Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doomsday Deck

Buffyverse Novels #28

by Diana G. Gallagher

Arts and crafts...and evil It's that time of the year for the Sunnydale Sidewalk Art Festival, and Buffy and the gang have been enlisted to help Joyce pre-pare for the big event. In fact, Xander's especially eager to pitch in, due to the arrival of a major hottie -- a young artist named Justine. She specializes in Tarot paintings, and tells Xander that she senses much energy surrounding his aura. Xander naturally assumes his latent psychic powers have been awakened. But Buffy's not quite ready to call the psychic hot line. She has a nagging suspicion that something about Justine is not Þve by Þve -- especially after she reaches for Justine's prized Tarot deck, which causes the artist to þy off the handle in a big way. Then there's the fact that vampires appear uncomfortable in Justine's presence. One by one, each of Buffy's closest friends seem to be surrendering their free will to an unknown, unseen force....

Genres: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Vampires, Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Media Tie In

193 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Diana G. Gallagher was an American author who wrote books for children and young adults. She also wrote the space opera The Alien Dark (1990), but was best known for her tie-in work for television properties including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Star Trek and The Secret World of Alex Mack, among others.

She was also a prolific filk creator, winning Pegasus Awards in 1986 and ’94. Gallagher won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist in 1988 under the name Diana Gallagher Wu. She sometimes also wrote under the name Diana Burke.

Born in 1946, in Paterson, New Jersey, she lived in Florida with her husband, the writer Martin R. Burke, who predeceased her in 2011. Gallagher was married four times; her third marriage was to author William F. Wu (divorced 1990).

Gallagher died December 2, 2021 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 75 years of age.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Buffy adventure set in the timeframe of the show's third season. It's a standard monster-of-the-week kind of story, a fast-read that's quite like watching an episode of the show... as they say. The characters are portrayed pretty realistically, especially Joyce in a rare non-Mom role, and Xander, who's predictably smitten with the mysteriously attractive Justine. It involves an art festival and a very special Tarot deck, and the story works quite well up to a somewhat abrupt conclusion... but, then again, sometimes they ran out of time on tv, too.

[BookLoversLife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing idea with the tarot cards! Buffy at her finest :)

[Terese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely visit to Sunnydale. The author really got the characters voices right, and though it was cool to see Anya included, she was kind of creepy-stalker girl here. She is always intense, but this is pre-prom and just felt a bit ick.

All in all, fun, short, and sweet.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are fun, kind of like reading an episode instead of watching one. This time Buffy must battle an evil tarot deck threatening to take over her friends and perhaps the universe.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 2 out of 5]

891 - 2016

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed the plot of this, and it felt the closest to a real life monster of the week from the TV show. The characters felt authentic, the plot didn't feel too shoehorned or elongated to fill a whole book.

The one downside was the characterisation of Anya - she was so one dimensional it was insulting. She was more like April the robot being absolutely obsessed with just finding Xander. But that was the only real downside.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very much a “monster of the week” style book, which fits perfectly for Buffy. I think the author did a great job of capturing the essence of the characters, which sometimes falls flat in these books. Overall a good vacation read!

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty decent story about a woman trying to destroy the universe with a tarot deck. It really felt like an episode from the show and flowed pretty well. All the characters felt genuine. I actually felt like I had just watched this.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read but was disappointing with the ending - could have done something more interesting.

[Sidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. An artist/tarot card reader comes to town and reads the Scoobies futures which puts them into a catatonic state that only Buffy can fix.

[TheCultureVulture]

Joyce only wants to put on a nice street art show for the museum but the basic vampires and a mysterious travelling artist with a tarot deck of doom are not making it easy!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. Definitely felt like watching an episode of BTVS. Tarot Deck idea was original and interesting.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can Tarot really end the world?!

Buffy has to wind up saving all her friends and the entire Universe from an Evil Goddess named Kali who possesses a young artist named Justine who does Tarot readings and when she does them the Deck of cards empowers the person's mind and puts their Essences and Emotional thoughts and makes them trapped in a Tarot painting. The goal for the Tarot paintings is to speed up the process of ending the Universe. If Justine can do that, then the world will end and she will get what she wants. Can Buffy stop her? Or will her friends and her wind up trapped in the world of Tarot forever?

I really enjoyed this book. I still find the Buffy novels interesting.

[Ceejay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun entry in the Buffy books series. I won't be spoiling anything by letting you know that the title, Doomsday Deck" comes from the fact that the story centers on Tarrot cards.The author has captured the "regulars" well, and the story moves along at a good pace. If you're a BTVS fan,then I'm sure you'll enjoy this particular book. The TV show is long gone (unless you have Netflix),so at least the fans will have the novels to read!

[Jim C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more of a short story than novel. That being said, it is a good short story that takes place in the Buffyverse. The author did an excellent job portraying the characters of the tv show. I had no problems with this book and I could have pictured this being an episode of the show. If you like Buffy, read this short story.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good novel based on the characters we know and love. I loved the story - although I think I might be avoiding my Tarot deck for a while - not that I'd ever want to use them to bring about the end of the world - well, not at the moment anyway! I really enjoyed it and it brightened up a couple of otherwise dull dinner breaks.

[Jevron McCrory · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty goddamn terrible Buffy book! Buffy's stand out feature was always the truly wonderful dialogue and if you can't replicate it, you shouldn't even attempt a book. And what's with that ending?! A real let down.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Fariha · Rating 2 out of 5]

great book!!!!!

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining enough to kill a couple hours on a 10 hour car trip. Really, what can one expect from a book based on a TV series?

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another sold tale

[M.J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another two thumbs up for the great Buffyverse. Fantastic book as per usual I loved every minute of it.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one's just... not.

[MarylineD · Rating 3 out of 5]

not my favorite Buffy story

[♡ Jeri's Book Attic ♡ Jeri the Romance Bibiliophile ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]