The Cordelia Collection Volume 1

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Novelizations #12

by Nancy E. Krulik

"Being popular is not just my right, but my responsibility, and I want you to know that I take it very seriously." -- Cordelia Chase Fashionista and leader of the pack, Cordelia Chase is known throughout Sunnydale High for her irrepressible blend of tactless maxims as much as she is renowned for her beauty. Most students -- even the members of her anti-fan club -- either want her or want to be her. Popularity proves a tough cross to bear, First, Cordy is stalked by an invisible being fueled by envy, and later she is deemed an ideal mate for a onetime Sunnydale football star -- problem is, he's currently deceased. But her most dangerous challenge is the race for Homecoming Queen. Forget the dance -- Queen C will be lucky to escape with her life!

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

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

Nancy Krulik is the author of more than 100 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times bestsellers. She is best known, however, for being the author and creator of the Katie Kazoo Switcheroo book series, which has brought her to the attention of second, third, and fourth graders nationwide.

Nancy has also written extensively for teens and is well known as a biographer of Hollywood's hottest young stars. Her knowledge of the details of celebrities lives has made her a desired guest on several entertainment shows on the E! network as well as on Extra and Access Hollywood. She can be seen there talking about the secret lives of such celebs as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, and Frankie Muniz. Nancy has also been a guest on radio broadcasts nationwide discussing the superstars she has researched over the years.

As the author of several teen and preteen advice books, including Grosset and Dunlap's Prom!: The Complete Guide to a Truly Spectacular Night, Nancy has been interviewed by several prominent magazines including Cosmo Girl, Teen, Teen People, Seventeen, and Teen Celebrity. She has also been the celebrity guest for three Teen People chat presentations. Nancy has recently begun to delve into the teen novel market, writing four romances for young adults, all of which will be published between 2004 and 2005.

Nancy currently lives in Manhattan with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser, their two children, Amanda and Ian, and a crazed cockerspaniel named Pepper .

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a prose adaptation of three episodes from early years of the Buffy television show that focus on Cordelia, the reluctant Scoobie who ruled the school without opposition before Buffy hit town. The episodes are Out of Mind, Out of Sight from a teleplay by Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swyden from a story by Joss Whedon, Some Assembly Required by Ty King, and Homecoming by David Greenwalt. The first is a terrific ghost story, the middle one a nice Frankenstein homage, and the last, my favorite, is a brilliant look at monsters and high school and we learn that nice guys don't always finish last, but they don't always win, either. Krulik does a good job of translating the stories to print but doesn't really add much in the way of character or background.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌠

Liked seeing a novelization focused on Cordelia. To be honest, I didn't really like her in Buffy. Glad she got better on Angel. Sad that her friends shunned her when she started dating Xander. Don't really see why someone would get worked up about being Homecoming Queen. Also glad Buffy and Cordelia were able to bond during the Slayerfest.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable loads of fun, got to love Cordelia she has always been one of my favourite characters and makes me laugh out loud.

Again, it was just a novelisation of three episodes, Season 1's Out of Sight, Out of Mind AKA Invisible Girl, Season 2's Some Assembly Required, Season 3's Homecoming.

Perfect episodes to show the essence of Cordelia, loads of fun and well written and I could see the episodes and it made me laugh.

If you love Cordelia you really can't go wrong with this.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cordelia has always been one of my favorite characters, so I loved this collection.

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guilty Cordelia Chase read if you’re in the mood for one of the best Buffy scoobies.

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Per Goodreads, the final of the character focused Buffy the Vampire Slayer novelizations is The Cordelia Collection (listed as #12 of 13, the last being the novelization of season seven of the show). I’m guessing this is the last based on when it was published, because the episodes revisited are not the last chronologically in the series and two of them are among the earliest in the series. The framing device between the issues is mainly Cordelia at the Bronze thinking about her life and catching the reader up on what’s happened in between issues. Between parts one and two it’s basically a summer vacation recap but between two and three it’s recapping some of the craziest melodrama ever on television.

Up first was “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” (season one, episode eleven), which I think of as the one that had Clea Duvall in a small part as a girl that gets ignored by her classmates until she eventually becomes invisible. (The explanation is that reality is based on our perceptions, or something along those lines.) It also foreshadowed government awareness of the supernatural that would be more fully explored with the Initiative in season four. As far as season one episodes go, this is one of the better ones that has the characters figured out, but the plot is still pretty simple (invisible girl wants revenge on Cordelia and targets her and her friends) and expanding it in prose doesn’t add anything to it.

Next up was “Some Assembly Required” (season two, episode two) which took place just three episodes later. This time around the plot involves a grave robber digging up the bodies of three girls who recently died in a car crash. The Scooby gang tries to figure out what sort of demon or human is responsible, but eagle eyed readers will spot a new character introduced who rivals Willow for science expertise and figure out the rest of the reveals from there. Once again, this plot somewhat foreshadows the Initiative in season four (particularly Adam) but the episode was more of a standalone installment from before the show completely hit its stride. On the positive side, this episode featured some great dialogue. Two of my favorites: “Sorry, but I’m an old-fashioned gal. I was raised to believe that men dig up the corpses and women have the babies.” Also, “When you wake up, you’ll have the body of a seventeen-year-old. In fact… you’ll have the body of several.” There were also a few great one liners involving karma and gold dubloons. One of the funniest episodes I’ve read in the novelizations.

Finally, “Homecoming” (season three, episode five) takes a big leap over a season’s worth of storyline to get to Buffy and Cordelia competing for Homecoming Queen. It definitely makes sense as a Cordelia centered story and even builds off the May Queen storyline from “Some Assembly Required,” and better yet it’s from the stretch of the show from mid-season two to end of season three where the show was my favorite of all time. By this point the show had a huge supporting cast of characters including multiple great villains like the Mayor and Mr. Trick, and could even call back a minor interesting villain from the show like Lyle Gorch to take place in Slayerfest ’98. (No, there wasn’t a Slayerfest ‘96, ‘97, or anything after that.) As far as Cordelia centered episodes this was the best representation of her strengths as a character.

If I were to reread all these novelizations, I’d likely follow the following order (final episode revisited in parenthesis):

Harvest
Angel Chronicles Vol. 1 (season two, episode seven)
Angel Chronicles Vol. 2 (season two, episode ten)
Xander Years (season two, episode sixteen)
Angel Chronicles Vol. 3 (season two, episode seventeen)
Willow Files (season three, episode two)
Cordelia Collection (season three, episode five)
Xander Years Vol. 2 (Season three, episode thirteen)
Faith Trials (season three, episode fifteen)
Willow Files Vol. 2 (season three, episode nineteen)
Journals of Rupert Giles (season five, episode thirteen)

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun readings of episodes about one of my fave Whedonverse characters. However, it is merely a script to narrative adaptation and nothing of major interest is added to these familiar episodes. Unlike other episode novelizations, there aren't even any connecting narratives between the episodes, so it feels a bit choppy when you jump from one episode to the next. Always fun to spend some time in Cordy's head though.

[Immy V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the series and enjoyed reading three short versions of the episodes. It bothers me though that the writer either choose to make some changes or mistakes, like Xander saying 'there there' in Some Assembly Required when it makes way more sense it's Giles (like in the show).

[Annemieke / A Dance with Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the three episodes from the show: Out of mind out of sight, some assembly required and homecoming. There isn't anything special about this book. It tells these episodes exactly as they happened on the screen, scene for scene. There is no surprise to find in this book nor is it a good addition.
It says it is a Cordelia collection. It does not feel like it at all. It just describes the three episodes.

[Mansi · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOL CORDELIA IS JOKES

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure why i read the novelizations, I've seen the episodes millions of times

[Jenna Blenker · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you watched the show, this happens the exact same way.

[bluetyson]

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