10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The story of Faith the Vampire Slayer, the early years, June 22, 2006
This review is from: Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Simon Spotlight)) (Paperback)
"HISTORIAN'S NOTE: The following diary was found on April 13, 2006, beneath the ruins of the Sunnydale, California, bus station during an archeological excavation at that site. It was discovered inside a locker alongside a woman's bloodstained tank top, a handheld videogame device, and three sharp wooden objects resembling tent stakes. The present location of its author is unknown."
"Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary" is certainly an attempt by Robert Joseph Levy to create a canonical story regarding Faith before she showed up in the third season "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "Faith, Hope & Trick." It ends in June of 1998 with Faith on a bus on the first leg of a trip that will have her ending up in Sunnydale, and begins on December 14, 1997, on what must be Faith's 17th birthday, when she is given a diary by her counselor at school. Living somewhere in the Boston area, Faith hates her mother, gets into fights at school, and has started having dreams that smack of Greek mythology and the bloody story of the Bacchai. Abandoned by her mother and finally incarcerated for her acts of violence, Faith is rescued by Professor Diana Dormer, a professor in the department of Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, and a representative of the Watchers Council.
Dormer explains to Faith that she is a Potential, and with great potential power comes great responsibility. Having already encountered her first vampire, Faith is willing to believe and so she starts training to be a Slayer. Faith is not exactly into studying, but she is even less used to having anybody treat her like she is worth anything as a human being, so she buys into the program. Meanwhile, she continues to have dreams in which her imaginary friend Alex turns out to be something different and quite older. Alex warns Faith that an ancient force is coming for her, something whose name is Malice, and as the memories and fantasies begin to merge, Faith comes closer to her first battle with a Big Bad. The other key character in the book turns out to be Killian, the drummer for her favorite band, Freak Wharf, who tends to drink a lot because when he does not he tends to make people he thinks about materialize.
How well does Levy work his novel into the "BtVS" continuity? Well, Faith becomes a Slayer on May 12, which is the same day that "Becoming, Part 1" aired and Drusilla killed Kendra, but what happened after the sun had set in Sunnydale on the left coast should not translate into dinner time for Faith back in Boston (a minor point). Most readers should catch out that it is going to be Kakistos that is waiting for Faith at the end of this one, and that proposes a major problem for Levy, because on the one hand when Faith shows up in Sunnydale with Kakistos on her heels she is seriously freaked out by the vamp that killed her Watcher, but on the other hand you do not especially want to end your novel with your heroine having been defeated and fleeing town. Actually, I do not think there is anything wrong with that given Faith's divided sense of self, which was explored to great effect on both "BtVS" and "Angel," but Levy decides not to play it that way.
The diary device works for the most part (if you get a phone call from an ancient vampire telling you he has your Watcher, would you really stop to write down what happened in your diary?), and it is really just a way of allowing Faith to tell the story in the first person. As Faith says when her teacher asks why it is significant that "Dracula" is an epistolary novel, "I guess it makes it more personal or whatever." You just have to go along with the idea that Faith would be such a diligent diary writer, because multiple page entries would certainly seem to tax her interest, not to mention her attention span. On balance, "Go Ask Malice" ends up slightly ahead on points. We do find out the origin of her signature "five by five" phrase and how she became a Slayer, but the ending does not fit completely with her advent in the television series. Still, for those of you who were wondering about the complete back story on Faith the Vampire Slayer, this is going to be as good as it gets.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
And now for something different..., June 19, 2006
This review is from: Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Simon Spotlight)) (Paperback)
I've probably read five or six books set in the Angel/Buffy world, most of which I've enjoyed for what they were, but this one is so unexpected that I felt compelled to write something about it.
"Go Ask Malice," in a nod to the controversial anonymous book "Go Ask Alice" written in the 1960's (and still a bestseller), is a diary of a lost and lonely teenage girl. Only this book is about Faith, the other Slayer in Buffy and Angel, and is a prequel that tells of how she became the nihilistic bad-girl we know and love. Besides being the first Buffy book to be written in first-person narrative (that I know of), "Malice" is a new and noteworthy entry into the field for its, how shall we say, adult undercurrents. The sexuality in this book is somewhat overt, and the subtext and some of the imagery even more so; in other words, just like Faith herself. And then there's the violence.
I don't want to give away too much, but even if you read the back cover you know that a central question/issue in the book is who or what Malice is. The answer, in the end, is as dark and heartbreaking as this powerful book demands: there aren't any punches pulled.
I started it and finished it basically in one sitting and could not put it down. It is a haunting, and surprisingly disturbing book for its kind. What's also interesting about it is that, since it's a prequel to the events that take place on the television show, you don't even have to have seen Buffy or Angel to read "Malice," though if you have, of course, it will greatly enrich your experience.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Through Faith's Past........Darkly, June 18, 2006
This review is from: Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Simon Spotlight)) (Paperback)
This is an incredible book. Not so much revisionist, as serving the purpose of filling in the specifics of Faith's past, before we first meet her in "Faith, Hope, and Trick". We see the journey that she takes and why she became the person she became; the reason for her distrust, cynicism, and detachment. Her backstory is heartbreaking and we see the experiences that led to the self destructive path she ultimately ended up on. It very much leads to understanding her a great deal more; it clears up some of her mysteries. The added element of her "imaginary" friend, and who that "friend" ultimately turns out to be is gripping, and we see how the Slayer collective connection (past Slayers lives, experiences, and deaths) molded and effected and shaped Faith. Robert Joseph Levy deftly captures Eliza Dushku's voice and mannerisms, and the reader can really see her portrayal of Faith all through in one's imagination. This book is simply A MUST HAVE for all Faith and Eliza fans.
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