![\"\"](\"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-content\/uploads\/bookcovers\/Halloween_Rain-100x167.png\" "\\"Halloween_Rain\\"")
From the back cover:<\/b>
\nAround Sunnydale, they say a scarecrow saturated with Halloween rain will come alive and slaughter anyone in sight. (Lovely place, Sunnydale.) Buffy’s best friends, Xander and Willow, used to think the tale was nonsense\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut after a few adventures with Buffy, they’re not so sure.<\/p>\n
Even without a maniacal scarecrow, a Sunnydale Halloween is a truly horrific happening. There are enough zombies and vampires about, ready to party hearty and eat some brains, to keep the Slayer and her friends up all night.<\/p>\n
And then the rain starts to fall…
\n
\nReview:<\/b>
\nI’ve had my eye on Halloween Rain<\/i> for a while, and this month’s theme provided me with the perfect chance to read it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t anything to get excited about.<\/p>\n
The story is set in the first season, after the episode \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Pack,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d since former principal Mr. Flutie (eaten by some hyena-possessed students in that episode) is dead and buried. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also Halloween, which is a problem, as Buffy was not in<\/i> Sunnydale for Halloween of her tenth-grade year. I mean, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t conduct an exhaustive search for confirmation that she transferred in the spring, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty sure that is the case. <\/p>\n
Anyway, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparently a legend in town that says to stay away from scarecrows on rainy Halloweens, because they come alive. After hearing about this from Willow and Xander, a memory niggles at Giles until he works out a connection between scarecrows and Samhain, who is referred to as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the dark lord,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the spirit of Halloween,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the pumpkin king.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While Buffy is off fighting a slew of zombies in the graveyard, Giles prepares a bunch of symbols and wards and stuff to fight Samhain. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a battle in a field, a barn burns down with Samhain trapped inside, and Buffy wins. The end. Yawn.<\/p>\n
The humdrum nature of the plot is really nothing new for a Buffy<\/i> media tie-in novel; usually the main draw of these is how well the writers capture the characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 voices. Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder went on to write many more Buffy<\/i> books, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure this was their first, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only the second of the series, published in 1997 (before the season two episode \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Halloween\u00e2\u20ac\u009d established that demons are actually not very interested in the holiday). As a result, their success with the characters is hit or miss. <\/p>\n
A lot of Buffy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dialogue is cheesy and her thoughts rather vapid. Like this one, for example:<\/p>\n
If she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start hanging with her friends more, they might adopt a new Slayer as their bud. Or not, since there weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On the other hand, the Xander\/Willow dynamic is conveyed pretty well, and there is one brief, simple exchange that would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been fully at home in the show.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It gets worse,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Willow said, and tugged on Xander\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hate worse,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Xander grumbled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The authors also seem to have a fondness for the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153clone that thought,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s used at least three times.<\/p>\n
I can forgive a lame plot if the characters are written well, but Halloween Rain<\/i> is a success in neither category.<\/p>\n
Update:<\/b> I have since rewatched the Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/i> episode \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Witch,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in which Buffy tries out for the cheerleading squad. As K points out, typically this would be held in the fall and, lo, a sign at the event specifies the year as 1996. Sooooo\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. maybe season one is meant to span an entire school year after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the back cover: Around Sunnydale, they say a scarecrow saturated with Halloween rain will come alive and slaughter anyone in sight. (Lovely place, Sunnydale.) Buffy’s best friends, Xander and Willow, used to think the tale was nonsense\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut after a few adventures with Buffy, they’re not so sure. Even without a maniacal scarecrow, a Sunnydale … Continue reading “Halloween Rain by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder: C-“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5,7,77],"tags":[78,60],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-m","category-review","category-theme-halloween","tag-media-tie-in","tag-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/tripletake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}