Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Xander Years, Vol. 2

The Xander Years #2

by Jeffrey J. Mariotte

"But I mean, what is it? How do you get it? Who doesn't have it? And who decides who doesn't have it? What is the essence of 'cool'?"

Most teens have trouble finding themselves now and then, but when you're living on a hellmouth, "trouble" is an understatement—especially if you're Xander Harris. He has never been very popular, and has never had much luck with women, but he is uniquely Xander.

After a Sunnydale High field trip to the zoo, Xander becomes obnoxious and aggressive. Giles thinks it's typical adolescent male behavior, but Buffy knows better. And when he finally scores "cool" points by making the Sunnydale High swim team, he's thrown into the middle of something, well...fishy.

Still, once Xander is excluded from the Slayer's most recent anti-apocalyptic campaign, he finds himself battling his own private evil—and saving Sunnydale High from a fate it never imagined.

This novel is canon.

Genres: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Young Adult, Vampires, Fantasy, Fiction, Paranormal, Horror

203 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Also writes as Jeff Mariotte

Jeffrey J. Mariotte is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 70 novels, including the Cody Cavanaugh western series, historical western epic Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta (with Peter Murrieta), thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil's Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, and the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet. With wife and writing partner Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell, he wrote the sf/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS and Mafia III: Plain of Jars, the authorized prequel to the bestselling video game. His most recent release is the short story collection Byrd's Luck & Other Stories, comprising five "traditional" Western tales and five horror-Western stories, two of them brand-new for this edition.

He also writes occasional nonfiction, short fiction (some of which is collected in Nine Frights), and comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes and graphic novels Fade to Black and Zombie Cop. With Marsheila Rockwell, he has published several short stories and is working on more. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, as a writer, editor, marketing executive, and bookseller.

Learn more at www.jeffmariotte.com, and follow him at https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyJMari... and @JeffMariotte on Twitter.

Also writes as Jeff Mariotte

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second of two books of adaptations of Xander-focused episodes from the early years of the Buffy television series. I preferred the first one, which was written by Keith R.A. DeCandido, but this one is pretty competently executed, too, if not with quite the same subtlety. There are three stories included, The Pack, from a script by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, Go Fish, from the script by David Fury and Elin Hampton, and The Zeppo by Dan Vebber. All three follow the televised versions pretty faithfully, with just a little added background and motivational explanation. The first two are rather similar (Xander turns into a hyena and then a fish), as we see the cost to be cool and learn that drugs are bad and that girls will break your heart. The Zeppo is the best story, but it worked much better on screen when you could see the main Scooby action happening in the background of Xander's story.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

Nice to see more novelizations with Xander. It was interesting when he tried out for the swim team and also got turned into a hyena. Felt sorry for him when he slept with Faith. Hope he finds love again.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I give The Xander Years: Volume 2 four stars is the fact that I didn't really much care for the actual episodes except the first one way back in Season 1.

"The Pack" from Season 1 written by Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer. "Go Fish" written by David Fury & Elin Hampton for Season 2 and "The Zeppo" written by Dan Vebber for Season 3 are novelized by author Jeff Mariotte.

If we had gone in order to mark Xander's progression of character, we should have had both season 1 episodes and then "Inca Mummy Girl". Both season 2 episodes and "The Zeppo" should have been packaged together instead as not to confuse readers who weren't watchers of the show.

Less exposition and more focus on Xander because that is who the main focus should be on.

It's more of a shame that we didn't get any more Xander Years books since that is where Xander's real change became important. No more coasting on high school hierarchy, moving on to earning his own life away from his dysfunctional home with an eventual job and apartment.

Still being not perfect and making mistakes, Xander still maintains his wit and underlying loyalty and kindness.

I like "The Pack" the most because even though it has its quips and snark, the tone of it is much darker than the other two stories. If I had to pick my next favorite, it would probably be "The Zeppo". Just the title alone is a pop culture nugget a film fan can appreciate but also the fact that Xander is well...basically human.

Not super strong like Buffy, not immortal like Angel, not big into magic like Willow, not a brainy book man like Giles nor even given a paranormal boost like Oz every twenty-eight days. Xander is shown not to be completely without smarts and the fact that he humbly doesn't mention how he inadvertently saved the lives of his friends earns big points on his score card.

"Go Fish" has again some zingers of dialogue but you could possibly find any other kind of episode that is more Xander-centric than this one. If not in the first two seasons, later episodes were much more important to the character of Xander Harris and would have been wonderful for the written word.

So, I'm not putting any blame on Mariotte or even the writers of the original teleplays I guess the magic just got lost in translation from television screen to the page.

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novelization continues the focus on Xander centered episodes. I think a really solid collection of stories could have been made in taking the best episodes from each book ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," and "The Zeppo" being the two standouts, with the next best episode being either "Go Fish" which is a great episode but not necessarily very Xander centered, or "Inca Mummy Girl" which isn't a great episode but is very Xander focused. Alas, the two collections on their own aren't great but each has at least one great episode each.

"The Pack" (Season One, Episode 6) is not the great episode. Truthfully, there's not a great episode from the first season as the overarching story was pretty bland (the Master was very lame) and most of the monster of the week episodes were fairly predictable. Here Xander and some other kids get possessed by evil Hyena spirits and act out accordingly. Besides hanging out like a pack and becoming territorial, they engage in other hi-jinks like eating the school principal. This one doesn't add anything the series overarching plot, or even have a ton of Xander who is mostly part of the monster of the week the rest of the group is trying to deal with.

"Go Fish" (Season Two, Episode 20) is a very fun episode by comparison, but also not one that pushes the plot of the series forward or particularly Xander focused. Here the school swim team is finally competing for a state championship, but before they can go to the meet the best swimmers are apparently being eaten by Creature from the Black Lagoon creatures. In an effort to discover what's going on, Xander joins the swim team. There are some great moments with Buffy trying to get in close with some of the idiots on the team, and an interrogation scene between Willow and Jonathan that has always been one of my favorite scenes on the show.

"The Zeppo" (Season Three, Episode 13) is one of the most unique and memorable episodes of the series. Much like "The Body," "Hush," or "Once More With Feeling," "The Zeppo" feels different from the rest of series. For the rest of the scooby gang, Buffy included, the plot is about a demonic threat that is trying to open the Hellmouth and possibly destroy the world. That plot takes up about 10% of the episode, with the rest of the story following Xander around. By this point in the series, Buffy's ring of friends could be described as vampire, witch, werewolf, watcher, slayer and Xander. As the only one without special skills to bring to the group, when the apocalypse is near Xander is shuttled on errands to keep him safe and out of harm's way.

The story doesn't quite fit within the rest of the series, where Xander is always right in the thick of things but it still feels true because of how the rest of the characters have progressed around him. Instead of fighting off the demons, Xander finds himself fighting undead bullies, having a sexual encounter with Faith, and being apocalypse adjacent in the final moments. One of the best moments is when Buffy and Angel are having a conversation about their possible death moments away and Xander interrupts to bring up his current set of problems. The whole thing straddles the line of parodying how ridiculous the series can be while still being ridiculously fun on its own.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof.

I started a Buffy rewatch back in 2020 and while watching, I was reading through the books I had. Script books, novelizations, fill-ins, etc, and as you can tell, since its December of 2025... I never finished that rewatch. 🤦🏻‍♀️
Truth be told, I had no idea these two Buffy books had been sitting on my "in progress" tracker on GR for 5 years. My mind is BLOWN.

Anyways, back to the books.
Xander was never a favorite of mine, back when I had to wait weekly to see what the Scooby Gang was up to and he continues that trend even now. So, already, reading a book centered around him isn't going to be a favorite, although Vol 1 surprised me and was pretty top notch for a written retelling of a tv episode.

This is great for fans of the show, those die hard fans that want to revisit the Slayer glory days but honestly, if you aren't a fan of the cult classic, these books probably won't bring you to the dark side, at least, not these that aren't full original stories.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good write-up of the episodes for this collection. This particular writer also adds in background details to side characters to give them depth and to help explain their reactions to Buffy and her Slayerettes.

The only cons are that, due to being episode novelizations, there's very little original content here, aside from character thoughts and the interludes between stories. Also, Xander thinks at one point about how Cordelia had created a new universe with a wish; however, at the time of this final story/introspection, none of them (including Cordelia) knew about the universe created in The Wish. They found out about in Doppelgangland, which was 3 episodes AFTER The Zeppo. Not a major gaffe, but I did note it as I read.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might be biased because I don't really enjoy Xander as a character, but these ones just didn't do it for me. The Pack and Go Fish in particular just felt quite dull; I hated the weird internal monologues and capitalisation of the words "The Pack" within that episode. Often the author would try to add his own quippy remarks to some already-quippy-enough dialogue, and the interlude scenes felt a little unnecessary.

I did quite enjoy The Zeppo, if only for the absolutely bonkers plot that really came to the forefront when reading it at this pace.

[bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not the biggest fan of novelizations, but reading “The Zeppo” (aka one of my favorite episodes) with Xander’s internal thoughts was pretty sick.

[Slayermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the novelization of three episodes of Buffy the vampire slayer that focused a great deal on Xander Harris's character. The episodes are "the Pack", "Go Fish" and "The Zeppo". I enjoyed reading the book as it was like watching a rerun in my head but nothing new is gained from the books. I did enjoy the photos in the centre of the novel.

In "The Pack" Xander and four other students are possessed by hyena spirits and Start terrorizing the students of Sunnydale High as well as the local residence. Buffy has to find a way to stop them before someone really gets hurt.

In "Go Fish" Xander joins the swim team to keep an inside eye on anything suspicious that may be going on, as the top two swimmers of the team have already turned up dead, or at least parts of them have.

In "The Zeppo" Xander tries to figure out what the thing is that makes people cool, and how you go about getting it. He's decided he needs a THING and turns to his uncle for help by renting his car. Xander will be car guy! Xander has to come to terms with who he is and where he fits in to the Scooby Gang.

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novelization of 3 episodes from the TV Series.

Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...

1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.

2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.

3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.

4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.

5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second volume of Xander themed novelisations of classic episodes, all with Xander as the main theme - one where he turns into a Hyena, one where he almost turns into a fishman and the one where he saves the world and can't tell anyone about it. An excelent trip back in time to the early Buffy episode.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

More Xander novelizations