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Sweet Valley University Thriller Editions #4
The House of Death
When a deadly earthquake hits Sweet Valley University...
Lila Fowler is trapped in a collapsed building. When she emerges from a coma, will a brilliant young psychiatrist help her build a new life - or turn her dreams to rubble?
Porter Davis is thrilled to have Lila under his spell. And the more deeply he controls her mind, the more villainous his plans for her become.
Bruce Patman knows Porter Davis is bad news, but Lila refuses to heed Bruce's warnings. Can Bruce make Lila see through Porter's perfect facade before it's too late?
Jessica Wakefield feels bad that Tom Watts lost his dorm room in the earthquake - but that doesn't mean she wants him for a roommate. Will Jessica make Elizabeth choose between her boyfriend and her twin sister?
Lila Fowler is trapped in a collapsed building. When she emerges from a coma, will a brilliant young psychiatrist help her build a new life - or turn her dreams to rubble?
Porter Davis is thrilled to have Lila under his spell. And the more deeply he controls her mind, the more villainous his plans for her become.
Bruce Patman knows Porter Davis is bad news, but Lila refuses to heed Bruce's warnings. Can Bruce make Lila see through Porter's perfect facade before it's too late?
Jessica Wakefield feels bad that Tom Watts lost his dorm room in the earthquake - but that doesn't mean she wants him for a roommate. Will Jessica make Elizabeth choose between her boyfriend and her twin sister?
- GenresYoung AdultChick Lit
283 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1995
180 people want to read
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,139 books1,846 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.
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October 29, 2023
The Halloween Re-readalong continues this year as we incorporate SVU for the first time. We chose a Lila centric book because sometimes you need Ms. Fowler to chase away the Wakefield of it all.
Sadly, Ms. Fowler is basically here in name only, as the book opens with Lila not on her A (or B or even her C game) as her never before mentioned and likely never mentioned again Aunt Katherine's will is read. Aunt Katherine, if you're playing along at home, is her mother's sister (anyone got a copy of the Fowlers of Sweet Valley and the family tree handy?) who was recently murdered at her cliffside mansion home. And by recently, I mean like, within the month. Perhaps even within the week? That same mansion, and nearly everything else, is willed to Lila because Katherine viewed Lila as the daughter she never had. Aw. Lila flips out because the idea of living in the home where her favored aunt was murdered is just too much for her. Which is actually fair. Especially with it being SUCH a recent death.
Bruce Patman, Lila's boyfriend, points out that when Katherine willed Lila everything, it was because she knew how much Lila loved the mansion and how much it felt like home to her (side note: need a fic set in this clearly AU with happy Lila growing up with her aunt making her feel less lonely ASAP) and that Katherine wouldn't want Lila to feel burdened or unhappy with this. Which is fair but also the woman didn't know she was gonna be murdered in her home, Bruce. Maybe that should also be taken into consideration. But this book has no time for such luxuries! We're moving at breakneck speed here, people, so I'm gonna need you to keep the fuck up!
Bruce convinces Lila to go look at the house and keep an open mind. He promises to meet her there the next day (why not go together? Because the book needs to happen!) and so we're off. Lila arrives first and is pissed when Bruce is running late. She actually has a bit of a mental breakdown in the car that is not really dealt with, and then eventually heads inside where she continues to meltdown. Lila. Honey? You didn't have to go inside alone. :/
Bruce knows Lila's gonna be pissed and is speeding up the twisty SV mountains to get to the yellow mansion (of DEATH?) when he nearly runs into a little old lady whose car has a flat. Bruce Patman of all people takes time to change this lady's flat tire and then the earthquake hits...and he stays with her to make sure she's okay, all the while worrying like hell about Lila. Little ol' lady sends him on his way because she's fine and that quake was nothing. Bruce tries to speed up to Lila, only to realize the road is uh, not in passable condition. Luckily for Bruce, he's gonna pull off a move we'll later see in Spiceworld: The Movie and flies over the pesky gap in the road... that is literally never mentioned again. o_O I docked a star here, btw, for a culmination of things, but also you don't get to pretend the roadway being so fucked up that it takes a miracle and some stunt driving is required to pass and then have it NOT be a thing when the emergency vehicles will need to come through.
There's a thing where Bruce calls 911 after the quake and tries to get someone out to check on Lila and the dispatcher is like "yeah, no, hun. We can't send people out to check on someone who might or might not be hurt when there are actual emergencies" and Bruce doesn't use his last name or Lila's to get shit done. No fucking way he wouldn't play either of those cards. Not even nicer Bruce wouldn't have used that if it would've meant Lila got help. In fact, not once in this ENTIRE book does Bruce play the Patman card. I really don't think this ghosty knew or cared to know that Lila and Bruce come from super important SV families.
So. Lila's at the house when the quake hits and she winds up under a huge, and heavy, armoire. Bruce breaks into the house, eventually finds Lila and with strength borne of desperation, moves this heavy antique and rescues Lila. He calls 911 and we wind up at the hospital (Fowler Memorial, I presume? Seriously, I cannot stress how important Lila and Bruce's families are. Why or how would it be up to Jessica to call and alert the Fowlers when Lila is brought in? WTF.) and much is made about how touch and go Lila's coma condition is. Jessica's pissed at Bruce because he seems to be asleep in the waiting room but she's also pissed when he's been visibly crying so... It's been ages since I re-read any of the SVU books, but it's weird to compare this to any of the SVH books where Bruce gets a pass when he's visibly showing true emotion or when any character who is normally an asshole takes time to rescue another character ,let alone one they claim to love. Huh. Then again, this ghosty thinks Bruce has brown hair, plays football, and that Lila's got icy blue eyes so whatcha gonna do? Actually, I have NFI if SVU!Bruce plays football. but it's still weird to me so I'm letting the complaint stand.
Jesus, me, you haven't even hit the main villain here. Hurry it up.
While in the hospital, we find out that a young intern spies Lila being brought in and falls in instalove with her* and goes out of his way to be with her. Lila wakes from her coma enough to see this intern (who is then a resident and none of this makes sense given his actual past but whatever?) and thinks him an angel. Her friends and family are like, "Lila, you didn't see an angel, you were coming out of a coma." Lila's pissed that they're so dismissive of her... even when she meets her 'angel' and it turns out to just be a guy named Porter. Who looks like an angel, though my brain cast someone else entirely in the role (David Tolliver/Andrew Stevens from Murder, She Wrote S1 E5 which also featured a Lila and you're welcome for that trivia)... So. Lila knows Porter isn't an angel but is still mad that her friends and family didn't believe her.
...
'K.
Porter is assigned to oversee her mental health before she can be discharged and I do not have words for how WTF this is, so we knock another star off in general for the WTF that happens here because story's gotta story but I don't gotta love it. Within the span of a week or a few days, Lila falls under Porter's spell utterly and completely because he plays the "no one understands you because you're special and have transcended them... but I understand because I too am special and transcendent" card to such a degree that when Bruce is ON TIME to pick Lila up but isn't early, Lila catches a ride back to SVU with Porter. When Bruce catches up with Lila at her room, she dumps him and I'd love to be mad at her for this but I get it. She blames him for what happened, though she does lash out a little hard because dude did risk serious injury to lift that armoire off you. That's not him bragging or not being humble, that's him stating facts.
Anyway, Lila almost immediately realizes just how fucked she'd be if another quake happened, and by this point she and Porter are beyond medical and into personal.
In a moment that made me close the book and ask God why, why was s/he doing this to me, Porter and Lila are at the beach, walking along and he points to the cliffs at a visible yellow mansion (of DEATH?) and says his dream is to live there with Lila. How the fuck is his house visible from the beach if Bruce was up in the motherfucking mountains trying to get there? HOW THE FUCK?
Btw, I shall not be knocking stars off for how fast everything moves because unlike the Werewolf Arc, the speed at which Porter moves is kind of the point.
Anyway, Lila surprises Porter with the knowledge that she happens to now own that mansion and gasp! He! Is! So! Surprised! He offers to take over all the move in duties and move all of Katherine's things to the attic so Lila won't be troubled by them and Lila agrees, even if she wonders if maybe that's overkill. But he's the doc and he knows best and I cannot cringe enough at that logic.
My cohort in crime has pointed out that by this point we're basically in the SVU version of Gaslight, so consider this baby's first introduction to gaslighting. :p Porter is about as subtle as a sledgehammer as he almost immediately begins his assault on Lila's grasp on reality and guys, I cannot stress how painful this is to watch because Lila Fucking Fowler is a force to be reckoned with more often than not and yet here? So not. If not for the reminder that she survived a week in the wilderness with her sworn enemy (at the time) and the knowledge that the series opens with Lila married in Italy to a man who will die, tragically, right in front of her, I'd be more open to her being so immediately broken down, or even if they'd played into those losses more like Lila's coping mechanisms were shot. But no. Book needed her to fall prey to Porter so here we are. It's one of the few things where I think the speed at which this book moves is a hindrance. Give us a little more background for Lila not being Lila and the rest would play out just as is and work. As it is? Not so much.
Porter brings in a housekeeper named Nancy who is antagonistic towards Lila at best, but Porter 'doesn't believe' Lila when she points it out because y'know, gaslighters gotta gaslight. Lila hears things moving in the attic when Porter goes to work at night and her grasp on her sanity slips further away.
MEANWHILE... our B plot involves Tom Watts and how his dorm is the only building on campus wrecked in the earthquake. For reasons unknown, Tom has to find his own accommodations while the dorm is being fixed (and he'll later have to help clean out his flooded and nasty room as well as help fix it up?) and I'm willing to give part of this a pass because we're never TOLD he has to do all this on his own. It's entirely possible he just...didn't look into it, because it's never mentioned even if in their weird TV news coverage of the quake.
Jessica, prior to the quake, invited five of the boy's soccer team back to the room to play cards while Liz slept and that went over about as well as you'd think. Liz comes up with a list of rules for the dorm and immediately breaks most of them when Tom needs shelter. Why the hell Tom couldn't use the TV studio to have some of his stuff hang out I'll never know (so Jessica could bitch about it, that's why) but this is a case where Jessica would've been in the right so the ghosty had to make her not be right so Liz could be...sorta right? Because Tom initially does seem reluctant to push the boundaries and stay with Liz when Jessica isn't on board, but as soon as the book realizes Liz isn't in the middle (Tom is), we shift narratives and suddenly he and Jessica are at war. Which Jessica wins when she stops being physical and goes mental. Heh. I actually love that as soon as she starts being overly nice to him, he cannot stay far enough away from the dorm room. Brilliant, Jess. Brilliant.
Anyway, Jessica loses points when she doesn't follow up with Lila after her initial sobbing at Lila's bedside... but she and Liz do go visit Lila at the mansion (of DOOM) and are turned away by Nancy.
Bruce, btw, hasn't given up on Lila and tries to do some research, but things were much harder in 1995 so he needs Elizabeth's help. Since she's trying to avoid the warzone she created, she jumps at the chance to help. Slowly the duo realize Porter isn't who he says he is and we learn he's really David Carrier (?) and he's Katherine's late husband's former protege. Dr. Cage and David parted ways rather publicly but no reason was given. Bruce initially thinks it was because David was enamored with Katherine but later thinks maybe David loved her pink diamond (phrasing!) more. Turns out it's somewhere in the middle. David and Cage worked together on some big breakthrough and Cage took all the credit (it's implied Cage was in the right but I'm willing to be skeptical), cutting David out of the financial rewards. David takes this about as well as you'd expect and gets his revenge by trying to steal the pink diamond, bought with the riches David thinks were his, from Katherine. When Katherine won't hand it over, he kills her. Katherine's last words are basically taunting him that he'll never find where she hid it so he has to get back into the house so he can look around for it.
Enter Lila.
David/Porter is starting to lose his mind as well as he looks for this diamond he just can't seem to find, so while his movements in the attic are driving Lila to madness, his unfruitful search is also driving him mad.
Bruce has put together several pieces of the puzzle, including that Porter/David isn't actually leaving the house when he says he is, and his ability to hear the noises in the attic help put Lila back together again but not enough to keep her from staying.
There's some really fucking stupid cop stuff sprinkled in throughout and basically the cops don't do shit, even when Nancy runs screaming from the house saying Porter's killing Lila as they speak. Bruce has time to think he's failed Lila, try and take on Porter himself, have Lila conk Porter on the head with a marble rolling pin (how is he not dead? Seriously, my first thought was "Lila straight up killed a man.") and then Bruce ties him up and then Porter wakes up and tries to worm his way back into Lila's head and the cops are still sitting outside doing jackshit!
FFS.
Lila comes around in the end, wondering how in the hell she let Porter get so far into her head, while Bruce consoles her with the knowledge that it wasn't her fault and that Bruce never stopped loving her.
* This is weird to me because Porter/David seems genuinely infatuated with her before he shows up as her psychologist. As readers, we don't need to be lied to about his motives and yet we are. I know, why am I looking for well done psych rep in a SVU book written in 1994/1995? That's on me.
Sadly, Ms. Fowler is basically here in name only, as the book opens with Lila not on her A (or B or even her C game) as her never before mentioned and likely never mentioned again Aunt Katherine's will is read. Aunt Katherine, if you're playing along at home, is her mother's sister (anyone got a copy of the Fowlers of Sweet Valley and the family tree handy?) who was recently murdered at her cliffside mansion home. And by recently, I mean like, within the month. Perhaps even within the week? That same mansion, and nearly everything else, is willed to Lila because Katherine viewed Lila as the daughter she never had. Aw. Lila flips out because the idea of living in the home where her favored aunt was murdered is just too much for her. Which is actually fair. Especially with it being SUCH a recent death.
Bruce Patman, Lila's boyfriend, points out that when Katherine willed Lila everything, it was because she knew how much Lila loved the mansion and how much it felt like home to her (side note: need a fic set in this clearly AU with happy Lila growing up with her aunt making her feel less lonely ASAP) and that Katherine wouldn't want Lila to feel burdened or unhappy with this. Which is fair but also the woman didn't know she was gonna be murdered in her home, Bruce. Maybe that should also be taken into consideration. But this book has no time for such luxuries! We're moving at breakneck speed here, people, so I'm gonna need you to keep the fuck up!
Bruce convinces Lila to go look at the house and keep an open mind. He promises to meet her there the next day (why not go together? Because the book needs to happen!) and so we're off. Lila arrives first and is pissed when Bruce is running late. She actually has a bit of a mental breakdown in the car that is not really dealt with, and then eventually heads inside where she continues to meltdown. Lila. Honey? You didn't have to go inside alone. :/
Bruce knows Lila's gonna be pissed and is speeding up the twisty SV mountains to get to the yellow mansion (of DEATH?) when he nearly runs into a little old lady whose car has a flat. Bruce Patman of all people takes time to change this lady's flat tire and then the earthquake hits...and he stays with her to make sure she's okay, all the while worrying like hell about Lila. Little ol' lady sends him on his way because she's fine and that quake was nothing. Bruce tries to speed up to Lila, only to realize the road is uh, not in passable condition. Luckily for Bruce, he's gonna pull off a move we'll later see in Spiceworld: The Movie and flies over the pesky gap in the road... that is literally never mentioned again. o_O I docked a star here, btw, for a culmination of things, but also you don't get to pretend the roadway being so fucked up that it takes a miracle and some stunt driving is required to pass and then have it NOT be a thing when the emergency vehicles will need to come through.
There's a thing where Bruce calls 911 after the quake and tries to get someone out to check on Lila and the dispatcher is like "yeah, no, hun. We can't send people out to check on someone who might or might not be hurt when there are actual emergencies" and Bruce doesn't use his last name or Lila's to get shit done. No fucking way he wouldn't play either of those cards. Not even nicer Bruce wouldn't have used that if it would've meant Lila got help. In fact, not once in this ENTIRE book does Bruce play the Patman card. I really don't think this ghosty knew or cared to know that Lila and Bruce come from super important SV families.
So. Lila's at the house when the quake hits and she winds up under a huge, and heavy, armoire. Bruce breaks into the house, eventually finds Lila and with strength borne of desperation, moves this heavy antique and rescues Lila. He calls 911 and we wind up at the hospital (Fowler Memorial, I presume? Seriously, I cannot stress how important Lila and Bruce's families are. Why or how would it be up to Jessica to call and alert the Fowlers when Lila is brought in? WTF.) and much is made about how touch and go Lila's coma condition is. Jessica's pissed at Bruce because he seems to be asleep in the waiting room but she's also pissed when he's been visibly crying so... It's been ages since I re-read any of the SVU books, but it's weird to compare this to any of the SVH books where Bruce gets a pass when he's visibly showing true emotion or when any character who is normally an asshole takes time to rescue another character ,let alone one they claim to love. Huh. Then again, this ghosty thinks Bruce has brown hair, plays football, and that Lila's got icy blue eyes so whatcha gonna do? Actually, I have NFI if SVU!Bruce plays football. but it's still weird to me so I'm letting the complaint stand.
Jesus, me, you haven't even hit the main villain here. Hurry it up.
While in the hospital, we find out that a young intern spies Lila being brought in and falls in instalove with her* and goes out of his way to be with her. Lila wakes from her coma enough to see this intern (who is then a resident and none of this makes sense given his actual past but whatever?) and thinks him an angel. Her friends and family are like, "Lila, you didn't see an angel, you were coming out of a coma." Lila's pissed that they're so dismissive of her... even when she meets her 'angel' and it turns out to just be a guy named Porter. Who looks like an angel, though my brain cast someone else entirely in the role (David Tolliver/Andrew Stevens from Murder, She Wrote S1 E5 which also featured a Lila and you're welcome for that trivia)... So. Lila knows Porter isn't an angel but is still mad that her friends and family didn't believe her.
...
'K.
Porter is assigned to oversee her mental health before she can be discharged and I do not have words for how WTF this is, so we knock another star off in general for the WTF that happens here because story's gotta story but I don't gotta love it. Within the span of a week or a few days, Lila falls under Porter's spell utterly and completely because he plays the "no one understands you because you're special and have transcended them... but I understand because I too am special and transcendent" card to such a degree that when Bruce is ON TIME to pick Lila up but isn't early, Lila catches a ride back to SVU with Porter. When Bruce catches up with Lila at her room, she dumps him and I'd love to be mad at her for this but I get it. She blames him for what happened, though she does lash out a little hard because dude did risk serious injury to lift that armoire off you. That's not him bragging or not being humble, that's him stating facts.
Anyway, Lila almost immediately realizes just how fucked she'd be if another quake happened, and by this point she and Porter are beyond medical and into personal.
In a moment that made me close the book and ask God why, why was s/he doing this to me, Porter and Lila are at the beach, walking along and he points to the cliffs at a visible yellow mansion (of DEATH?) and says his dream is to live there with Lila. How the fuck is his house visible from the beach if Bruce was up in the motherfucking mountains trying to get there? HOW THE FUCK?
Btw, I shall not be knocking stars off for how fast everything moves because unlike the Werewolf Arc, the speed at which Porter moves is kind of the point.
Anyway, Lila surprises Porter with the knowledge that she happens to now own that mansion and gasp! He! Is! So! Surprised! He offers to take over all the move in duties and move all of Katherine's things to the attic so Lila won't be troubled by them and Lila agrees, even if she wonders if maybe that's overkill. But he's the doc and he knows best and I cannot cringe enough at that logic.
My cohort in crime has pointed out that by this point we're basically in the SVU version of Gaslight, so consider this baby's first introduction to gaslighting. :p Porter is about as subtle as a sledgehammer as he almost immediately begins his assault on Lila's grasp on reality and guys, I cannot stress how painful this is to watch because Lila Fucking Fowler is a force to be reckoned with more often than not and yet here? So not. If not for the reminder that she survived a week in the wilderness with her sworn enemy (at the time) and the knowledge that the series opens with Lila married in Italy to a man who will die, tragically, right in front of her, I'd be more open to her being so immediately broken down, or even if they'd played into those losses more like Lila's coping mechanisms were shot. But no. Book needed her to fall prey to Porter so here we are. It's one of the few things where I think the speed at which this book moves is a hindrance. Give us a little more background for Lila not being Lila and the rest would play out just as is and work. As it is? Not so much.
Porter brings in a housekeeper named Nancy who is antagonistic towards Lila at best, but Porter 'doesn't believe' Lila when she points it out because y'know, gaslighters gotta gaslight. Lila hears things moving in the attic when Porter goes to work at night and her grasp on her sanity slips further away.
MEANWHILE... our B plot involves Tom Watts and how his dorm is the only building on campus wrecked in the earthquake. For reasons unknown, Tom has to find his own accommodations while the dorm is being fixed (and he'll later have to help clean out his flooded and nasty room as well as help fix it up?) and I'm willing to give part of this a pass because we're never TOLD he has to do all this on his own. It's entirely possible he just...didn't look into it, because it's never mentioned even if in their weird TV news coverage of the quake.
Jessica, prior to the quake, invited five of the boy's soccer team back to the room to play cards while Liz slept and that went over about as well as you'd think. Liz comes up with a list of rules for the dorm and immediately breaks most of them when Tom needs shelter. Why the hell Tom couldn't use the TV studio to have some of his stuff hang out I'll never know (so Jessica could bitch about it, that's why) but this is a case where Jessica would've been in the right so the ghosty had to make her not be right so Liz could be...sorta right? Because Tom initially does seem reluctant to push the boundaries and stay with Liz when Jessica isn't on board, but as soon as the book realizes Liz isn't in the middle (Tom is), we shift narratives and suddenly he and Jessica are at war. Which Jessica wins when she stops being physical and goes mental. Heh. I actually love that as soon as she starts being overly nice to him, he cannot stay far enough away from the dorm room. Brilliant, Jess. Brilliant.
Anyway, Jessica loses points when she doesn't follow up with Lila after her initial sobbing at Lila's bedside... but she and Liz do go visit Lila at the mansion (of DOOM) and are turned away by Nancy.
Bruce, btw, hasn't given up on Lila and tries to do some research, but things were much harder in 1995 so he needs Elizabeth's help. Since she's trying to avoid the warzone she created, she jumps at the chance to help. Slowly the duo realize Porter isn't who he says he is and we learn he's really David Carrier (?) and he's Katherine's late husband's former protege. Dr. Cage and David parted ways rather publicly but no reason was given. Bruce initially thinks it was because David was enamored with Katherine but later thinks maybe David loved her pink diamond (phrasing!) more. Turns out it's somewhere in the middle. David and Cage worked together on some big breakthrough and Cage took all the credit (it's implied Cage was in the right but I'm willing to be skeptical), cutting David out of the financial rewards. David takes this about as well as you'd expect and gets his revenge by trying to steal the pink diamond, bought with the riches David thinks were his, from Katherine. When Katherine won't hand it over, he kills her. Katherine's last words are basically taunting him that he'll never find where she hid it so he has to get back into the house so he can look around for it.
Enter Lila.
David/Porter is starting to lose his mind as well as he looks for this diamond he just can't seem to find, so while his movements in the attic are driving Lila to madness, his unfruitful search is also driving him mad.
Bruce has put together several pieces of the puzzle, including that Porter/David isn't actually leaving the house when he says he is, and his ability to hear the noises in the attic help put Lila back together again but not enough to keep her from staying.
There's some really fucking stupid cop stuff sprinkled in throughout and basically the cops don't do shit, even when Nancy runs screaming from the house saying Porter's killing Lila as they speak. Bruce has time to think he's failed Lila, try and take on Porter himself, have Lila conk Porter on the head with a marble rolling pin (how is he not dead? Seriously, my first thought was "Lila straight up killed a man.") and then Bruce ties him up and then Porter wakes up and tries to worm his way back into Lila's head and the cops are still sitting outside doing jackshit!
FFS.
Lila comes around in the end, wondering how in the hell she let Porter get so far into her head, while Bruce consoles her with the knowledge that it wasn't her fault and that Bruce never stopped loving her.
* This is weird to me because Porter/David seems genuinely infatuated with her before he shows up as her psychologist. As readers, we don't need to be lied to about his motives and yet we are. I know, why am I looking for well done psych rep in a SVU book written in 1994/1995? That's on me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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).
October 25, 2023
After the turgid SVH "Horror" miniseries, I am grateful to moving on to SVU in this year's nostalgia re-readathon. SVU is where my OTP ship Bruce/Lila sails freely, including in this Super Thriller, so I was 1000% on board to visit this.
Lila's heretofore unknown Aunt Katherine was murdered, and the book opens with the reading of her will. Lila has unexpectedly inherited her mansion, situated on an isolated crest of one of the mountains that gives the Valley its name. She has fond memories of time she spent there with her aunt and uncle, but it's also the site of her aunt's still unsolved murder, so she doesn't really want the house. Bruce convinces her to at least go to the house and look it over, and she reluctantly agrees to meet him there the next day. Lila arrives first, but Bruce is delayed; she's angry with him for being late and marches into the house without him, and then a big earthquake hits. Bruce is trapped on the side of the mountain, and Lila is trapped in the house, where a heavy piece of furniture falls on her and knocks her out cold. Bruce eventually finds her and rescues her, but Lila is taken to the hospital still comatose and everyone is worried about her.
Lila comes out of her coma, convinced that an angelic being brought her back to life. Her "angel" turns out to be hospital intern Porter Davis, an aspiring psychiatrist, and the weak, vulnerable Lila quickly falls under his spell. Davis quickly manipulates himself into Lila's life and into her Aunt Katherine's mansion, where he's able to swiftly cut her off from her family and friends and make her think she's slowly going insane.
The SVU thriller plots are rather infamously and obviously ripped from classic film noir, so, you guessed it, this is SVU's take on Gaslight . The plot beats are exactly the same as the film, up to and including the hiring of a disdainful "maid," Nancy.
It doesn't quite work, because Lila is usually a strong character, and it's hard to see her being so pathetic here. I can't quite believe that she would fall under the sway so easily and not see what's going on, especially after she does finally see her friends (and Bruce) at the Theta gala. Lila's smarter than she's given credit for here, and she's already faced the loss of loved ones in the main series. If the ghosties had chosen a weaker, quieter character to pull this plot on, it would've make a lot more sense.
The mistake was making Porter Davis an intern at the hospital. Interns are (at least in my part o' the country) 1st year residents, aka freshly graduated from medical school and starting their speciality training. No way would Davis have been allowed to oversee Lila's therapy sessions alone, without oversight, and no way So if you think about it too hard, the plot falls apart, no matter how faithfully it follows the movie.
There is a comic relief side-plot as well, as Tom Watts temporarily moves into Jessica and Elizabeth's dorm room in the wake of the quake, which ruined his dorm. Jess and Tom, who can't stand each other, engage in a prank war, and then Jessica pulls a long con of her own, which was artfully done and Pure Jess. She can manipulate a man like no other, and her sister's boyfriend is no exception. Brava, Jessica!
Of course, in the real world college kids would not be forced to clean out their quake-damaged dorm rooms themselves, or find alternate accommodation on their own. Again, don't squint too hard.
All in all, though, this was a fun read, and a definite improvement over the terrible SVH mini arc we chose this year. I say we might need to dip into SVU more often for this in future!
Lila's heretofore unknown Aunt Katherine was murdered, and the book opens with the reading of her will. Lila has unexpectedly inherited her mansion, situated on an isolated crest of one of the mountains that gives the Valley its name. She has fond memories of time she spent there with her aunt and uncle, but it's also the site of her aunt's still unsolved murder, so she doesn't really want the house. Bruce convinces her to at least go to the house and look it over, and she reluctantly agrees to meet him there the next day. Lila arrives first, but Bruce is delayed; she's angry with him for being late and marches into the house without him, and then a big earthquake hits. Bruce is trapped on the side of the mountain, and Lila is trapped in the house, where a heavy piece of furniture falls on her and knocks her out cold. Bruce eventually finds her and rescues her, but Lila is taken to the hospital still comatose and everyone is worried about her.
Lila comes out of her coma, convinced that an angelic being brought her back to life. Her "angel" turns out to be hospital intern Porter Davis, an aspiring psychiatrist, and the weak, vulnerable Lila quickly falls under his spell. Davis quickly manipulates himself into Lila's life and into her Aunt Katherine's mansion, where he's able to swiftly cut her off from her family and friends and make her think she's slowly going insane.
The SVU thriller plots are rather infamously and obviously ripped from classic film noir, so, you guessed it, this is SVU's take on Gaslight . The plot beats are exactly the same as the film, up to and including the hiring of a disdainful "maid," Nancy.
It doesn't quite work, because Lila is usually a strong character, and it's hard to see her being so pathetic here. I can't quite believe that she would fall under the sway so easily and not see what's going on, especially after she does finally see her friends (and Bruce) at the Theta gala. Lila's smarter than she's given credit for here, and she's already faced the loss of loved ones in the main series. If the ghosties had chosen a weaker, quieter character to pull this plot on, it would've make a lot more sense.
The mistake was making Porter Davis an intern at the hospital. Interns are (at least in my part o' the country) 1st year residents, aka freshly graduated from medical school and starting their speciality training. No way would Davis have been allowed to oversee Lila's therapy sessions alone, without oversight, and no way So if you think about it too hard, the plot falls apart, no matter how faithfully it follows the movie.
There is a comic relief side-plot as well, as Tom Watts temporarily moves into Jessica and Elizabeth's dorm room in the wake of the quake, which ruined his dorm. Jess and Tom, who can't stand each other, engage in a prank war, and then Jessica pulls a long con of her own, which was artfully done and Pure Jess. She can manipulate a man like no other, and her sister's boyfriend is no exception. Brava, Jessica!
Of course, in the real world college kids would not be forced to clean out their quake-damaged dorm rooms themselves, or find alternate accommodation on their own. Again, don't squint too hard.
All in all, though, this was a fun read, and a definite improvement over the terrible SVH mini arc we chose this year. I say we might need to dip into SVU more often for this in future!
June 20, 2019
As always with the Sweet Valley series, a solid read. I like the realistic aspect of the abusive relationship and how it wasn’t sugar coated or watered down for a young audience. It really made you feel sorry for Lila and hoped for a happy ending. It was frustrating when she wouldn’t realize Porter’s behaviour sooner but like with real abusive relationships, the victim may not see it as such and blames themselves instead. Some things were mentioned that didn’t get explained which bugged me but overall, good read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2018
Younger folks who aren’t acquainted with classic old movies will probably be really entertained by the Thriller edition The House of Death, which comes after Deadly Attraction in the Sweet Valley University series. I am an old movie buff, so I recognized the plot immediately as the 1944 Oscar-winning classic Gaslight. Unfortunately, since I’ve seen two versions of the film and know it very well, I wasn’t surprised by anything in this book.
Lila’s aunt dies and leaves her a house, but when Lila becomes involved with a handsome young doctor—much to the dismay of her current beau Bruce—her entire world gets turned upside down. Everything in this book, from the overarching storyline to the maid named Nancy is borrowed from Gaslight. If you don’t know the movie, I won’t spoil anything for you. Just know this book is a Thriller edition, so it is a bit spooky and dangerous. Too scary? Keep reading to get back to the regular college drama in the next book: Billie’s Secret.
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-17...
Lila’s aunt dies and leaves her a house, but when Lila becomes involved with a handsome young doctor—much to the dismay of her current beau Bruce—her entire world gets turned upside down. Everything in this book, from the overarching storyline to the maid named Nancy is borrowed from Gaslight. If you don’t know the movie, I won’t spoil anything for you. Just know this book is a Thriller edition, so it is a bit spooky and dangerous. Too scary? Keep reading to get back to the regular college drama in the next book: Billie’s Secret.
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-17...
November 9, 2019
I'll always give these books a five
Loved this series as a kid.
Loved this series as a kid.
January 24, 2016
Wow even the usually feisty Lila got kind-of un-feisty. I got irritated with her for not suspecting who Porter really is. Aside from that, the story is quite good. Oh except for the Jessica and Tom part. He really should have well... let's just say, stand up for himself more than just being intimidated by his girlfriend's twin sister.
February 4, 2016
Wow even the usually feisty Lila got kind-of un-feisty. I got irritated with her for not suspecting who Porter really is. Aside from that, the story is quite good. Oh except for the Jessica and Tom part. He really should have well... let's just say, stand up for himself more than just being intimidated by his girlfriend's twin sister.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2018
This book is amazingly ridiculous, but the strangest thing of all is Bruce driving a Jeep instead of his precious Porsche.
July 9, 2013
I have read so many of these books I can't remember all of them.
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