Review: Ghoul Trouble (a Buffy tie-in novel) by John Passarella

Something wicked has been preying on Sunndale students—and whatever it is, its methods are pretty gruesome. Buffy locates some human bones that have been picked clean, and knows that she's dealing with an unearthly evil. Some help from the Scooby Gang would be ideal, but they've run into trouble of their own. Oz and Xander are literally (perhaps unnaturally) mesmerized by a hottie new chick band headlining at the Bronze, and Willow has been captured by Sunnydale's latest resident carnivores.

What they need is the Slayer. But in order to help her friends, Buffy must first dust a vampire—one that has an urgent interest in Joyce Summers, the unique ability to resist sunlight, and an open invitation to the Summers' house... (via Goodreads)

I enjoyed Ghoul Trouble – much more than I enjoyed the Season 8 comic book series – it's fair to say that I'm definitely more of a full-length novel girl when it comes to these tie-ins. It's written pretty well in that you can imagine all the characters speaking and acting in the same way as they would and did on the television show. There's a lot in the story to keep you interested too, as there are two separate sets of villains that Buffy has to deal with – a rock band consisting of all girls who have a supernatural ability to hypnotise men, and a vampire who can walk in daylight and enter private houses without requiring an invitation.

But while Ghoul Trouble is jam packed with plenty of Buffy-accurate fiends and festivities, I have one quite major problem with it: Faith. She is mentioned absolutely nowhere. Before the story even starts, there is a page that tells the reader that the novel ties in with season three of the television show. Season three is my absolute favourite season, so I know it pretty well. And judging by all of the events from the show that have been mentioned in the book to help the reader to establish the story's place in the Buffyverse, she should've definitely been there. It's not far enough along the season 3 time frame for Faith to have gone evil yet, as Giles is still Buffy's watcher. And it couldn't have been before she arrived in Sunnydale, because Angel has already returned from hell. So there's really no excuse for her not to be there.

So based on that, I'm going to take one full point off of the final rating. It's a shame, because any mention of Faith would've made Ghoul Trouble so much better. If the author didn't like her, then why not just get one of the characters to say that she was out of town or something? It makes no sense.

Rating: 3 / 5

REVIEW: Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 8, Volume 2 – No Future For You

When a rogue debutant Slayer begins to use her power for evil, Giles is forced to recruit the rebellious Faith, who isn’t exactly known for her good deeds. Giles offers Faith a clean slate if she can stop this snooty Slayer from wreaking total havoc--that is, if Buffy doesn’t beat her to it.

Georges Jeanty (The American Way) remains at the top of his game as series artist, and Whedon continues as Executive Producer in this direct follow-up to Season Seven of the smash-hit TV series. (via Dark Horse)

The Buffy Season 8 fest continues! This is definitely my favourite volume out of the three I've read so far. Here we meet Faith and Giles for the first time in season 8, and at the beginning we find out a little of what the former has been doing since the end of season 7. Giles, however, remains a bit of an enigma until near the end of this volume.

As with volume 1 there are five comic books in total here. The first four, collectively named No Future For You, focus around Faith as she is recruited by Giles to take down a snobby, power hungry slayer called Gigi, and put an end to her ways before she causes unrepairable damage. Faith travels to England and goes undercover, attempting to move in closer to the slayer's proximity, but she soon finds herself identifying with Gigi and hesitates getting the job done. Sounds like typical Faith, right? So we're left wondering for a while which side of her will prevail – the evil or good?

If you're a Faith fan, this isn't gonna let you down. The whole story is her – exciting and unpredictable to no end. I'm not a huge fan of Faith's (too much evil!) but this really got me. And I must admit that she seems more interesting in comic book form than Buffy does! The ex-rogue slayer should've seriously got her own series.

The extra comic is called Anywhere But Here, and is not directly connected with Faith's No Future For You. It follows Willow and Buffy into the inter-dimensional lair of a demon called Sephrilian, in the hopes that it will reveal more about the mysterious villian known as 'Twilight' (the mystery of 'Twilight' and its motives cover the main story ark of season 8). But, as usual, trouble ensues, and some revealing secrets are uncovered. A pretty good stand alone story leaving you ready for volume 3! ;-)


Rating: 5 / 5

Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 8, Volume 1 – The Long Way Home

Since the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers - newly legion - have gotten organized and are kicking some serious undead butt. But not everything's fun and firearms, as an old enemy reappears and Dawn experiences some serious growing pains. Meanwhile, one of the "Buffy" decoy slayers is going through major pain of her own. Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series. The bestselling and critically acclaimed issues #1-5 are collected here for the first time, as are their covers by Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty. (via Dark Horse)

Having recently restarted watching the entire Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series and becoming an even bigger fan of the show than I was when it originally aired, I had to get my hands on the Buffy Season 8 graphic novels! It's taken me a few months to do so, but here they are finally. There are 8 volumes in total, each containing 5 issues of the comic book series.

I've gotta say that if you're a Buffy fan and haven't picked these up yet, you must! I'm not usually a reader of comic books or graphic novels, but I felt that I couldn't miss this chance to find out what happens to all the characters after the TV show.

That is, indeed, where this series picks up from. The back cover of the first volume, The Long Way Home, explains it best:

Worldwide cult phenomenon Buffy the Vampire Slayer returns with Season Eight––only in comics! Series creator Joss Whedon once again takes up writing duties for this official sequel to the show, running the comics as he ran seven seasons of Buffy on TV. This opening story introduces a mysterious threat known as "Twilight" and plunges Buffy and the gang into their biggest adventure––without the limitations of a small-screen budget.

Volume 1 introduces us to this new world in which a few hundred of the newly activated slayers are working for Buffy and the gang in 10 separate squads. Now that Sunnydale is no more, headquarters are now set up in rural Scotland, and together they train these girls to fight against the 'Big Bads'. There are huge monsters, bigger plot twists (trust me) and plenty of nail biting moments. And as creator Joss Whedon writes for this series, plenty of the character's charming qualities and definable wit is in the dialogue. It's very true to the show.

But I'll admit that it wasn't love at first sight for me. I originally disliked the shortened dialogue and the storyline (they really take advantage of the no-budget-to-worry-about deal! And why not? I ask myself now. All comic books do this.) Though as I read on, the story got more and more interesting and I also got used to the narrative style. I guess what you're supposed to do is pick up additional description and detail from the drawings––not relying solely on the words as you would in a normal book. Took me a little while to 'get the hang of' this, but I've got it now. Jeez, this just gives away how much I don't read graphic novels, doesn't it?!

By the end of volume one I was hooked, and quickly went out to get volume 2 (which is, for the record, even better than volume 1)! I'll review that one next week.

Definitely recommended to fellow slayer pals!

Rating: 4 / 5