Mini review:

Trigger warning: Mention of world ending, mention of fire, attempted murder, and seemingly neglectant parent. Up till the point I read.

DNF

I received this E-ARC via Simon and Schuster and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Two years ago I attempted to read And I Darken by this author. It didn't work for me. Though I really liked her writing style and kept on eye on her works. Slayer sounded mildly interesting. Although I am not a Buffy fan (never watched the show and don't plan too). I figured it could still be good. Unfortunately it didn't work for me.

The beginning was really good! Something I've noticed with this author. I was hooked and intrigued! Then there was the first chapter. Nina apparently really hates Buffy and mentions so about 5 times in one page. Now I know that I've never seen the show, but this was still a huge turnoff for me. That and Nina just wasn't that interesting of a character.

There is some information about the world and the events of Buffy to go on. So it's not necessary to watch the tv show. Upon getting a good idea of the world I found that I wasn't that interested. I feel that I have read better worlds.

One thing I will give this book is that it's an easy read. I probably could have read the entire book. Also I did like the other characters. Just not Nina. There's good chance she will develop. I'm just not interested.

Overall this was personal. I do still recommend. This'll be great for Buffy fans.

OH.MY.GOD.  I am back in the Buffyverse, this is a fangirl dream.  When I heard this book was coming out I was wary but excited and of course, requested the arc.   

Full disclosure, I'm a mega Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan - I've seen the series more times then I'm willing to admit and I quote and talk about the show all the time, even to this day.  It's literally my all-time favorite series so I was quite nervous that Slayer would be a hot mess, not even going to lie.  Thankfully I was wrong.  

We start the story with the Watchers hideout, which I thought was a really cool idea.  We've never really seen what goes on or what all comes into play for all the people training to become a Watcher, and even more interesting, how everything that Buffy and the Scooby gang decisions affected them in the long term.  The story sets up all the characters and gives us some background of what has been going on in the Buffyverse, which is pretty essential for the readers who have never watched the show because it does take place AFTER the series.  Kiersten lays it all out for you though and it's very accessible.  We meet our slew of characters, obvious new Scooby gang potentials and throw in a demon or two and we have our plot line for the first in the series. 

Nina, the Watcher's resident medic and over-sheltered young girl turns out early on to be the Slayer.  What I particularly liked is that it didn't play out the exact same way as the first season of Buffy.   She had similar but different obstacles and she has a support system from the very start, unlike Buffy.  Nina is also not quite as impulsive as Buffy but she's certainly as stubborn. I did want to slap her a few times but not as much as I constantly wanted to slap Buffy, so that is a bonus right there!

The side characters are all enjoyable for the most part and they all had very distinct personalities.  I can't say that I love them like I love the original Scooby gang but I think they are off to a good start.  My one problem with this book was the watcher/romance.  Nina's Watcher wasn't very cool - he was very typical in many of the YA series love interests we see and it felt pretty bland for me.  The romance didn't take up a great deal of the book though and I did like how it ended. 

Overall, I think this is a very nice start and for all you Buffy fans - YES! There are lots of mentions of Buffy and the gang (yes, even Spike!) and past situations they were in.  There is no shortage of fandom love.  Kiersten White knew her stuff and she didn't forget to give the long-time fans lots to get nostalgic over.

I've been a HUGE Buffy fan since the show first aired. I adore Buffy and the whole slayer lore. I even met my husband through a chatroom dedicated to all things Buffy. So when I heard this ARC was available from S&S on Netgalley, I jumped up and down with joy. I should've tamped down my expectations.

I say with all sincerity to the author, "You tried your best but it wasn't good enough."

The whole "I hate Buffy" mantra throughout the book grated on my nerves. I get Nina is a watcher's daughter and she blames Buffy for her father's death but c'mon. *rolls eyes* Buffy is a hero and always will be.

The pace of the story was snail-slow. Really? Giles was making tea in the time it took me to finish a page.

What I loved: the show's references. It was fun to see and hear the names of those I've loved/hated over the years. Consistency throughout which I appreciated.

What I loathed: can Nina's mother be anymore cruel? She makes Joyce seem like an uber-loving mother of the year.

I also disliked the cliffhanger ending. I'm sorry to say I don't think I'll be reading any further in the series.

If you didn't like Buffy and want to see how Marti would've taken the series if she was allowed to continue the series (season 5 and 6 BtVS), you'll love the hate party here.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from Simon and Schuster Canada via Netgalley in the hopes I'd review it.

Reviewed by: Mrs. N

My Rating: 3 stars

When I’m about to start reading a book, I do my very best to go into it without any expectations. But being a giant fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer since I was a preteen, I couldn’t stop myself from going into Slayer and being a little more hopeful than I usually let myself be. There’s always a mixture of excitement and concern when you’re having expectations with a book.

I didn’t need to be concerned AT ALL! White did an outstanding job at capturing the feel of the original show. Now that being said, this book is following an entirely new cast of characters and they’re all in completely different situations (and locations) from the show. But what White did was infuse all of the Whedon-esque humour and action that we all grew to love in the Buffyverse.

Being such a big fan of Buffy, I can’t rightly judge whether or not people who weren’t fans of the original show will enjoy this book or not. But I would like to think you don’t need to be a fan to fall in love with White’s story.

You have a sweet girl who winds up being able to kick serious butt. She also goes through some amazing character development. There’s also friendships, family relationships, teen angst, demons, laugh-out-loud humour, an intense mystery, and MUCH more that I won’t divulge in case it’s considered a spoiler.

If you’re a fan of Buffy don’t hesitate for one second... preorder it NOW! Right now! This minute!

If you never watched the show, I would hope you would give this book a try. It was a lot of fun and very exciting.

I enjoyed every minute of this read and I’m already eagerly awaiting book 2.

***Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of Slayer by Kiersten White from NetGalley and the publishers for review purposes. Thank you to them!

I was late to the Buffy-verse. I never watched the show when I was growing up, and I still haven’t seen the movie. I started watching the show in university thanks to a friend who had all of the seasons on DVD and got through several seasons which inspired me to go out and seek the rest of the show myself. I still haven’t seen all of Angel, and I haven’t ready any of the comics, and I’ve only watched through the show once, but I loved it. I fell in love with the characters and the stories that they were telling, so when I heard that Kiersten White was writing a novel set in the Buffy-verse, I was super excited. When I saw it on NetGalley, requested it, and actually received an eARC, I was so excited.
I went into this book with decently high expectations considering I had never read anything by Kiersten White. The idea of the book was something that intrigued me and I couldn’t help but get excited. Ultimately, I was super happy with the book, giving the novel 5/5 stars.
Slayer is the story of Nina. Nina comes from a family of Watchers, and her father was actually Buffy’s first Watcher. The Watcher ranks are much diminished and so they are in hiding in a castle in Ireland. Nina is training to be a healer, which is not something that is highly prized amongst the Watchers, but Nina herself has never really been highly prized amongst the Watchers. Things have always been all about her sister Artemis who was being trained to be a full on Watcher but failed the test. Their father is long dead, and their mother is somewhat distant with Nina, and this is something Nina struggles with. There is something else that Nina is struggling with: something seems to have changed within her. Ever since Buffy destroyed magic two months ago, and Nina was splattered with demon-goo, she’s felt different. But what’s wrong?
I loved this book. There were certain things that I didn’t understand because I wasn’t completely up to date on all of the shows and comics, and there were things that I was missing out on. However, I still enjoyed it. The characters were great and the banter felt very natural and gave me the Buffy vibe I was craving. The story stands well enough on it’s own even if you have a minimal knowledge, because, as I said, I loved the story. The writing was engaging and absorbing. I wanted the characters to succeed, or fail as the case might be for the ones I didn’t like. The family relationships in this book were especially interesting to me. Artemis and Nina are twins, and I have always been very interested in the sibling bonds between twins. I also enjoyed the dynamics between Nina and the other characters in the story. She was a character that I really related to.
The only major complaint that I had about this book was that I was confused because I didn’t have enough experience with the aspects of the world that came after the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It made me want to go seek those things, Angel and the comics, out so that I could learn more about what was going on. That being said, you can read it without doing those things; I just think it would add a bit of enjoyment to the story.
Slayer comes out on January 8th, 2019. I highly encourage you to go pick it up if any thing about it has caught your interest. I think that you will enjoy it, and that you won’t regret it if you do.
Thanks again to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me early access to the eARC.

What you think you're getting.in Slayer is a fun YA novel that takes place in Joss Whedon's Buffy Universe in which you'll may get fun flashbacks/flash forwards or minor interactions with those characters you know and love. Sounds perfect, right?! Well, Slayer is not that book so keep looking.

The first 90% of the book we have to constantly listen to main character Nina's inner monologue about how much she hates Buffy summers, which pretty much resembles that scene from the live action Grinch Movie (you know the one) "hate, hate, hate, loathe entirely". It gets old really fast, like we get it. Then within the last few pages, so totally turns around and respects/relates to Buffy whom she hated the whole time!

The plot is easily predictable and full of the typical YA troupes (brooding love interest and bad poetry anyone?) which means that even if you wanted to move past the Buffy hating, and no run in's with other characters from the TV show, it still isn't great.

I'm really disappointed in this one.

Ahh let me just start off by saying there's absolutely no parts of this that I disliked. If you're looking for an unbiased review, look elsewhere. I'm a huuuuge Buffy fan and was super excited when I heard of this novel. I tried everything to get my hands on an ARC and when I did I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed every second and I thought this story will also be accessible to people who've never even watched Buffy. There are many familiar names and events, but they're all explained in a way that make it easy for everyone to follow. I'll put my thoughts on the plot/characters below and will try to avoid spoilers, but read them at your own risk.

First of all, I love how I get to revisit a universe I know so well and loved dearly in a completely new way. The idea of a Watcher school was genius and something I didn't even know I wanted. The book was full of plot twists and action, there's no way anyone is getting bored while reading this. I also loved how well the author was able to capture what I feel is the essence of Buffy. There's this perfect balance between badass fight scenes, humor and angst. It was everything I wanted and more.

Second, the CHARACTERS. I love Athena Jamison-Smythe will all my heart. I love Artemis (sometimes) and Rhys and Cillian and Doug and Leo and I even learned to love Honora by the end of the book. Even the supporting characters were really likeable, in my opinion.

Anyways, I feel like I'll spoil everything if I keep talking so I'll just leave it at this. This is a must-read for any Buffy fans out there!! Such a fun, action-packed book and I can't wait for the second one.

I’m extremely on the fence about this book. When I heard about a new book in the buffy-verse about a slayer that was awaken when the rest were at the end of the television series. As much as I enjoyed the story I felt like the main character was constantly putting buffy down. When you pick up a book expecting it to be pro buffy because that’s what is what most will be buying it for. As you read the book you begin to understand more about the reasons but I think it was just a bit to much. Especially at the start. If you’re a die-hard buffy fan you will probably feel the same but the book does get better as the story unfolds. I’m happy to see publishers bringing more stories for new generations and I kind of feel like that’s what this story does. While it takes place only a few months after the series and comics continue on the story, its nice to see a novel for people who may not be into comics be able to see an idea of what happens next in the Buffy-verse.

The characters remind me a bit a the scooby crew which I liked. There is a good balance between the secondary characters and the main character Nina. As her life changes so does everyone’s around her and I feel the author was able to incorporate a lot of things that made people fall in love with the buffy series stronger there. Nina got on my nerves the same way Buffy did at times in the show. While I didn’t like some parts of the book I would have to say it is a solid story and helps open up for more possible books. I wanted to love this book and give it 5 stars but I just can’t. It just didn’t fully meet up with my expectations but I still enjoyed most of it. it is still worth the read.

Rating: 3.5 stars.

Kiersten White does a great job of revealing the world of Slayers from the eyes of Watchers. I really liked seeing the Slayer world expanded and seeing how other people viewed Buffy and her actions. I did like the plot of this book as there was a bit of a mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat.

While I did find the characters to be a bit too flat, I did enjoy reading about their emotional struggles. The main character, Nina, has spent her life healing people but when she finds out she is a Slayer, Nina is at war with her instincts to kill and her medical instincts. I feel like White wrote the tension between these characters and in their emotional struggles really well. I did find myself getting annoyed that Nina let people push her around a lot. She is THE SLAYER and yet, she's letting other people make decisions for her and it was kind of frustrating that she has so much power that she didn't use. I did find that I was confused about how Nina is the last Slayer, but maybe I missed something. I also found Nina's major embarrassment regarding her crush to be super immature and cringey.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series! The end of this book was so classic Buffy so I'm looking forward to more.

The thing about changing the world is that different people are going to have different ideas about what should come next. I often reflected, reading the comic book series <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/893319660">Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8</a></i>, on how perfect I found the ending of the television series and how <i>Season 8</i> was completely and utterly different to what I wanted to happen next. This preconception of mine makes a novel like <i>Slayer</i> a hard sell. On the one hand, I love the idea of more <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>, and something adjacent to the original series (like, say, <i>Angel</i> season 5) appeals more than a direct continuation of Buffy’s story. On the other, <i>BtVS</i> was so of its time, so perfectly a television show, so connected to the actors involved, that I don’t know that any continuation within that same world would work for me.

So to start with, there’s my bias: the idea of a <i>BtVS</i> continuation is so appealing and yet the possibility of living up to my hopes is so meagre as to leave me cynical about the whole endeavour. Enter <i>Slayer</i> by Kiersten White, a young adult novel set in the post-<i>Season 8</i> world but with a new set of characters doing something entirely new. The blurb is a little misleading – Nina is the last Slayer <b>called</b> rather than the <b>last Slayer</b> absolutely – but this is a story about a new Slayer with her own set of companions and her own struggles.

Let’s start with the positives. There is a point, about a third of the way into the book, when things start <b>happening</b> and it gets pretty good. In the second half of the novel, as the twists start unravelling and the hidden agendas of many of the characters are revealed, I was lapping it up and I raced through the second half of the novel in a few days. It helped that a lot of the later chapters seem to be shorter (or maybe I just read them faster?) which added to the pace, but by that point I was really enjoying it.

The flip side to this enjoyment is that part of my problem in the earlier chapters is that it was just so obvious to me what those twists and turns were going to be and I was just waiting for them to happen. Now, it’s very possible that this could be my own particular familiarity with certain narrative tropes, but there were only maybe two or three twists that I didn’t get (depending on what you count; only one really surprised me). And then there’s that first third, which was understandably world-buildy and back-referency, but I also found quite dull and led to my more cynical responses to <i>BtVS</i> continuation media gaining the upper hand.

Perhaps my biggest problem with the book, though, were the very minor issues that kept on cropping up that I really wish <b>didn’t</b> bother me, but do. Some are more significant that others. The novel is set in Ireland, presumably in 2005/06, about two years after the end of <i>BtVS</i>, although it’s unclear which side of the Irish border we’re on (Dublin is two hours’ drive away). This border issue is only a problem because at one point one of the characters pulls out pound notes, which haven’t been legal tender in the UK since the mid-1980s while Ireland has been part of the Euro since 2002, so these shouldn’t be currency in a time when Facebook exists (post-2004) and Australia is in Eurovision (post-2015). I was also about as impressed with the attempts to represent accents on the page as I have been with <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/893775170?book_show_action=false">other <i>BtVS</i> spin-off media</a>. With these things, your mileage my vary – as I said, my cynicism had been activated by the earlier parts of the novel.

Overall, though, what <i>Slayer</i> has is <b>potential</b>. Yes, that was on purpose, but it also reflects how the novel sets up a character I cared about, a situation that’s a little more interesting, and the possibility of developing the <i>BtVS</i> narrative in a way that could be quite good (i.e. conform more to my preconceived hopes). I’m certainly not <b>completely</b> sold based on this starting point, but I’m willing to admit that I have my preconceptions about how the <i>BtVS</i> narrative should continue that the comics didn’t fulfill and that gave <i>Slayer</i> an uphill struggle for my affection. By the end of the novel, it’s making progress, but it hasn’t quite crested that hill yet; it’s got enough altitude, though, that I’m happy to give the sequel a shot.

A book set in the Buffyverse was an immediate yes please for me!! As a HUGE BtVS fan, I can't tell you how excited I was for this book, and for me it did not disappoint! I really loved everything about this book. The concept was really interesting, the fact that the main character grew up within the Watcher community and already had a pre-existing history with Buffy Summers. I enjoyed the character development, and the mystery of who the villain was. I also love that it ended with the set up for more, because I need more!!

I think what I loved about this book is there is reference to the show, and it is canon to what happened there as well as the first set of comics. But I feel like you might not need to have watched the show to enjoy the book as well. Maybe it's the complete biased BTVS lover in me that thinks that. I do think that fans of the show will enjoy this book/series, and I'm hoping that it will also bring about new fans as well. I thought it was fantastic!! As a bookseller, I can't wait until it comes out in stores so I can start recommending it to as many people as possible!

Wow. This was perfect in every way. It had action, romance, vampires, demons, I mean what more could you ask for?  

It was a little slow at the beginning but I was quickly drawn in. The plot was great! The chemistry between the characters was insane. I loved everything about the book~
For someone like myself who hasn't watched anything of Buffy, it was easy to understand what was happening. 

I just wish there was a little more world building.  There were so many questions left unanswered, I feel like there was a HUGE cliffhanger... BUT I cannot wait to read more! This is definitely a book you have to read, whether you've watched the show or not. I highly recommend it!

Reading Slayer was such a fun experience! I was transported back to Buffy's world and didn't want to leave. White did an excellent job of bringing back the old while simultaneously mixing in the new.

If you're a fan of Buffy this is a MUST read. And if you're sitting there going "what, who is Buffy?" please kindly turn to your Netflix account and begin your binge watch. You definitely have enough time to watch it all before Slayer comes out in January.

I haven't interacted with anything Buffy related since the series was cancelled, and really looked forward to reading this. The only real downside was that this book took place in the same extended universe as the Buffy comics, which I haven't read since I'd heard they were so bad. Much of the plot focuses on events not in the tv series, such as magic vanishing, and Buffy being an outcast from the defeated watchers, which was confusing to say the least. There wasn't any "here's what you missed" prologue which would have helped immensely. However, most of what I didn't understand I was able to google, and catch up on without reading any of the comics, so if you're willing to do some homework to catch up, you'll be just fine.
The plot was pretty entertaining and easy to follow. Nina is likable, and I liked the link between her and Buffy's first watcher, or that her first watcher was even remembered. Buffy fans will likely enjoy this book, and it gets nowhere near as crazy as the summaries for the comics I've read.

Long before Buffy was the cultural icon of today, she was a cheerleader at Hemery High who was plagued by strange nightmares in Los Angeles. A strange man appeared: he introduced himself as Merrick, he called himself a Watcher and trained her to fight vampires. He also died to keep Buffy safe, and his death drove Buffy to fight the ancient vampire Lothos and prevail.. Afterwards, Buffy and her mother move to Sunnydale and her story begins anew - new friends, new watcher, new vampires.

But for some, the story lies in the old, not the new. Merrick had a family - a wife and twin daughters. His girls knew of Buffy - and they did not see her as a heroine. They see the girl who didn't save him, the girl who broke their world and later even the world of magic. Slayer is their story.

Meet Athena aka Nina the girl who hates Buffy more than anyone else in the world. She's been raised by what's left of the Watcher Council. She's trained to heal. Her sister Artemis trained to fight. When Buffy destroys the Seed of Wonder (the source of all magic on Earth), Nina is zapped by demonic energy and becomes the last Slayer. Suddenly, Nina is facing life and death decisions that her upbringing has not prepared her to answer. She will need to figure out what's happening in the demon underground, who to trust and who to lie to. And if her life wasn't complicated enough, there's a prophecy that she will destroy the world.

Slayer was an interesting addition to the BTVS lore. At first I found it a little difficult to get behind Nina because her view of Buffy was so opposite to my own (having grown up watching the series), but as Nina grew in her powers, her perspective began to change and she was much more likable.

Title: Slayer
Author: Kiersten White
Pages: 416

Released: January 8 2019
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: Hardgrave

Genre: Supernatural
Goodreads Rating: 3.84 (of 56 ratings)

Disclaimer: I received this ARC courtesy of Simon Pulse and NetGalley. I am grateful for the opportunity to review an ARC for my readers, but this will not influence my final rating. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and based solely on the book. 

I imagine the drafting process for this novel included a meeting somewhat like this: "Kiersten. You must now make a choice. For Slayer, will you target A) readers who have only watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer or B) readers who have watched BtVS and read the comics or C) the readers who make up your dedicated fanbase but have not touched any Buffy-based media?" And Kiersten White said, "Why not all of them?"

Slayer accommodates new and old Buffy fans alike, but not without a few bumps in the road.  I'm well-versed in all things Buffy seasons one to seven, and White condensed the main facts — why vampires are major icksters, how Buffy got to be the icon she is today, what the heck a slayer is — quite well. I never read the comics, but I got all the important facts as well: Seed of Wonder, no more magic, okay, yes, alright. The issue became less "wait, what does that mean" and more "okay, but can this version actually start?" White spends almost 30% of the book explaining who is who, what is what, and why everything is happening.  The first third of the book is so heavy on info-dumps I started scrolling forwards, eager for the action to begin. Main character Athena (Nina)'s actual actions feel drowned out by the many times she "pauses" to give information to the reader. Considering I skimmed several of these pages, and still understand the entirety of the book, I believe a lot of this info was unnecessary and just weighed down on the plot.

Once I broke through what I loosely refer to as the "introductory section," though, I was hooked. Nina's character arc focuses on understanding her role as slayer: what it means within her family and what it means in relation to Buffy and the many other Chosen Ones. I love that in Slayer, Nine knows about the world of Slayers, that she has seen everything they can do, before she realizes she will be part of that world as well. Not to mention Nina has trained her entire life as a nurse -- as a Slayer, she must fight her instincts to heal. White brought up several points about decisions and how we make them and ... just the scene with Cillian and the decision Nina makes. That scene. If you know, you know. Putting Nina's two worlds up against each other makes for such an interesting read and exploration of Slayer identity!

There are moments in this book for die-hard Buffy fans. No, do not expect Buffy to walk in and start strutting around. This is Nina's story. But there are fun parallels to Buffy's own Slayer journey. Not to mention how amazing the fight scenes were. I swear I was watching a Buffy episode in my mind. White wrote the absolute best fight scenes in this book. They felt so true to BtVS with the moves, the quick thinking, and the inventiveness.

The characters. There are definitely standouts in this book. I liked Nina for her journey and willingness to be herself, even if everyone else (literally, everyone) had already made up their minds on who she should be. A demon comes in later who is the absolute best and so much comedic relief and again: so much BtVS feels. For the most part, Nina and Artemis' relationship was the strong sibling bond we love to see in our books. Rhys and Cillian were good, I just wish they had more page time! As for other characters, well, let's just say there is so much duplicity I don't even know who is who or who to like or what was what. Despite that long intro?

RATING

I'm awarding this book 3.5 crowns. The beginning was just so hard to get into. I put it down three times at the start because the writing was so dry. Then after that "introductory section" it was almost as though a whole other author was in charge and I was flowing forwards with crazy action scenes, witty humour, and so much character enjoyment. Yes, I recommend, but do be aware the beginning takes a moment. 

Review posting on blog (https://bookprincessreviews.wordpress.com/): January 7 2019
Review posting on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2542048524): January 7 2019

As a long time Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan I wanted to love Slayer but sadly it was just ok. That being said I enjoyed the Buffy references as well as the twists that started emerging later in the book. It just fell a little flat over all and had me wishing it had been more.