Haven't read. Not going to read. Waiting for its destiny.

(The cover art is different than the one shown here, by the way!)

I got this book at the Helsinki meet-up. This version of the book came with Bliss magazine, and has the same picture on the cover as the Buffy novel Visitors. I have no idea why they switched cover pictures.

I'm a die hard Buffy fan, and I collect everything that has something to do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of all books, movies and tv series I have ever seen Buffy is by far the thing that has moved me the most. The characters of Buffy are like friends to me.

I'm looking forward to reading this book. The Buffy novels I've read so far have been pretty good, although they don't have the same impact as the tv series.

Book Description (from Amazon)

Willow's trying to earn a little pocket change by taking the usual teenage part-time job -- baby-sitting the neighbor's kid. But her child-care chores turn into a scene from a horror movie when the baby gives her the evil eye and attacks. Barely escaping the tiny terror, Willow can't forget the missing human child -- or the monstrous thing left in its place. The childish changeling keeps coming back to haunt and taunt her.

Buffy and her posse soon discover a possible connection between Willow's infant interloper and some strange artifacts Giles found at a local archaeological dig. The evil plaguing Willow was once trapped underground. Now that it has been unearthed by new construction on the property, it's ready to cause some major mischief...and worse.

Buffy teen novels
Buffy adult novels

I finally read Unnatural Selection, because I'm giving it to VariC. The book was okay, but to be honest, I would never have been interested in reading it, if it hadn't been part of the Buffy series. Unnatural Selection is part of the "young adult" series of Buffy books - there are also another series for grown ups. I don't like the cheesy "horror font" of the chapter titles - it makes the book look too much like every other 90s teen horror book.

There are two problems with the Buffy books - one is that it's really difficult to make the characters feel the same as on tv. The book could almost have been about any group of teens, and sometimes the characters felt very different, as their thoughts didn't fit my my view of them. The dialogue is also difficult to get right, and so far no book has lived up to the tv series in terms of dialogue.

Another problem is the action scenes - I never watched Buffy for the action, although it was fun i short doses on tv. The problem with the books is that the action is really boring to read about, and it takes too long. In Unnatural Selection, the beginning of the book drags a lot, because we get Buffy and Giles on a vampire hunt, and Willow baby sitting, and the first fourth of the book is already over before anything interesting happens. The good thing in the book was that the storyline was okay, and I could have imagined a story like this being a stand-alone episode on Buffy. Still, the narrative cuts some corners, and some things feel a bit too convenient.

I'll have to read some more books to see how this rates compared to them. But I remember reading some adult Buffy books earlier, and liking them more. I might have become pickier since that, though.

Thanks for giving me this book, harmaja! I'll pass it on to VariC when I see him.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I gave the book to VariC today. I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the book, CandyDarling! This will be my first Buffy book (assuming I manage to read it before acquiring others, of course...)

Well, I happened to read this already, since I needed something that fits into my coat pocket and Le Guin felt a bit too weighty for reading on the subway.

How can one approach a book like this? I don't think I've ever read a tie-in before; novelizations, sure, but in a tie-in only the characters are familiar, not the events themselves. So instead of getting the original voices, one gets the author's interpretation of them, an author's that wasn't a writer on the TV show. Odom does get a lot just right: I could imagine the characters saying several lines. But at other times it feels like that person would not say that (especially Giles who felt a bit too much a hip action hero). But maybe a part of this is a desire to find fault in the author? I think I was noticing more of the differences in the beginning: an unconscious rejection of the book form of a liked TV show? Surely that cannot happen to a non-TV-watching bookworm?

A book can, perhaps, experiment a bit more with the characters than a TV show. Hutch, Xander's outside friend, seemed to me something that didn't much appear on the show itself: a one-off character that has a personal relationship with one of the main characters. The show itself seemed to place the core gang into their own special bubble, with few activities outside their small circle. (And I'm sure CandyDarling will now counter this with a long list of examples that I, in turn, will attempt to refute...)

One thing I amused myself a bit while reading was to attempt to place the book chronologically in the show. But to be honest, it doesn't really fit anywhere. It is clearly supposed to take place during the third season, but the events of the early season cannot really be reconciled with the book (even if you assume the Spring Blow-Out is just a name and does not take place in the spring). So best to just consider it an alternate history in the show's context? And now I'm wondering how well the other Buffy books manage in this respect.

I notice I'm not saying much about the plot, and that's really because there isn't much to say. It's quite standard monster-of-the-week fare, and could have made an episode of the TV show, though in that case the fighting would probably have been reduced (I don't much care for detailed action sequences in books because I'm not a very visual reader, but I hear they work for some), and quite likely Hutch would have been removed. I didn't find the book tedious, but it was just an easy read-through and didn't give any interesting insights like the better episodes of the show did.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Will leave somewhere en route when changing from U4 to U2.

Found it in Nollendorfplatz, but did not like to read it

CAUGHT IN BERLIN BERLIN GERMANY