Customer Reviews

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although the movie was campy, this book remains (because of the wonderful abilities of imagination) current)Anybody who is interested in the BTVS world ought to start out here to get an inking of how Buffy got her calling and the whole background behind her birthright.

Also unlike the movie, it theorizes what happens after Buffy saves the day. Even if it leaves out the fact that Buffy is supposed to have burned down the gym, how on earth she (post-revelation)went to Europe or her parents divorce, it is not as choppy as the movie version.

Reading this book is not necessary, but strongly recomended to understand the slayer's world. It's also worth noting in this series that she lacks the all-important network of the slayerettes or expansive research outlets and her only helper is a drifter.

While the movie had a clever premise I was bored by the MTV look. But this book is witty and introduces the characters that have now become legendary. I am glad I read this. The author does an excellent job of setting the atmosphere and presenting the action. If I had read this instead of seeing the movie I might have started watching the first year.

I just got this the other day, and I couldn't put it down! It's a little better than the movie! Richie is a great author, and if your a fan of hers or the movie, you should get this book!

I normally shy away from movie novelizations, because they seem to lack the depth of books that precede the movies they spawn. I bought this for my classroom library, thinking that it might lure some reluctant young readers, but I found myself really enjoying it. The author has a great sense of campy humor, isn't afraid to deviate from an exact replication of the movie's plot and I thought the ending was better than the one in the movie. It was a fun read.

Okay, the movie was admittedly campy. But that and this book introduced us to Buffy and her destiny.

I first received this book in 1994 (long after I saw the movie) and was really psyched to hear there would be a TV show (and more opportunites) for books.

Anybody who wants to be introducted to the Buffy series still should start at this book.

Although both it and the screen play list her as a Senior (when the TV series debuted, she was a sophomore) it is still worth the purchase. I still read the book to this day and the plot's attraction remains strong.

I came about five years later to the story of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I did manage to see the original film on videotape before the series started, but just barely. I offer no excuses other than a mental inability to believe that the story of valley girl meets vampire might have more to it than the usual trashy horror flick. Okay, I admit I was badly mistaken. The dialog was far better than I expected, Buffy's character was complex and interesting, and the film turned out to be both funny and spooky. Nor can one fault Joss Whedon's new take on vampire mythology.

I picked up this novelization of the film, the first real Buffy book, to have as a reference. It has been long enough so that I no longer remember the film. I had just read the graphic novel version that retells the tale with Sarah Michele Gellar instead of Kristy Swanson and suspected that it had taken a few liberties with the script (it did). At fewer than 200 pages, the book actually takes less time to read than it does to watch the film. Moreover, I thought it would be fun. And so it was.

The plot is now so well known it hardly bears repeating. Girl cheerleads and shops, girl meets watcher, watcher trains girl, vampires try to eat high school, girl kills vampires. The girl is unusual in that, under the disguise of a young woman who makes shallowness an art, we find someone who is unexpectedly bright, has a strong personality and a surprising sense of duty. In fact, the film questions many of our images of Buffy's lifestyle, from geeks to basketball stars, and does it well.

Richie Cusick does a great job of turning a script into a novel, which it the difficult matter of turning atmosphere and scene into meaningful words. As I have already indicated, this is a quick, enjoyable read, and is surprisingly hard to put down. I you are an aficionado, or simply want to find out what all the excitement has been about, this is a good book to have.

This book was brill. I read the first chapter and the next and the next, I couldn't put it down. It had an interesting part in every page. I collect Buffy books and I have to say this is one of my faves. The only bad thing is it doesn't have Willow, Angel, Xander, Cordelia or Oz. A must for any Buffy fan.

This is the novelisation of the movie.
I enjoyed the movie and the book adds a bit more to the characters.
Teenage girls are going missing. Buffy is a cheerleader at High School and thinking about the dance coming up and Pike.
She meets a man named Merrick, he tells her about her destiny, she is the Chosen One. That she will fight the vampires.
Buffy starts Physical and mental training so that she can fight the vampires and an enemy called Lothos.
So Buffy fights to destroy the evil.
A good read.

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

By Richie Tankersley Cusick, based on screenplay by Joss Whedon (1992)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Prior to first season, movie continuity.

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Merrick (watcher), Pike (boyfriend), Lothos (vampire master), Jennifer, Nicole, Kimberly (friends), Benny (Pike's friend), Amilyn (Lothos' servant), Joyce (Buffy's mom), Buffy's Dad

BACK OF THE BOOK SUMMARY

"The fourth teenage girl in L.A. has disappeared in less than two months! But Buffy's oblivious. She's brainstorming a theme for the senior dance. One nightmare later, she meets a stranger named Merrick who tells her she bears the mark of the order: only she--the Pom-Pom Princess of California cheerleaders--can stop the vampires before they engulf L.A. They're everywhere . . . she can't even trust her best friends! Merrick has brought her knowledge, physical and mental powers beyond her wildest dreams, and a terrifying enemy: Lothos, King of the Vampires, who is determined to have Buffy for himself! All she has are a stake, a cross and a mission: destroy the evil--even if it takes her own life!"

REVIEW

The tie-in novel to the 1992 Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (yes, there is a comma in the title) movie is interesting in two aspects. First, it's based more on Joss Whedon's original movie script than the final film version, and the differences are significant and striking. Second, the novel has several aspects that would later be revived in the first few episodes of the Buffy television series.

The overall plot will be familiar to anyone who has seen the movie. Buffy is introduced to us as a vapid, valley girl cheerleader attending Hemery High School in Los Angeles. She is accosted by Merrick, a Watcher, who eventually manages to convince her that she is this generation's Slayer. Along the way, Buffy befriends Pike, a fellow high school student, and battles Lothos, an evil vampire-king.

More of Joss Whedon's dry wit shows through in the novel than in the movie, and there are some interesting differences. Perhaps the most dramatic difference is that Merrick ends up committing suicide rather than let Lothos turn him into a vampire. Some other scenes are changed, such as a funny one where Buffy and Merrick play video games, and the very end scene, which has Pike and Buffy standing before an ancient castle instead of taking off on a motorbike as in the movie.

Many moments in the novel are seen again in the television series. For example, Buffy kills Lothos' vampire servant by pulling the same trick she did against Luke in The Harvest (tricking him into believing it's daylight and then staking him). Lothos is often referred to by other vampires as "The Master" and rises out of a pool of blood in his lair. Principle Murray in the novel has almost exactly the same "I want to be your friend" personality as Principle Flutie. Finally, drug-crazed gangs are blamed for vampire killings at the high school.

We can also see some of Joss' ideas that he later discarded. In the novel and movie, vampires faces don't change and they don't disintegrate when staked, and the Slayer always has a birthmark on her shoulder and suffers cramps when vampires are nearby.

Overall, the novel tie-in is probably more entertaining than the movie. Neither is spectacularly interesting but each has some value in its own way. In the end, the novel is probably worth picking up as it does contain Buffy's origin story in its original formulation.

As usual this is an excellant book. Richie is THE best teen/horrer auther out there and you should definitely read this book.