Here Be Monsters

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

HERE BE MONSTERS

By Cameron Dokey (2000)

RATING: 2/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season Three

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

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Big Mama/Zahalia Walker (Civil War vampire); Webster & Percy (Big Mama’s vampire sons); Heidi Lindstrom (victim); Suz Tompkins (victim’s friend); Nemesis (other-dimensional entity of judgment)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: “Something icky is brewing, as usual, in Sunnydale. This time it’s in the form of two clean-cut, prep school-type boys. Buffy’s suspicious from the start--their fashion statement is so old it’s dead, and it seems they have a slightly unnatural attachment to their mother. But then, almost everything about these boys is unnatural--they’re vampires. Not ordinary vampires, either--they are descendants of a clan known for its ability to summon powerful occult forces. And when the Slayer dusts this dynamic duo, she learns what you get when you mess with a vamp family tree. Now it’s up to Buffy to battle her personal demons--or risk endangering her own most cherished relation. Because mama vamp has something in mind for Joyce. . . .”

REVIEW

Here Be Monsters starts out strong, with a creepy, unique depiction of two vampires dragging a helpless victim home to their “Mama”. Big Mama, wife of a Confederate civil war soldier, works hard to bring her two boys up “proper” as Southern gentlemen in a world of declining social values (a.k.a, present-day Sunnydale). Cameron Dokey does a good job with making Big Mama come alive (so to speak) as an insanely over-protective mother, and the crazed fury that results when Buffy and Angel stake her two boys makes the first half of the novel an enjoyable read.

Unfortunately, things rapidly go down hill from there. Big Mama rather predictably kidnaps Joyce, and then the story takes a real turn for the worse when a silly, wise-talking other-dimensional entity known only as Nemesis is invoked in order to test whether Buffy loves her mom more than Big Mama loved her kids. The Trial has Buffy go through the standard mindgames (fighting her younger selves, having visions of friends being murdered) before fighting a giant spider. A limp moral is the final touch on an altogether cheesy ending.

Dokey shows real potential in the early chapters of the book--the banter between Buffy and Angel is crisp and witty, the action is fast-paced and interesting, and there is a very strong interlude with Joyce putting pictures in a scrapbook while ruminating about her daughter’s life. The verdict of the Trial is clear, however: Here Be Monsters is a Buffy book best avoided.