(TW: Some Spoilers Ahead)
Rating: ☆
Note: Even though I didn’t like this book, I mean no hate or harm towards the author. I have enjoyed other works by them, I just didn’t enjoy their take on the Buffyverse!
First, let me just say that I feel more than a little icky about coming on here, and having my very first book review on this blog be a bad one. Especially when I was initially so excited to pick up this book when I first saw it. Just a little bit of backstory here, I grew up in the 90’s watching Sarah Michelle Gellar kick total ass as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, something that was always a very special memory of mine, so I went into this having high hopes. Sadly, this book just did not deliver on those hopes for me, and I did inevitably DNF it less than halfway through. Even so, absolutely no hate to the author, the publishing company, or anyone else involved.
“A new Slayer for a new generation.” That tagline grabbed me, and had me by the metaphorical balls, I’m not going to lie. If I hadn’t been stalking the release of this book prior to that, then I probably would’ve bought it based on that alone. So, before I get into all of the things that made me hate this book, I want to talk to you a little bit about a few of the things that I liked. When I went out, I bought the hardback copy of this book for quite a few reasons. Firstly, it was gorgeous; the cover is beautiful, and I love that it’s got these shiny, tactile words on it that are simply eye catching. I also really like the idea of a cover that has a gate that just screams “Hellmouth” on it! When you open up the dust jacket to look inside, those same, beautiful details are present there as well. I’m also then kind of person who loves to keep their hardback books on a shelf somewhere, like serial killer trophies, if it does end up being a favorite which, I so desperately wanted this one to be.
In Every Generation, the main character is Willow’s daughter, Frankie, who is a Sophomore at New Sunnydale High School. While part of me loves that they tried to keep the original setting as best as they could, there are some things that just kind of… bored me? It seems as though Willow has slowly been introducing Frankie to magic, despite her “Dark Willow” era which still seems to very much haunt Willow. (Then again, losing my one true love would probably start my villain era too, I’m not going to lie.)
So, while the writing style still kind of felt like the Buffy that I grew up with in terms of voice and setting, especially in the first couple of seasons, I feel like it also kind of fell short. They brought up the Old Scoobies a lot… like, a lot, a lot, seeing as the main character is Willow’s daughter. Part of me wishes that they would’ve maybe mentioned the old gang a little less and spent more time building the bond between the New Scoobies. Because if you’ve ever watched Buffy, then you know that they went through a lot together. Hellmouths, boyfriends, girlfriends, murders, bullying. The Original Buffy deals with a lot of real-world problems, and those real-world problems brought the gang together. This new gang didn’t get that same bond, and I felt like it really hurt the story.
I was very pleased to see old favorites from the show within the first few pages, like Willow, Oz, Spike, with mentions of Buffy, Faith, and Dawn also. But at the same time… it’s fanfiction. I mean, honestly, let’s call it what it is, right? Fanfiction that got picked up by a publisher, and made into a “real” book but, that isn’t my biggest problem with this book.
My biggest issue with the book, and the author, is honestly, the way that they portray Willow and her sexuality, which inevitably lead to me DNFing the book. Willow was this iconic, lesbian witch badass, so to magically impregnate her, without her consent, as a side effect of a spell is just incredibly rape-y and gross to me. I get it, the Buffy and Angel shows do have a pretty dark history concerning the way that they treat their pregnant characters, in terms of pregnancy storylines, and in no way am I defending that. But… this is 2022.
This “will they, won’t they” trope between Willow and Oz is just not something that I’m here for. And I do get it because, as an openly pansexual woman, I am all for exploring your sexuality and finding out who you are and who you love but, anyone who has seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer already knows that Willow and Oz have already dated. They’ve already done the whole “shoot your shot” thing, and we don’t need to see them do it again. Because Willow is GAY- she is happy being gay, and happy in herself and her sexuality, and to question that identity is just gross. It’s disingenuous to Willow, and untrue to her character, and what she stands for.
The first scene that nearly had me DNFing this book was when she straight up feels the need to defend her sexuality and say, “No! I’m gay!” when someone speculates that she and Oz might be secretly having sex. From what I understand, and what I’ve been told by friends who have finished this book, there are at least two more instances where Willow is all but accused of sleeping with Oz. It gave off the vibe where this was one of those terrible fanfictions from the 90’s where the author has a Willow/Oz romance agenda, and that they cannot accept the fact that Willow is canonically gay. And you just can’t have something like that without being completely dismissive of Willow’s lesbian identity. An identity that has been set in stone for 20+ years, and to suggest otherwise is just incredibly ignorant.
Frankie was also probably the least memorable character in this whole story, despite her being the main character, which in and of itself is quite the problem. People want a main character that they can relate to, and that they can get behind. They don’t want to be questioning who the main character is, and what the story is about constantly. Not only is she the “rape-side-effect baby” she’d also constantly being saved by men in the book, despite how the book tries to come off as being very feminism forward. Aside from her magic/Slayer combo powers being pretty cute, and something new to explore, I don’t think that there was really anything else that I liked about her as a character.
I also don’t think that eviscerating all of the strong female protagonists from the show within the first maybe, 10-pages, was a great idea. I didn’t see a purpose in it, aside from being a plot device in order to completely isolate Frankie, so that she could be the “Chosen ONE.” Which did hit me as kind of off. Correction, it hit me as complete and utter BULLSHIT. (sorry, not sorry.) If you’ve ever seen Buffy, or read the comics, etc. then you already know all of the things that Buffy, Faith, the Slayers, and the OG Scoobies faced in the past, so to think that she was killed off, off-screen and so easily, is just stupid. The likelihood of something like that actually happening is extremely low.
Finally, I just want to bring up how there were quite a few inconsistencies that I just cannot seem to get past, and had me literally screaming. Ex. Sunnydale was destroyed during the OG Buffy days but, it was rebuilt to be a brand new and different town, essentially. So, tell me how they can recognize Giles’ old Magic Box shop, and the alley behind it? If the town is different, then tell me how that works. It just made it come off as being extremely poorly written, if the author couldn’t even remember that they had “rebuilt” the town. The menstruation jokes were also very poorly received, and just another nail in the coffin when it comes to catering to the whole cisgender/heteronormative agenda. Yes, we get it, straight cis people exist but, so do LGBTQIA+ people. So, what was the point in trying to erase Willow’s lesbian identity. Honestly, the more that I write about what I did read, the more that I realize how much I didn’t like this book. One star. Would not read again.
Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? Do you agree or disagree with me?
-Sky
Skyla N. Lambert
Author | Blogger | Bookworm | Book Reviewer
E. skylanarissalambert@gmail.com
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