Reviews

Set during season 1 of the TV show, this stand-alone story sees Buffy and the gang dream a lot. For such a small story, there are a lot of characters and a convoluted plot. There are some interesting moments, particularly, Xander's possession by the ghost of a witch (and walking as used to a different set of hips), but there's an awful lot of not much really happening. Giles is ill, Willow sits at a computer, Buffy can't kill (the baddies are possessed, not evil), Angel's off brooding somewhere and...oh wait, it's season one, that's that whole gang. Conversely, adding the Master as the main evil behind the shenanigans actually made what plot there was, nonsensical. As with Coyote Moon, the whole big evil bad thing that could threaten life as we know it is...suddenly defeated and that's it, the end.
This could almost be truncated to the sequence before the opening credits which would then lead into the real meat of the story

reannapipes's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

While it was a good read, at times it didn’t feel like the author correctly wrote for the Buffy characters that were already established, though other times it was fine.

alexampersand's review against another edition

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3.0

I feel like this book had an interesting story idea, but it was pretty badly executed and written. It starts with a few very detailed dream sequences that felt unnecessarily long, followed by Buffy giving an incredibly clunky and unnatural exposition dump to Willow about the Salem Witch Trials. There's then another clunky exposition dump by another character about halfway through the book.

But between the exposition dumps and the unnecessarily long dream sequences, I do actually think the idea of Salem inhabitants possessing people in the present day is a fun concept, so it gets 3 stars for that.

Unfortunately, the ending also feels pretty anticlimactic, and ultimately just comes down to

throwing one knife at someone

and suddenly everything disappears. Also maybe I skimmed over it but I feel like the zombies are just... not mentioned again, no idea where they went or what happened to them? lol

Other irksome things that might just be me being petty: several times the term 'pocketbook' was used, and I can't tell if that's just a very obscure word or if it's a curse of reading a book from 1998. And the phrase 'living rerun' was used about 53 times, especially in the latter half of the book, and while it's a fun analogy for what was happening, I can't help but feel the author thought the title pun was so funny he must remind the reader of it at every available opportunity.

(also, seeing the word 'portable' used to mean a laptop computer was quite funny.)

alexampersand's review against another edition

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2.0

Another so-so book, but something about this one just seemed even less enjoyable. The possession story line was really kind of dull. Cordelia got about three lines worth of appearance. Angel was not there at all. I know these are early stories, but I really wish they had made more of an effort with the cast of the show.

deanie's review against another edition

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3.0

While the plot of this season 1 era novel was Jossed before season 1 had finished, it's still a clever idea. The Master can escape his hellish underground prison if he (and the souls of his followers) can possess people and recreate the event that got him trapped in the first place.

The first 80-90% of the book was a solid 3.5-4.0 stars. The characters were true to their TV selves and the plot was interesting. And the climax to the book lasted all of 1 page. Buffy stabbed someone. The end. It was over so soon I actually reread back a few pages to make sure I didn't miss anything. Nope. It was a lame end to an otherwise good book.

slayermel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, it would have made an excellent episode. This is a book that was written to go along with season one of Buffy.
Buffy finds herself having very detailed dreams, where she is a past slayer during the Salem Witch Trials. Giles and Xander find themselves also having strange dreams. It would appear all of their dreams are linked and providing them with a clue, to a prophecy of an evil that will try to return. Buffy and her friends will need to try and solve the prophecy and put an end to it before evil is unleashed.

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