Slayer by Kristine White | Book Review

SYNOPSIS:

Into every generation a Slayer is born…

Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.

Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.

Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.

As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…

But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.

One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard. (Goodreads)

REVIEW:

This book was not what I expected. I was so eagerly waiting for a Buffy-verse book. I was disappointed that there was not as much interaction with Buffy and the original characters. With that said, lets talk about the book.

I really liked that there was a continuation of slayers post-Buffy. This was also the first Buffy-verse book that has been published and it gained popularity from Buffy fans recently. The reason I personally picked it up was that I loved the Buffy-verse so much. It was a no brainer for me that I will be reading it because I was an original Buffy Fan.

My disappointment came from the lack of interaction that happened between our main character Nina and Buffy. For an action/ adventure novel there was not a lot of action events that occurred. There was a lot of information on the Watchers, which is the main characters of the book.

I felt that there was a little confusion involving who the main evil was. The book messed with your head a little because the person that you thought it was, ended up not being it.

I liked the family tension in this book and how it ended up being more of a mystery that Nina had to solve without even knowing. Nina, always thought that her mother hated her but she had no idea why. She resented her mother for events that occurred in her childhood, among her looking for answers she finds information that changes her outlook on her life and her family.

I thought there was a lot of different events that were occurring that were action packed but they were very short and seemed to have an easy resolution to them. I am hoping to see Nina, the slayer fight a danger that is harder to resolve. I think I am comparing the book a little with the tv show in the sense that there were vampires that Buffy killed off easily but there usually was a bigger evil that was planning something. It would have been interesting to see the story play out at the same time from the evils perspective to understand that when Nina, is not fighting it isn’t because something isn’t brewing.

I really enjoyed that there was LGTBQ+ representation and it was done in a very nice way. The characters really cared about there partners and they were willing to risk their lives in order to save them.

Clearly, this is a series and I think the next books are going to get more in-depth of slayer action and Nina stepping into her role as a slayer. However, the ending of the first book left me with questions that I didn’t expect to have in the last 2% of the story.

I am hoping that the next book brings back more of the old characters because I think this generation of watchers can learn a thing or two from the scooby-gang.