In Every Generation by Kendare Blake || Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reinvented

In Every Generation

A new Slayer for a new generation...

Frankie Rosenberg is passionate about the environment, a sophomore at New Sunnydale High School, and the daughter of the most powerful witch in Sunnydale history. Her mom, Willow, is slowly teaching her magic on the condition that she use it to better the world. But Frankie’s happily quiet life is upended when new girl Hailey shows up with news that the annual Slayer convention has been the target of an attack, and all the Slayers—including Buffy, Faith, and Hailey’s older sister Vi—might be dead. That means it’s time for this generation’s Slayer to be born.

But being the first ever Slayer-Witch means learning how to wield a stake while trying to control her budding powers. With the help of Hailey, a werewolf named Jake, and a hot but nerdy sage demon, Frankie must become the Slayer, prevent the Hellmouth from opening again, and find out what happened to her Aunt Buffy, before she’s next.

Get ready for a whole new story within the world of Buffy!

The first in an all-new series by New York Times best-selling author Kendare Blake continues the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer featuring the next generation of Scoobies and Slayers who must defeat a powerful new evil.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction about the next generation.
• Girls who kick butt and take names.
• A squad of paranormal teens who save the day.
• Funny banter and one-liners.
• Lots of action.
• Werewolves and vampires and magic.

Many thanks to Disney-Hyperion and Rockstar Book Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Confession: I was a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I was a pre-teen, buuuut . . . I’m not, like, a super fan. I mean, I haven’t watched the thing in almost two decades! Even though I was obsessed with it at the time. So my Buffy knowledge is, unfortunately, a bit sparse and crowded by cobwebs. However, when I saw Kendare Blake had a take on a new generation of slayers, I just couldn’t stop myself from picking it up! I loved the sound of it.

In Every Generation is a venture into a new generation of slayers, for fans of the original Buffy. It’s got vampires, werewolves, magic, action, lots of funny one-liners and banter, and of course plenty of girls kicking butt!

Unfortunately, this book felt a little like a mixed bag for me. I didn’t love it the way I thought I would. It read a lot like fanfiction to me, and as someone who was active in the fanfiction scene for many years, I don’t say that as a bad thing, necessarily. On the plus side, it caters heavily to people who loved Buffy and want more in that world, who I think will find plenty to love and will simply enjoy the nostalgia of it. On the other, though, it falls into a lot of common traps of fanfiction, like lots of contrived circumstances and strange conveniences. Still, I enjoyed it enough where I think I’ll continue the series, if only to find out what happens with the big mystery!

In Every Generation has plenty of moments that will likely excited Buffy fans, while still having plenty to offer for just casual Buffy observers.

Would I say that you absolutely need to have watched Buffy to read this book? No, probably not. You would be hopelessly lost, though, if you hadn’t at least watched some part of it, because there is a lot of name-dropping and episode-dropping in this book. Which makes sense, right? Unfortunately for me, it’s been so long since I watched the show that I’d forgotten a lot of it, so I had to consult my husband and brother-in-law to see if I was remembering things correctly or not.

Honestly, while I enjoyed getting to “see” my old friends from the show, I could’ve done without them. I thought the old characters, whatever ones were still around, were actually the weakest part of this book. However, I imagine they’ll have a stronger appeal to people who were big-time fans of the show and want to see their favorites again depicted on page.

More importantly, Blake is able to capture the feel of the OG Buffy show, while still making it her own.

There’s a lot of action going on, girls kicking butt, and plenty of soul-searching and self-doubt. There’s also the fun one-liners and banter that made the original show great. The humor was a little hit or miss in some spots, but it was there. Even the chapter titles were funny and definitely gave off a Buffy vibe.

Move over old crew, there’s a new group of Scoobies in town. And I absolutely loved this new generation and all their little quirks.

These young new hopefuls are utterly adorable. There’s Frankie, who’s a Slayer-Witch (a slightly overpowered combination that I didn’t love, but I’ll see where it goes I suppose). She’s dubbed herself an eco-witch, using her magic to help save the environment. Moreover, she’s not very good at being a Slayer (probably because she’s never had to do it before), which I thought was so accurate and funny to read about. I mean, you root for her, of course, but you don’t want her to just kick butt right out of the gate, right? I sort of wish there had been a little more progression as far as her skills go, but I really appreciated that she wasn’t perfect out of the gate.

Then there’s Jake, the werewolf next door. Well, figuratively. He’s utterly adorable and someone I would definitely want to be friends with. The ever-charming, and maybe slightly awkward, Sigmund is also a given as far as friends go. The chemistry between Jake and Sigmund won me over, and I don’t care what Blake writes going forward, you cannot convince me that they don’t deserve to be together, okay?!

This book has so much going on that there’s a little bit of something for everyone, from werewolves to vampires to demons to magic and much more.

It’s action packed, basically, which is to be expected, but there’s more than that, too. There’s plenty of nostalgia for the old Buffy fans, but enough of the new that it’s not too intimidating for those who aren’t. Vampires are a big part of this, but they’re not quite what you might expect. Plus, there’s also demons, which are always a good time, and also beings that sort of straddle the line there. In short, there’s plenty of interesting goodies and baddies for every taste.

There’s also a little bit of romance, a bit of parents being parents, and some soul-searching and self-doubt. The new generation is just getting their feet under them, and it’s not exactly what you would call a smooth start. Which is what makes it so interesting, of course!

There are a lot of conveniences in order to make this plot/story work and several deus ex machina.

I don’t remember the original Buffy series that well, so maybe this was a normal thing in Buffy? I can’t recall, and I was young enough where I wouldn’t have cared anyway. Probably, the actual target audience of this will care less than I do, as well. However, there were things that drove me a little crazy because they were so convenient that they didn’t really make sense.

The book opens with all the Slayers being blown up in an explosion. It’s not a spoiler because this is literally in the second chapter. All of the Slayers presumably dead. There’s hope that some may have gotten out, of course, and definitely some wishful thinking, but on the surface, Slayer convention went boom and everyone presumed dead. This is the first glaring convenience which makes a new generation of Slayers necessary, of course. It just seemed too convenient, though.

Also, Sunnydale was rebuilt. Somehow. Even though Buffy ended with it being a massive crater. Because, you know, explosion. I was never satisfied with why/how this was a thing.

There are other instances where things only happen because a character very conveniently appears to provide the next step in the plot. Sometimes a character is suddenly able to do something just because they need to for the plot, even though there’s no logical reason they should be able to. In the grand scheme of things, this likely isn’t a huge deal-breaker for most people, and it didn’t make me want to stop reading, but it definitely left me feeling a little cheated that some wins felt undeserved.

A lot is going on in this book, and sometimes plot points are brought up and then dropped without resolution. I know it’s a series, but there was maybe too many things that would’ve been better served being brought up a little at a time.

Like the Hellmouth, which is conveniently somehow still functioning and somehow “leaking,” which is mentioned several times. Except nothing comes of it, and it has no bearing on the actual plot, it seems. They might as well have rebuilt Sunnydale somewhere else and discovered a new, unknown Hellmouth, which would’ve figured, right?

There are several other subplots that I don’t want to mention due to spoilers, that open and just sort of . . . exist. But they don’t quite go anywhere. Some of them I fully understand, like the mystery behind what happened to the Slayers and what caused the explosion. Yeah, okay, that makes sense to carry throughout the books, and I was hooked by that mystery (even if it was a bit convenient).

There’s also the setup of a potentially squicky romance/love interest. I mean, I suppose it’s similar to the Buffy/Spike dilemma, and I recognize that I didn’t have a problem with that when I watched it (though, to be fair, I was young at the time and didn’t know any better). This romantic spark comes out of nowhere, is obviously doomed, and makes no sense to me. I didn’t love it, but it also didn’t go anywhere in this book, and I’m rather hoping it doesn’t.

Favorite Quotes

One of my favorite things in the book is the humor. I feel like Blake really captures the snappy banter and one-lines that made Buffy so lovable. Maybe not all the time (menstruation humor is a bit of a groaner) but well enough that I had so many quotes that I pulled out for this review that I just couldn’t fit them all above. But they’re too good not to share! So here are some of my favorites.

About Kendare Blake

Kendare Blake is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels and short stories. Her work is sort of dark, always violent, and features passages describing food from when she writes while hungry. She was born in July in Seoul, South Korea, but doesn’t speak a lick of Korean, as she was packed off at a very early age to her adoptive parents in the United States. That might be just an excuse, though, as she is pretty bad at learning foreign languages. She lives and writes in Gig Harbor, Washington, with her husband, their cat son Tyrion Cattister, red Doberman dog son Obi-Dog Kenobi, rottie mix dog daughter Agent Scully, and naked Sphynx cat son Armpit McGee.

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3 winners will receive a finished copy of IN EVERY GENERATION, US Only.

Week One

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Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six