Buffy the Vampire Slayer FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Sunnydale's Slayer of Vampires Demons and Other Forces of Darkness

by David Bushman, Arthur Smith

Buffy the Vampire Slayer redefined what was possible for teen-centric TV, built an extraordinary strong bond of love and loyalty with its passionately devoted fans, and launched the meteoric writing and directing career of creator Joss Whedon. Buffy the Vampire Slayer FAQ takes a comprehensive look at the groundbreaking series, giving both Buffy experts and newbies fresh insights into the creation and production of the show, in-depth analysis of the show's complex mythology and thematic concerns, and lots of irreverent cracks at Riley's expense (love ya, buddy). Readers will learn secrets even the Watchers Council doesn't know, relive their favorite moments from the show, and settle once and for Angel or Spike?

Genres: Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2017

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and thus was happy to review this entry in the FAQ series based on this wonderful cult TV show. Conveniently I had rewatched the whole series less than two years ago and a lot of the details were still (moderately) fresh in my mind. I went into the book by hoping to find out new tidbits of information.

Unfortunately for most of the book this wasn't the case. Considerable portions of the book list characters, locations, events, monsters and spells detailing elements from the show. While this collects information from the show to a neat package, it doesn't really tell you anything that was was not known to you if you had seen the show even once - and not even recently. In parts there was additional commentary that was useful - but all too often the entries just described what happened in a particular episode rather than giving any real insight. Too often, I felt like I was reading a recap volume rather than an FAQ.

The best parts of the book were the beginning (which gave more insight into the origins and design of the show), and the latter sections that talked about the comic (though admittedly for me this was interesting as I had not read them). The section on the sing-along version of 'Once More With Feeling' was fun and makes me sad I've never had the chance to attend such a get together.

In summary, if you're a hardcore Buffy fan there won't be too much new for you here. If you're not then you wouldn't have purchased this book in the first place. If you have seen Buffy but it's been a number of years since last, it serves as a nice walk down memory lane since it is more summary than FAQ. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Susan Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Princess Fuzzypants here:
My entire family are huge Buffy and Angel fans. This book is a great addition to the Buffyverse libraries. It looks at the episodes and talks about what worked and what did not work. It looks at the heroes, the villains, the themes, the monsters both human and not and all the assorted things that made the two series so groundbreaking.
It even went into some academic ponderings both real and figurative. I confess I much preferred the fun parts but it does deserve recognition for its impact.
I give this book five purrs and two paws up.

[Kristin Dahlman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book. Gives me a different perspective on some episodes and made me revisit Angel.