Creatures of Habit

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

Creatures of Habit

By Tom Fassbender, Jim Pascoe, Brian Horton, & Paul Lee (2002)
RATING: 5/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season Six

CAST APPEARANCES: Dawn, Spike, Buffy, Anya, Xander, Giles, Willow, Tara

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Melinda (Dawn’s friend); Skeeter (drug dealer); Velatti and Parnassus (vampires)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: “If you think raves are all about body-moving mixes and late-night fun, then you haven’t been raving lately in Sunnydale. An old and resourceful chum of Spike’s has just shown up, and he’s getting every teenager in town to trip the night fantastic at his very special after-hours parties. Buffy Summers, recently raised from the dead, feels disconnected from her former life, but she finds that she still gets her kicks wandering the night, hunting for vampires to stake. It’s a welcome distraction from her sister, who’s making her first tentative steps into the exciting world of juvenile delinquency—which is more treacherous in Sunnydale than most places. With glo-sticks glowing and the blood of innocents flowing, a euphoric feeding frenzy has crept into Sunnydale’s undead nightlife.”

REVIEW

Wow—what a book! Clocking in at just a 122 pages, Creatures of Habit wastes no time with filler and bristles with energy. Although the plot’s not the most original in Buffyland (a couple of bad-ass vampires want to summon the demonic Goddess of Tears and decide that Dawn will make the perfect sacrifice), the book is simply a lot of fun. It has a darker edge than most Buffy novels, crisp dialogue, and good characterization of the main characters. Far better than the average Buffy book, Creatures of Habit also has something the others all lack: illustrations. The full color artwork is extraordinarily well done (many of them I would love to have as posters). The quality artwork here puts Dark Horse’s Buffy comics to shame. Fun story, great art. What else can I say? Buy it.