Slayer by Kiersten White #AudioBookReview

Into every generation a Slayer is born…

Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.
Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.
As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…
But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.
One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard.

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Full disclosure: back in the day I was a massive Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan! I watched every episode religiously, my friends and I discussed every second of it at school the day after, I even had the soundtrack and to this day, I still miss that show. I tried to watch it again a few years ago, but you know how these things go, it just wasn’t the same and the special effects that were great then (for the most part anyway), seemed really pathetic years later.

So when I got wind of Slayer, I could not get my hands on it fast enough, there was no way in hell I could pass up the opportunity to revisit Buffy’s world and scratch that slayer itch, even though I’m not that big a fan of Kiersten White’s. I listened to And I Darken and while I didn’t hate it or anything, I didn’t exactly love it either. To be honest, I did recognise White’s writing, there’s again some of that teenage angst that annoyed me in And I Darken, some of the “why doesn’t anybody love me?! Woe betide me!” and the “I’m so much better than everybody else” alternating with “I’m worth nothing, boohoo!!” However, while I did roll my eyes at times, I wasn’t all that annoyed by it and it didn’t spoil my fun (much).

As a die-hard Buffy fan, I had issues with all the Buffy hate in the first chapters. Buffy broke the world; Buffy killed magic; Buffy was so reckless; Buffy never thought things through, and so on and so forth. But I had this inkling that at one point at least some of the characters would come to appreciate Buffy, so I hung in there. Don’t worry, by the way, if you’ve never seen an episode of Buffy, or if it’s been ages since you saw one, you don’t really need the background all that much. Obviously, it’s loads more fun if you do, but I think it’s possible to follow the narrative without any prior Buffy knowledge. You’re told everything you need to know: Buffy is a naughty little slayer and all the bad things now (and EVER) are her fault. (No not really, but that’s what you’re meant to believe.) But for those of you who did watch Buffy: without actually featuring Buffy (although she does have a tiny cameo), this story is set firmly in the Buffyverse: there are hellhounds, demons, watchers, vampires (surprisingly few though), there’s a bit of teenage love and lots of teenage rebellion AND there’s Wanda & Honora Wyndam-Pryce, Wesley’s mum and sister (remember Wesley?!). Loved that!

The narrator does an excellent job too, alternating between various British and American accents, and various men’s and women’s voices, to a point where I could tell who was talking even if the speaker’s name hadn’t been mentioned yet.

An action-packed novel with a sense of humour, I had tons of fun with this one!

Thanks for reading and for the nostalgic Buffy lovers among you, here’s the intro, watch and reminisce ?