Sweet Valley High #60: That Fatal Night

Time elapsed in this book: 8 weeks

Length of their junior year: 3 years, 10 months, 3 weeks

Jessica’s love interest: Skip Harmon

Entertainment rating: 7/10

The title of this book is misleading: there is nothing fatal about that night. But the book is great! That’s Ken Matthews and Terri Adams on the cover. He’s staring into space, blinded after a car accident. She’s been in love with him for ages. Will he ever feel the same? Let’s find out!

The book opens at a SVH football game. The SVH Gladiators are playing the Palisades Pumas. Ken Matthews scores the winning touchdown! Amy Sutton, who wants everyone to know she’s seeing the star quarterback, invites everyone to a party at her house. Terri Adams, the assistant statistician for the team (assistant to who? And does the team really need two??) debates going to the party. She has a crush on Ken, which her friends all know about, and they convince her to join.

Terri gets a ride to the party with Zack Johnson, a sophomore on the team, who’s finally landed a date with his own crush, April Dawson. This isn’t relevant to anything except the fact that April is the main character in a later SVH book and I didn’t realize she’d appeared this early in the series.

When Ken shows up, Amy makes a big show of kissing him in front of everyone. Ken’s embarrassed because he’s only gone on a few dates with her, yet Amy’s acting like they’re a couple. Terri chats with Ken about stats from the game, but then Amy makes a big show about pulling Ken away from Terri and giving him another big kiss.

Terri goes into the bathroom to cry. She wants to leave the party, so she asks Winston and Maria for a ride home since they live nearby and are also leaving. They say Ken’s driving them home and then returning to the party, and it’s no problem for him to also take Terri. Ken drops off Winston and Maria first, then takes Terri home. Rain is coming down hard, so Terri asks if Ken wants to come in and wait out the storm. He says no, he should get back to the party. He drives off, thinking about how nice it is that Terri understands football so well. Then he sees headlights in his lane. He’s run off the road by a drunk driver!!!

Back at the party, Jess is with her date, Skip Harmon. All he does is talk about himself and his car, and she’s over it. Jess loved arriving to the party in his red Ferrari, but now that they’re there, she doesn’t think his car needs to be talked about any more. She’s also annoyed that every time he passes a mirror, he whips out a comb and then grins at his reflection. I love this! The only thing he has going for him is that he’s a good dancer. He should probably date Amy, since they seem the same level of shallow.

Jess, Liz, and Todd leave the party together. On the way home, they pass a bunch of flashing lights and realize there’s an accident. They recognize the car–it’s Ken’s! The cop says Ken is in bad shape. They go back to the party to let everyone know what happened, since people were waiting for Ken to return. No one can believe the news.

The next morning, Amy asks Winston what happened. Winston says that Terri was the last person to see Ken. Amy and Jess go to the hospital, and Amy looks relieved to find out that he’s in the ICU and only immediate family can visit.

Terri arrives at school on Monday oblivious to what happened. She finds out when Amy announces it loudly and publicly blames the accident on Ken giving Terri a ride home!

Amy goes back to the hospital and finally sees Ken, who’s now conscious but all bandaged up. She thinks maybe this accident will bring them closer together as a couple.

The next day, the doctor finally takes all of Ken’s bandages off. Ken asks when he’ll remove the bandages over his eyes. The doctor says they’re off and that Ken is blind. It may or may not be temporary, but it’s clearly caused by swelling in his brain. The doctors didn’t know if he’d be able to see, which is why they didn’t warn him. Standard medical care in Sweet Valley.

Later that day, Liz and Jess visit Ken and try to give him a card, but he tells them he’s blind. Liz, as usual, offers Ken sympathy and is the perfect caring friend. In the hall, Jess runs into Amy and tells her that Ken is blind. Amy looks horrified and tells Jess not to let Ken know she was there.

At school, Amy tells Terri that Ken is blind and once again blames her for Ken’s accident. Terri feels awful. She talks to Liz, who reassures Terri that she’s not to blame. Terri manages to get on the guest list to visit Ken at Hollyfield House, the rehab center where Ken is learning to live with blindness. She is happy to see him, and he also reassures her that it wasn’t her fault.

A month later, Ken is ready to leave the rehab center and return to Sweet Valley High. He isn’t looking forward to it, since he’ll be returning as a blind person instead of as the hero quarterback. Winston helps Ken count steps to each class. Amy greets him in one class and then quickly excuses herself to talk to someone else. During lunch, he overhears Scott Trost say Amy is all over him now that he’s been made quarterback. She is, by far, the most shallow character in this entire series. Ken sits outside, wanting to be alone, but Terri finds him and sits next to him. She starts talking about football, and Ken enjoys it until he remembers that he’s blind and assumes she’s just doing this out of pity. He gets irritated and leaves.

Terri takes Ken to North Haven Beach and encourages him to run on the sand. They have a nice day together, and Ken feels like he might be falling in love but then decides she’s only being nice to him because he’s blind. He pulls away.

Terri encourages Ken to attend SVH’s last football game of the season (spoiler/continuity alert: we’re on book 60; this is NOT their last game of the season). Ken takes her up on the offer and Terri narrates the game to him. Ken has a great time! The Gladiators lose, ruining their chances of an undefeated season.

Terri helps Ken with his studies to the point where she doesn’t study enough for her own classes and fails a test. Her friends encourage her to talk to Ken about this. Terri broods over it, then confides in Liz (because who doesn’t?) that she’s in love with Ken but he’s been acting a bit distant at times. Liz encourages her to tell Ken how she feels and thinks Ken likes her too.

Terri goes over to Ken’s house and tells him that she can’t help him with his schoolwork that day. Ken gets mad and says he understands that it was only fun to play nurse for a little while. He tells her to leave. Terri starts crying and tells him that she was helping him because she loves him and that if he can’t see that, he’s blinder than he thinks. ZING!

As Terri drives off, Ken realizes that he’s in love with her too! He calls Terri at home, but she isn’t there. He realizes she’s at North Haven Beach, so he sets off on foot. Zach Johnson drives by and offers Ken a ride, but Ken says he needs to figure out how to do this on his own. He walks to the bus stop and manages to make it to the beach on his own. He finds the usual path and realizes that along with the surf, he can hear someone crying. It’s Terri! She rushes over to meet him and ask what he’s doing there. Ken begs her forgiveness and says he’s in love with her. They kiss!! She tells him how beautiful the sky is and how she wishes he could see it. Ken realizes that if he faces the sun, he sees light. If he faces away, he doesn’t. He’s starting to get his sight back!!

Next up: Patty Gilbert and her boyfriend Jim are having issues. Will they stay together? Does anyone care?