizabeth because he really really loves her and is not trying to kill her. So she dates him! (He didn't ACTUALLY kill her friends, after all, he only TRIED.) But then she feels guilty and wants to take it slowly, so he... tries to kill her. Ah, William. Never change. Or do, really, because you have attempted to murder a lot of folks.
This book also includes the following things:
- after-hours library picnics! (that's pretty solid)
- an underground maze!
- ...filled with SECRET PASSAGES
- a rotting corpse being used as a sounding board for insane plans
- an explosion!
This book also includes the following things:
- after-hours library picnics! (that's pretty solid)
- an underground maze!
- ...filled with SECRET PASSAGES
- a rotting corpse being used as a sounding board for insane plans
- an explosion!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews