Unfortunately, when this originally released I was in the process of moving so I had a hard time really getting into it. I’ve finally picked it up again and this time alternated between reading and listening.

I’ve been a huge fan of Buffy for over 20 years and have enjoyed the comics so I was excited to come across a book taking place in an alternate reality where demons run Sunnydale, now known as Demondale.

Big Bad was a fun, nostalgic read that focuses on Anya, Jonathan and Andrew with Buffy as a side character. Technically, Buffy would be considered the villain in this story since she's determined to destroy their world so it was interesting seeing the villains working together to stop her.

We see a number of villains from the series in this book and I especially liked that Spike and Angelus were featured pretty heavily. Although I would’ve preferred if Angelus had been written more true to character.
I was never the biggest fan of the trio but I appreciate that the author didn't try to make Warren likable. That would have been too much for me.

One thing that I wasn’t too sure about was Buffy herself. In her world, she hadn’t met Spike or Angelus yet but has killed the Master so this appears to take place in the beginning of season 2. Considering the timeline, she was portrayed as way more powerful than she should have been and not the young, inexperienced teenager she actually was. Season 2 Buffy wouldn’t have been able to fight as well as she did here.

If you’re a fan of Buffy you’ll definitely enjoy all of the easter eggs scattered throughout the book and I liked that there was even a mention of the Buffy movie as well!

I realized early on in this one that this book is probably better for bigger, more dedicated Buffy fans, but it's still a fun story. Teen readers who are not familiar with the Buffy-verse can still find something to enjoy in this as there is plenty that is not "canon" as well as the characters people know and love.

This book was a joy to read (and listen to). The writing was fun and quick and it stayed true to the characters while implementing some changes that were really interesting. Anya is one of my favourite character so I’m really happy that she was at the forefront of this story. The amount of easter eggs really show that the writer is a fan and wrote this for the fans.

This would’ve made a kickass buffy episode for sure. I’d also like to compliment the narrator because she did an amazing job.

Thank you Netgalley and Hypherion Avenue for the advance digital copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Jonathan has long been one of my favorite Buffy characters, so the fact that Lily established him, along with Anya and Andrew, as the MCs of Big Bad, spoke to me.

Big Bad is a nostalgic romp full of beloved characters (along with some new ones) set in a slightly skewed version of the universe we know and love. This isn’t about the Slayer, but about the former normies (ish, in the case of Anya) trying to make it as the minority population. Demondale is exactly what you’d imagine – the world if the Mayor won.

We get to see Spike, Angel, Dru, and so many others as the baddies, but in a world where they’re not the baddies. They’re the normies. And they’ll have to figure out how to work together with the lowly humans if they want to save their world from…..the Slayer? Yeah, you’ll just have to read it.

As a standalone, you don’t have to read any of the other books in the new canon. And if you don’t take it too seriously, you’ll have a lot of fun!

If you are a fan of Buffy, especially the Big Bads of Buffy, read this! I loved it!! I am a sucker for Spike and Dru anything, so this really hit for me. It was reminiscent of the alternate dimensions episode with Vampire Willow from the show but just more fleshed out. The nostalgia was just right without being too cringe and while still keeping it fresh for a newer audience. Although I will say, if you have no knowledge of Buffy whatsoever, you may enjoy this but some stuff will definitely be lost on you.

Did not hold my attention.

I have been all in with the Buffy revival. (And am secretly hoping that the show may return in a next-generation format.) So I jumped on the opportunity to read this book.

I almost wish I had read the description closer. What I read had very little of the classic Buffy feel. We get all of the awkward teenage perspective and none of the character growth that you would come to expect from a 90's drama. While it is interesting to follow alternate-universe Sunnydale it did not grab me in the way that I had hoped.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good villain story, but these felt more like bumbling Power Rangers enemies. I trudged through out of loyalty to the source material, but will not be pursuing any more titles in this series.

That is not to say that it doesn't have its redeeming qualities. Honestly, I would recommend starting with a library or borrowed copy just to see if this title is for you.

[Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

Thanks to Netgalley and Hyperion for the ARC of this!

I am living for all the nostalgia fueled Buffy books that have been coming out lately, and this was no exception. A romp with Jonathan, Andrew, and Anya at the helm to fight a Slayer with the help of Spike, Drucilla, Angelus, and some other familiar faces, this was an absolute delight to read. The author definitely captures the tone of the show while moving us to a more progressive world. I always thought Anya and Jonathan at the end of Buffy deserved more, and here they both got to find something.

There has been a plethora of recent Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe books and Big Bad is my favorite so far. Anderson reminded me why as a kid I loved the character Buffy. She has captured the characters perfectly.

This is set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but from the perspective of the vampires and demons. It's a refreshing take on a cult classic. Anya is a demon living in Demondale, formerly Sunnydale. With the motley crew she recruits, she ends up saving Demondale from Buffy, the chosen one from another dimension.

I admit I'm a Buffy fan. Maybe it's because of this that I loved this novel so much but I loved every second of it and every cameo that happened in it. Is it a perfect novel? No. But it's pretty freaking close.

You can tell from the premise that this Buffyverse story was going to read like fan fiction, and it definitely does. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

What I liked:

Warren’s early death. I love the Trio as a concept, but making Warren a primary protagonist where you have to root for him would be difficult to say the least. Anya and Jonathan are the main pov characters. I love Jonathan but his friendship with Warren makes his super sketchy and Anderson resolved that easily.

The idea of all the different dimensions was super cool and I think having Anya as one of the main pov characters is what made that work. Anya’s perspective works really well for this particular narrative. Also, I love the way every was resolved with Buffy in the end.

The Drusilla x Vampire Willow matchup. I’ve never considered this pairing before because they aren’t ever in the same place in the show, but it’s actually insanely accurate to their characters.

What I didn’t love:

Early descriptions. I felt like some things were over-explained. This is a minor gripe, but a couple things rubbed me the wrong way. For example, when Buffy faces the Gentlemen in another dimension, her internal dialogue over-explains why the Gentlemen are creepy.

Trivialization of early action scenes. These don’t necessarily need to be long, drawn-out plot points since that isn’t the focus of the book, but the fact that Buffy is able to so easily take out these Big Bads is weird considering that it’s difficult for Buffy to win those fights during the show. I was especially put out by the scene were Buffy takes down the First, since this is a huge turning point in season seven where everything goes horribly wrong. I get that in this world Buffy only has to take out the Black Flame Flag rather than actually defeating the villain, but still.

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for sending me this arc.

I enjoyed this one a lot. I’m a huge Buffy fan and it was easier to ignore some things with it being an alternate universe, so that was nice. I’d have enjoyed more of Buffy’s POV but overall this was great.

4⭐
This was such a fun read, and brought be back to my childhood. I was obsessed with Buffy from start to finish, and beyond. I loved being back with the characters, but also with a fresh story. I loved this so much.
Thank you to NetGalley and Lily Anderson for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review

Big Bad had an interesting premise - the slayer is caught traveling from world to world, unable to get back to her own. But she is a young Buffy and is killing whole worlds in order to get home. The story and characters were pretty great, but that actual premise fell flat for me. I did enjoy Buffy not being the central character or POV for most of this.

As a very huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the spinoff, Angel, I was so excited to read this book. It doesn’t measure up to the series because I feel like that’s such a bar that kind of hard to live up to but as a fan I really enjoy reading this, and I would really read it again

Like Adrienne Young, Lily Anderson has had me as a loyal reader since her debut, a delightful enemies to lovers YA called The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You that I have not shut up about since I first read it. Also, like Adrienne Young, I can picture no better book to read to welcome Fall than Big Bad by Lily Anderson. Any book in the Buffy verse screams Fall to me–maybe its the vampires–and so I’m so excited for this one. And if anyone can completely rock a Buffy tie-in novel, it’s Lily Anderson.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hyperion Avenue for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

BtVS was my entire world back in the day. I was so excited to be approved for this eARC. I enjoyed it so much I already bought a print copy too!

It was so awesome being thrown back into BuffyVerse, even with the twist. This is a perfect view of how things would have been without Buffy. As a die hard Buffy fan, I approve!

Buffy fans rejoice: "Big Bad" is a romp through an alternate Buffyverse that will have you laughing and reminiscing about your favorite episodes in a whole new way – especially if you have a penchant for villains. This creative story was a fun read that captured the signature heart and humor of the show through Anya, Jeremy, and Buffy's POV chapters well, and had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. It may not be ~canon~ but it was certainly a good time!

I received an eARC from NetGalley and a hardcover from Disney Hyperion in return for a review! We also interviewed Lily Anderson for my Buffy rewatch podcast, Prophecy Girls, and I will update this review with a link to the episode when it’s out!

It’s 1999. In an alternative version of Sunnydale, the Mayor doesn’t ascend but rather blots out the sun and renames the town Demondale to attract, shall we say, a new type of resident. Jonathan and Andrew are in league with Warren—who is trying to ascend, when the surprise arrival of the Slayer makes that all go very wrong. The Slayer makes off with some magical artifacts and then invades the vengeance demons’ dimension, hopping dimensions and destroying hellish Sunnydales in an attempt to find her own. Meanwhile, Anya teams up with Jonathan, Andrew, Angelus, and others to find a way to stop the Slayer before she returns to Demondale to destroy their home.

So this is Buffy, but not. Fans will recognize what’s happening here; newcomers to the franchise should probably start elsewhere. If you were looking for a straightforward story with Buffy as the protagonist and some bad guys lining up to be defeated, then you won’t find that here. But you will find a book packed to the brim with loving references, along with some very fun characterization of characters we adore.

Anderson makes a point of interrogating the motivations and emotions of Jonathan and Anya in particular. Jonathan is a really interesting supporting member of the Buffyverse. He starts as little more than an extra, the butt of jokes about his height and uncoolness. “Superstar,” of course, introduces the idea that Jonathan could be more. And then he joins up with Andrew and Warren in Season 6, and … well, the rest is history. In this book, Demondale Jonathan reflects on whether Warren was a good friend (he wasn’t) and whether he and Andrew should stay friends (they totally should). But it’s cool to see Anderson spending time on a character who didn’t get enough of it on the show.

Anya, on the other hand, receives a lot more development on the show—and this Anya is consistent with that personality, albeit different because she never gave up being a vengeance demon. Here, Anderson embellishes the lore on vengeance demons, emphasizing Anya’s opportunistic enjoyment of capitalism. It’s fun, and her voice really rings true in her chapters.

Other familiar faces grace us as the book goes on, and Anderson nails their voices too. From Angelus to Spike, Drusilla to Darla, it’s clear that Anderson understands how each of these characters thinks, speaks, moves, acts. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I don’t often enjoy tie-in novels, but this one was easy to follow and a joy to read.

As for Buffy herself: this is a young, inexperienced Buffy. She is tragic: lost, adrift across dimensions, unsure of where home even is. She is determined to get home at any cost, even if it means destroying … entire worlds. As we learn more about her predicament, we can sympathize, but it’s also hard to discount what she’s doing. Ultimately, I like how Anderson resolves this part of the plot.

In the end, Big Bad has two functions. The first is simply to be a fun romp through the Buffyverse. As I said earlier, there are so many references in this book to characters, episodes, villains, moments … in some hands it might have felt like too much, but Anderson somehow makes it all fit and feel right. The other function is to remind us, as the show itself always did, that evil is seldom one-dimensional and moustache-twirling (even when it lacks a soul). Evil is a complicated combination of factors, not just the absence of morality but morality twisted in service of selfish ends. This book reminds us that our heroes could be the Big Bad too.

Also, there’s no Xander. Because fuck Xander.

I had actually never read a novel based on a show until this year, which is actually very odd now that I think about it… but this one takes the cake for sure.

Set in an alternate dimension version of Sunnydale, now known as Demondale. In this reality Buffy does not exist, therefore Glory was never defeated and the Master’s plan succeeded. Demondale has become a Mecca for evil, the sun is permanently blocked out and vampires and demons have full reign of the town.

It is here that super-nerds Jonathan and Andrew team up with Anya to stop the slayer from destroying all of reality as she jumps dimensions for the sole purpose of destroying them one by one. .

Featuring some of my favorite alternate characters, such as Vampire Willow and Soulless Angel, there was nothing about this book that wasn’t just pure fun.