Ghoul Trouble

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

GHOUL TROUBLE

John Passarella (2000)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Third Season

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Cordelia, Oz, Joyce, Principal Snyder

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Skull John (vampire boss); Carole Burzon (school counselor); Troy Douglas (Cordelia’s ex-boyfriend); Solitaire (main villain); Lupa, Carnie, Nash, and Rave (ghouls)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY “Something wicked has been preying on Sunnydale students--and whatever it is, its methods are pretty gruesome. Buffy locates some human bones that have been picked clean, and knows that she’s dealing with an unearthly evil. Some help from the Scooby Gang would be ideal, but they’ve run into trouble of their own. Oz and Xander are literally (perhaps unnaturally) mesmerized by a hottie new chick band headlining at the Bronze, and Willow has been captured by Sunnydale’s latest resident carnivores. What they need is the Slayer. But in order to help her friends, Buffy must first dust a vampire--one that has an urgent interest in Joyce Summers, the unique ability to resist sunlight, and an open invitation to the Summers’ house . . .”

REVIEW

Ghoul Trouble is comprised of two distinct threads. The first is the arrival of Solitaire in Sunnydale, an ancient vampire with the ability to resist sunlight and a penchant for fighting duels against the toughest warriors around; naturally, he decides to see how tough Buffy is. The second plot is the arrival of a pack of flesh-eating ghouls disguised as a girl band, intent on both adding a new member to the band and conducting a special ritual by eating a Slayer’s heart.

The Solitaire thread is by far the worse of the two. In a stunningly clichéd opening chapter, we see Solitaire crash a biker bar and kill thirteen bikers to demonstrate to the reader how tough he is; for a similar purpose, he kills a local vampire boss by the name of Skull John and beats the crap out of Angel. The problem is that Solitaire has absolutely no personality to speak of--indeed, his only peculiarity is the even more clichéd habit of leaving playing cards on the bodies of his victims. His kidnapping of Joyce to lure Buffy into a fight is right out of season three’s Helpless. Fortunately, the final battle between Buffy and Solitaire has some good action sequences and at least one good surprise.

Although also not an original idea, the scenes involving the ghoul band are better written and more fun. There are some good moments where Xander is (once again) seduced by demons, and a very funny scene where Willow and Xander discuss the pros and cons of her eating his flesh to become a ghoul. Angel, Cordelia, and Oz all receive some attention and good characterization.

Overall, Ghoul Trouble is a slightly below average Buffy book. The poor Solitaire plot is balanced to some degree by the better ghoul plot. Not one to seek out, but perhaps worth reading if starved for some Buffy action.