Monthly Archives: November 2023

Into Every Generation A Slayer is Born: How Buffy Slayed Our Hearts – Evan Ross Katz

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Almost twenty-five years ago, I happened upon the tail end of a television show where two people were staring at each other across a smoke-filled parking lot. There was so much longing in their eyes, I was immediately captivated. I didn’t know what the show was; I didn’t know who these actors were. I knew nothing but that fraught moment – and it changed my life.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and its spin-off series, Angel (1999-2004) sucked me into a world I did not know existed: fandom. First of all, I had to rent all of the episodes of the show I hadn’t seen – three seasons’ worth. That was back in the days of Blockbuster, way before dvds and streaming. I am not sure what sent me down the internet rabbit hole, but down it I went. That’s where I discovered websites devoted to Buffy and fanfiction and then LiveJournal. It was a slippery slope, people. When I finally decided to try my hand at fanfiction – because I have always been a writer – well, that was so much fun. Then I decided to build my own (now defunct) website, which I coded from scratch. I attended two Buffy fanfiction writers’ conventions, one in Las Vegas and one in Atlanta. I met so many talented writers and made so many amazing friends. It was a a lot of fun.

The pinnacle of my time in fandom was when David Boreanaz (who played Angel) came to New Brunswick to shoot the movie These Girls and I got to go to set and meet him. I was not okay.

Fandom was a huge part of my life for about a decade, and then life just got busier, the shows ended and I gradually stepped away. All my fanfic lives at Archive of Our Own and there are still people reading, which is lovely, but for the most part fandom is in the rearview mirror. My love for these shows, however, is not.

So, when Evan Ross Katz’s book Into Every Generation A Slayer is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts came out, there was no question that I was going to read it. The book examines Buffy‘s place in pop culture – and it has a place and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. People who dismiss the show because of the movie (which even though Joss Whedon wrote the screenplay was not ultimately his vision of what it could be) or because of the show’s name, don’t have a clue. The show is profoundly moving, often laugh-out-loud funny, creepy, witty, and layered. You can watch it a million times and always see something new.

Katz is clearly a fan of the show. He says “to love Buffy is to both contextualize and reexamine it.” It is a show the has spawned legions of rabid fans (see above), dissertations, volumes of analysis, billions of words of fanfiction, university courses. It’s a show that keeps on giving. A couple of years ago I rewatched all seven seasons with my son and I was amazed by how well it has held up, and how many new things I spotted. Still made me laugh. Still made me cry.

But it is also a show that, ultimately, unmasked Joss Whedon as a misogynist – which was crushing for those of us who thought he had our backs. This is one of those instances where I have to be willing to separate the art from the artist. Trust me, I don’t wear my “Joss Whedon is my master now” shirt anymore.

Katz examines Sarah Michelle Gellar’s glorious portrayal of the titular character. Gellar shares her memories of the show, her working relationship with other castmates and her thoughts about playing the “one girl in all the world.”

“As an actor, you want to do something that leaves a mark, that makes a difference, that stands the test of time […] So the fact that twenty-five years later, we’re still talking about it means that I did something right. And I think that with time comes appreciation.

The book also shares the thoughts of Nicholas Brendan (Xander), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), Seth Green (Oz), Anthony Stewart Head (Giles), and James Marsters (Spike) as well as many other recurring cast members (but not a single mention of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof; it was like he didn’t even exist in the Buffyverse! and a planned interview with Alyson Hannigan (Willow) fell through.) Other major actors, David Boreanaz, for example, spoke through quotes taken from previously published interviews – so nothing new. Bummer.

The book looks at story arcs, queer and BIPOC representation, the writers’ room, and Joss Whedon himself, especially his toxicity on the set and his mistreatment of female actresses, particularly Charisma Carpenter. It also talks about Buffy’s relationships with Angel, Spike and Riley; it seems pretty obvious that Katz is team Angel and so we agree on that at least.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It wasn’t groundbreaking or anything, but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of revisiting this show or these characters who occupied so much space in my life and introduced me to people from all over the world. I will always love these characters and this world.

Buffy and Angel 4eva!

The First Day of Spring – Nancy Tucker

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The opening line Nancy Tucker’s debut The First Day of Spring is a corker.

I killed a little boy today.

That’s eight-year-old Chrissie speaking. Yep – you heard that right; Chrissie is eight. She lives an impoverished life with her mother, but beyond being poor, her mother is emotionally distant and Chrissie is mostly left to fend for herself. Her clothes are never clean; she often wets the bed and there is never anything to eat at her house “even though the whole point of a kitchen was to have food in it.”

Chrissie survives because of free school dinners and by hanging around at her best friend Linda’s house at tea time, even though she is fairly certain Linda’s mother doesn’t really like her. In fact, no one seems to like Chrissie very much; she’s bossy, often kicks people who talk back to her, and brags and lies in equal measure.

After she kills the little boy, Chrissie has a “belly-fizzing feeling [like when she] remembered a delicious secret, like sherbet exploding in [her] guts.” Somehow the secret sustains her and provides opportunities for her to receive the attention she so desperately craves. Besides, Chrissie is fairly certain the little boy will come back from the dead: Jesus did and so does her father, who disappears and reappears at random intervals.

The novel also features an adult Chrissie, now going by the name Julia. She and her young daughter, Molly, live by a strict set of rules.

…back to the apartment at three forty-five, […] a snack at four, […] read the reading book at four-thirty, […] watched Blue Peter at five, […] had tea at five-thirty.

Julie’s life is structured because bad things happen “when [she] stopped concentrating.”

Julia has already had to move and change her name once because people are not kind when they find out who she is and what she has done. When she starts getting phone calls, she thinks her life is going to be upended again. And when Molly accidentally breaks her wrist, Julia is sure that the authorities are going to take her daughter away from her. That sends her on a journey back into her past.

The First Day of Spring is suspenseful, heart-breaking and hopeful, and I highly recommend it.

The Finishing School – Joanna Goodman

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An invitation novelist Kersti Kuusk receives to attend the 100th anniversary of the boarding school she went to in Switzerland coincides with the news that one of her former classmates has died after a battle with cancer. In her last letter to Kersti, Lille reasserts that their mutual friend Cressida had not fallen by accident and that incriminating evidence to prove this might be found in the Helvetians ledger.

Canadian novelist Joanne Goodman’s novel The Finishing School toggles between the present, where Kersti and her husband Jay are struggling to conceive and Kersti is also out of ideas for her next novel, and the past, where Kersti’s time at the Lycee International Suisse is unspooled.

Born to Estonian immigrants, Kersti is the youngest of four sisters. The honour of attending the Lycee had fallen to Kersti because “her sisters didn’t have the grades to earn the Legacy Scholarship,” but Kersti also suspected that “her parents are sending her away because they’re exhausted.”

Kersti’s new roommate is the beyond beautiful Cressida.

…she’s far from ordinary. She has a beautiful, unruly mane of hair, spiraling out in all directions. Her head is just slightly to big for her slender body, but she’s dazzling, with pale green eyes, exquisitely long lashes, and a prominent, arched brow […] all of it together a masterpiece of teenage magnificence.

Kersti spends the next few years of high school loving and loathing Cressida in equal measure. Cressida can be a lot, but she is also fiercely loyal and generous and her friendship affords Kersti a life she would never have had access to otherwise.

We learn early on that Cressida had fallen from the balcony of her dorm room, and Lille’s letter many years later dredges up all those old memories. When Jay suggests that there might be a new novel in this story, it is both a distraction from Kersti’s failed attempts to get pregnant (which is causing a lot of strife in her otherwise happy marriage) and also sends her down a rabbit hole in an attempt to figure out what really did happen almost 20 years ago.

The Finishing School is a real page turner and also a book about friendship, motherhood and loyalty. I could barely put it down.

One Italian Summer – Rebecca Serle

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At 30, Katy Silver, has just lost her mother to cancer and suddenly she isn’t quite sure what to make of her life: she doesn’t know who she is without her mom.

I cannot yet conceive of a world without her, what that will look like, who I am in her absence. […] I do not ever imagine coming to terms with the loss of her body – her warm, welcoming body. The place I always felt at home. My mother, you see, is the great love of my life. She is the great love of my life, and I have lost her.

The only thing she can think to do, to help her make sense of this senseless tragedy, is to go on the trip to Positano, Italy, that she and her mom had been planning for ages. So, she leaves her husband, the affable Eric, and grieving father behind and lands at Hotel Poseidon (an actual real place where you too can see what Katy saw for a measly $1500 a night -in high season; you can stay for about a third of that in the off season). There, itinerary for two in hand, Katy tries to do the things that she and her mother had planned which was, essentially, to revisit her mother’s own transformative 30th summer on the Amalfi Coast.

Katy isn’t going to have to do it alone, though. First, she meets Adam, a handsome American property developer, who has been coming to Positano for years because “it’s special here […] a little piece of paradise.” Then, miraculously, Katy meets her mother.

Of course, this turn of events is going to take some suspension of disbelief – but just go with it. For anyone who has ever lost a loved one, especially a mom, this reunion will be bittersweet. Suddenly, Katy finds herself actually living that life-changing summer her mother lived 30 years ago…with her mother. It’s a game changer for Katy as she comes to understand her mother in a way it would have been impossible to before.

I see a woman. A woman fresh into a new decade who wants a life of her own. Who has interests and desires and passions beyond my father and me. Who is very real, exactly as she is right here and now.

It’s hard to imagine our parents as anything but our parents. It’s almost like they didn’t have a life before we came along, and I know that this is likely how my son and daughter, both in their twenties now, see me. I am their mom, but before that – just one yawning blank. I wonder if that is also how I saw my own mother? I lost my mother to cancer when I was 45; she was just 67. There are so many things I wish she was here for, so many milestones and heartaches, so many vacations we never had the change to take, and so many questions I wish that I had asked.

For this reason, One Italian Summer is a balm for the soul. The other reason is Italy itself. As anyone who has ever been there knows, it is a magical place. I wrote about my last visit in 2018 here.

None of This is True – Lisa Jewell

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Lisa Jewell’s most recent novel, None of This is True, could have been ripped straight from the true-crime headlines. And just like a true-crime podcast or documentary, Jewell’s book is totally binge-able.

Alix Summer, a successful podcaster who lives a polished life with her successful husband, Nathan, and her two young children in a tony London neighbourhood, meets Josie Fair, a part-time seamstress with two adult children and a husband, Walter, who is old enough to be her father. Their meet cute happens at a local gastropub, not the sort of place Josie would normally be dining, but it is her 45th birthday and she wanted, for once, to do something special. Turns out, it is also Alix’s 45th birthday.

This incidental meeting seems momentous to Josie, so when she accidentally on purpose runs into Alix again she confesses that she doesn’t “break free of the past now, then when will [she]?” She wants to tell her story and Alix is looking for another project. Josie and her messed up life seems like the answer to her creative prayers.

It doesn’t take long for Josie to start becoming full-on obsessed with Alix’s house and the casual elegance of her life. She asks Alix to help her buy new clothes. She takes small, inconsequential things from the Summers’ home, which she visits regularly because Alix’s podcast studio is in the back garden. She captivates Alix with the story her relationship with Walter, which began when she was 13 and he was 42, and of a daughter who ran off at 16. Another daughter, Erin, never comes out of her bedroom. It is clear that Josie’s life is messed up.

Or is it?

As with all of Jewell’s really great books – you really won’t know what to believe…or in this case – who to believe. The book’s structure is comprised of podcast recordings, Netflix documentary transcripts and chapters told from both Josie and Alix’s point of view. It makes for easy reading; I read it in two days. Like the media it mimics, None of This is True is easily consumable, a big bowl of buttered popcorn that’s fun to eat but not exactly life-sustaining.

Tender is the Flesh – Augustina Bazterrica

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I mean, there are dystopian novels and then there’s Tender is the Flesh.

Marcos Tejo’s life has fallen apart. His father has dementia and is existing in assisted living. His wife has had an emotional breakdown and has left to stay with her mother after the death of their infant son. Oh, yeah, and a deadly virus – well, that’s what the government claims anyway – has made it impossible to eat animals, so everyone now eats humans. That, of course, helps with population growth too, so it’s a win win.

People are specially bred as meat and Marcos works at one of the country’s best slaughterhouses.

No one can call them human because that would mean giving them an identity. They call them product, or meat, or food. Except for him; he would prefer not to have to call them by any name.

Bazterrica’s book is all kinds of ick. In scene after scene, we are treated to graphic descriptions of how this “special meat” is treated. And trust me when I say, it’s not good. It will be impossible not to imagine how the animals we eat every day are treated, and if there ever was a case for veganism, this book would be it. But, according to the scientists in Tender is the Flesh,

animal protein [is] necessary to live [and] doctors confirmed that plant protein didn’t contain all the essential amino acids, [and] experts assured that methane emissions from cattle had been reduced but malnutrition was on the rise, [and] magazines published articles on the dark side of vegetables.

When Marcos is gifted an F.G.P. (First Generation Pure) “head” to consume, his ambivalent feelings – which he mostly keeps buried – come to the surface. Once he cleans her up and discovers she’s beautiful he moves her from the barn to the house and one thing leads to another. The head can’t talk, of course; their vocal chords are removed – the killing is less noisy that way – so I guess their relationship is based on a needs must basis.

I mean, sure, I guess Tender is the Flesh has stuff to say, but Marcos is a hard character to warm up to. And you have to wade through a bucket of entrails and other gruesome stuff to get there. You’d kind of hope that Marcos would have some sort of epiphany or something, but this book is bleak start to finish.

And also. Yuck.