Channel X

Channel X is the 10th installment in Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley University Thriller Editions, and it does exactly what the format promises: a gripping, fast-moving premise aimed squarely at teenage readers. Nina and Bryan sign up for a paid TV-watching experiment — electrodes on their heads, researchers taking notes — without learning about the side effects. Then campus attacks begin, and Nina has to figure out whether Bryan himself has been changed by whatever the experiment is doing. The science-gone-wrong setup generates genuine suspense, and the familiar Sweet Valley campus makes it accessible to series fans. Parents should know the violence escalates and is described as brutal in some summaries, so parental discretion is appropriate for younger teens. This is franchise entertainment, not literary fiction, but for its audience it delivers a solid thriller read.