"It's different when you're the one with the power. The choices are so much harder and so much more important. What would Buffy do?" (p. 349)
Should've tossed this into the garbage where it belongs at this point. Seriously, seriously!? What would Buffy do?
Not to mention dream conversations with both Faith and Buffy, 'forgiving' Buffy. And did we need like 5-6 references to Buffy's love life with souled vamps and killing Angel in ONE book? Gees louise, the company must've had NO FAITH in this story because they're pushing the Buffy nostalgia way too hard.
I mean:
"She stuck a sword into the man she loved, sending him to hell in order to save the world. She dove into a dimensional portal, closing it - and dying - so her sister wouldn't have to. She destroyed the Sunnydale Hellmouth. She defeated the First Evil. She gave up being an actual goddess so she could save our sad broken little world. Her life has been an endless series of impossible decisions that she's had to make, because if not her, then who? And she's still just a person. Just a young woman." p.365-366
Yeah, Nina didn't like Buffy, but what the actual... did we need a reminder, in a book about
Nina, about how wonderful Buffy is? I watch Buffy for that. Is this to pander to old Buffy-fans, or to spoil-excite potential new Buffy fans? Who is this
for?
This book taught me not to spend my money on things related to the Buffyverse anymore. I thought I had learned that lesson, but I love YA, I love Buffy, so this hit me in the soft spot and now I feel like fool.
Also Jamison-Smythe sounds like a fanfiction name to me, it was annoying whenever they said it. And yes, the Honora and Artemis romance was strangely forced. I wasn't attached enough to Leo, or their 'romance', to care much about his death. That should've come later. He's the Jesse of this story. Except this is YA, in subsequent books she'll obsess about this as if it was the emotional equivalent of Becoming pt2. Another reason not to read on!
The Imogen twist is the only thing I like. No wait, I also like Doug. Doug was great.
I It showed that the author is definitely capable of emotional suspense. There is potential.
