Book Reviews
Blooded
by Christopher Gloden and Nancy Holder ($4.50)
Summary---
This is the first Buffy book I've read that is an orginal story, not to
mention the first with Angel in it.
The story starts off the day after Willow gets mugged and a little beat up.
That incident pretty much sets into motion all the events and actions that
take place. She starts to feel like she needs to be stronger, better prepared
for those situations---not to mention a little envious of her best friend
Buffy's abilities. During a field trip to an exhibit on Japanese culture,
Willow reaches out to touch an ancient sword and cuts her finger. Apparently
that sword held the Chinese vampire/demon Chirayoju (we'll just call him
Cheerios....read the book to understand=)) and when Willow cut herself on the
sword, it was freed. Cheerios posesses Willow in order to grow stronger and
build up a vampire army to destroy the world. Xander(who Willow nearly
killed), becomes posessed by Sanno, the Japanese mountain god who trapped
Cheerios in the sword and plans to get rid of him, once and for all. Buffy,
trying to help Willow, offers her body to be posessed by Cheerios, hoping to
fight an internal battle with it. Needless to say, when the Slayer fights,
the Slayer wins=)
My thoughts---
I think that this book was written well. The authors have done a very good
job in keeping with the same overall tone as the show...not to mention the
witty dialogue. They did some great insight into the thoughts and emotions of
the characters, especially with Angel and Buffy---something that was very
lacking in The Angel Chronicles Vol.1. An interesting fact in the setting,
though, is that it takes place after Angel has gotten his soul back.(No
mention of being sent to hell, getting out, major change in attitudes toward
him etc.) I'm guessing that this is stated in general terms, loosely based
due to the fact that the authors don't know whats to come in Season 3.
Anyhoo, onto the critique=) In dealing with character protrayal, nearly all
of the actions, dialogue, insights were on the mark. Cordelia was perceived
to be somewhat more scathing and harsh in the book. In contrast, on the show,
she seems stuck-up, rude...but in a lovable kind of way.(Towards the end of
Season 2, she wasn't even extremely rude) I felt like the authors went
overboard with Cordelia, making her alot meaner than what we're used to
seeing. Another nuance I noticed that seemed a bit out of place was Giles's
hurt reaction to some of Buffy's comments towards him. On the show, to me at
least, it seems as though he gets urked by them, but never really hurt.
Finally, this is a bit of speculation on my part, dealing with Buffy's
response to Willow asking Buffy to teach her some self defense. IMO, the
Buffy I'm used to would have agreed, ready to help her best friend---if Willow
felt like self defense would make her feel better, Buffy would be there for
her. However, in the book, it seemed like Buffy almost brushed if off, as if
Willow didn't need to have any self defense training because she was there and
there was no immediate reason for it (she does offer later on, but too late).
A tad anti-Buffy? Maybe, but then, maybe Buffy doesn't really understand what
its like not be able to hit someone untill they bleed in those situations=)
Altogether, great book! --- Cara --- Cara821@aol.com
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