Buffy The Vampire Slayer ~ The Watcher's Guide

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide #1

by Christopher Golden

The Official Companion to the Hit Show

Genres: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Nonfiction, Vampires, Reference, Tv, Paranormal, Media Tie In

298 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Red Hands. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcast Defenders Dialogue with horror author Brian Keene. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. For the Bram Stoker Awards, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com

Reviews

[Courtney Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember begging for this book because - you know - Buffy rules!

And such continued my uber-fangirl-otaku penchant for trivia scrounging. Sailor Moon started it...

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah yes, the before time. The Long Long Ago. Before wikipedia. I think I read this book cover to cover about three times back when Buffy was still on and the idea of owning a whole season on DVD was but a pipe dream (says the guy who bought poor quality tapes of seasons one and two from someone on eBay.) (Oh but the commercials from the San Francisco TV station were fun.)

This book provides good episode summaries, episode trivia, and tidbits on the makeup and costumes and stuff. Which you can just read on wikipedia now, with hyperlinks. But you can't take wikipedia in the tub, now can you? Well, yeah you can. But I'll still keep the book.

[[ J o ] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume One of The Watcher's Guide covers the two series of the fantasy television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's a great accompaniment that gives you more information about the characters and monsters that feature in the episode, as well as background and in-depth synopsis' of each episode.

It's set out in a decent logical order which makes it very easy to dip in and out of. Whilst the photographs are in black and white in general, there is an insert with some promos and behind-the-scenes photographs which adds to the occasion. It also lists the music that featured in the show, which is a fantastic feature because Buffy always had wonderful and often obscure music in it.

For any Buffy who wants to know more it's a good place to start and is a good addition to any collection, but since the advent of The Internet it's slightly redundant now.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's another one of those annoying posts where instead of a review there's going to be a statement having nothing to do with the quality of the book. Back in the day when Pocket was publishing a new Buffy or Angel paperback every month, for quite a while they ran a contest where you could remove a sweepstakes card inserted in the book, fill it out and mail it in to enter, and be in the running for one of several prize packages. There was an age limit on it and I was too old, so I used my daughter's name. I mailed dozens of those cards in and, lo and behold, her name was drawn for one of the second- or third-tier prize packages. She received a big box full of cool things, none of which she had any interest in, and one of them was a copy of this neat book autographed by Anthony Stewart Head. The G-Man himself! Good times!
PS- Pretty interesting read, too; fun for Buffy fans, nicely researched and well-written.

[Rachel Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly entertaining. The book contained quotes, information about Sunnydale locations (like the Bronze), an episode guide of the first two seasons, character guides, a section about the relationships in these seasons, such as Buffy/Angel, Xander/Cordelia, Willow/Oz, etc., a monster guide including vampires and demons, music played in each episode, and Behind the scenes with the cast, the writers, and the crew. This book was packed with information about the show and the behind the scenes section was a great touch. Recommended for any Buffy fan who is nerdy enough to buy these types of books (me) :)

[BookLoversLife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Lyndy Ann ♫ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my bible when I watched Buffy and rewatched Buffy, over and over, it is full of trivia and great facts about the Scooby gang.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pulling books at my library's bookstore where I volunteer, and this had been out on the shelves too long and would have been tossed. It had been marked as $1.50, along with The Monster Book and Angel: The Case Files. I didn't watch the show, but when I read Halfway to the Grave I saw a slew of people comparing Jeaniene Frost's characters to the ones in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Someone had included such an intriguing quote by Spike to Buffy, that I immediately went on YouTube and looked it up, and just started watching a ton of clips from the show. So when I saw these on the shelves I was so excited. I got to take all 3 home for free. This is a $16 book originally, so I was thrilled.

I love the cover, perfect for a romance novel!

I couldn't believe Buffy is a high school student, started out 16 years old! No one looks like a teenager!

It was too much just reading snippets of script with no context. I wanted insider info and fun facts, not just the scripts.

The Slayer handbook was a cute touch, if we ever found ourselves in a position to become a Slayer with our own Watcher we could learn what traits are needed.

The info on the school and town really went on and on. Unnecessary with all the buildings and architecture. The success of the town and businesses. Way too much detail about places closing and how well they were doing. I couldn't wait to be done.

David Boreanaz was asked how he felt about being a sex symbol, and he said “Oh, geez, I didn’t know I was.” That’s an endearing answer.

I was surprised that Angel is a vampire because I thought he was, well, an angel. And that they had sex when Buffy was 17. Whoa.

I was surprised at the things that were pointed out about the show that hadn't been explained, like how Giles was able to order these old texts and that the audience assumes the principal gave him free reign since a normal school library wouldn't have books like that. They come in handy when he helps Buffy with her cases, so that felt too convenient and like a plot hole.

I was shocked that Angel sired Drusilla, and through extension, Spike, because Drusilla sired Spike. So Angel is Spike’s grand-sire. It’s awkward because Buffy got with Angel and then Spike.

Angel gave Buffy a claddagh ring, the closest thing to marriage they were probably going to get. That’s sweet.

I hated to learn all the bad things he did to her and her friends. Threatening her mom, torturing Giles, killing Jenny and killing all of Willow's fish. He tried to bring back a demon to make hell on earth. He kept implying he slept with Drusilla and taunting Spike about it.
I did not know that Buffy killed Angel, had to send him to hell. That’s horrible.

He lived in the 1700s, stole silver from his dad to buy a night at a brothel. He tortured Drusilla, told her to be evil, to start out by laughing at cripples. He played on her mental fragility, then turned her into a vampire, and killed her family. He had killed his own family earlier. He was on and off with Darla, and enjoyed torturing people and animals. Giles had made a comment at some point about something Angel did with a puppy and Buffy didn’t want to know.

It was nice to learn that Angel didn't actually bite her mom. Darla had done it to frame Angel and entice him to feed on a human so he would be a true vampire and evil again.

After they had sex Angel told her that Angel was dead and her and her friends would join him. Buffy told him to leave her friends alone and he said Willow is so cute and helpless and it's a turn-on.
He threatens her mom and friends, visits her at night and draws her as she's sleeping, taking pleasure in her fear that he comes into her house at night and leaves things.

I didn't like reading about Cordelia at all, especially Cordelia and Xander. I know that would have upset me had I watched the show. It was upsetting enough just reading it. So I didn't care at all for the section on her love life. I HATED reading Angel's. He was Darla on and off for a century, but once he was cursed to have a soul, he lived alone and wasn't with any vampires and I liked that. I hated that he told Buffy that Drusilla was an obsession of his, she was pure. It was never clear how far he’d went with Drusilla; I don’t know why it wasn’t just spelled out. I hoped he was lying about being with Drusilla just to upset Spike and that he hadn’t really been with her.

Fran Kuzui helped rewrite Joss Whedon’s script and directed the movie. I didn’t care for the comments she made at all. It sounded like she was controlling and stole his work and made it into what she thought it should be, and I didn’t care for that. That sounded to me like that’s the reason the movie didn’t do well, not because of its “lack of focus” as she claimed. She suggested that martial arts be added because she’s a big fan. She wanted it more comedic than scary. She read Joss’s script and would make comments like “That’s such a silly thing for her to say” and would ask Joss to take it out, and he’d say that’s what he said in high school and they would laugh about “how funny you are in high school.” After hearing about how bad Joss had it in high school, I don’t think he was laughing about how “funny” he was in response to it. Just my take though. She said Joss wanted it to be scary, but he supported her decision to make it funny. He had to rework his writing towards what she wanted and her vision, so I think the blame and responsibility for the film flopping lies solely with her. Someone commented that they were going to turn Buffy into a TV show and she was smarting over the reception of the film and said it wasn’t Buffy’s time. Years later when the show got picked up, the hard part for her was to turn it over to Joss and let him express himself…the writer. It was laughable how she took no responsibility for ruining his work and then was afraid to let the creator of the story do it his way. Ugh. The total conceit she had to say that she had guts to let him do it, and grace to tell him it was his now. It was like she was spinning the whole success of the show as happening because she’s the one who gave Joss the reigns. She went on and on about guts and grace and what girl power she had to let the TV show be what he wanted. The total conceit of that was so disgusting.

Gail Berman took the credit for being the one who had the idea to turn it into a series, but she did give Joss the credit for creating it. I thought it was a bit of a dig when she said she obviously likes some episodes better than others, but she did say she’s never disappointed. Well it was Joss’s creation and he gets to decide what to do. Who are these people?!

Marcia, the casting director, told the story of how David Boreanaz got the part. Angel’s character was supposed to start filming the next day but she asked Joss for one more day to find an actor for the role. Her friend, who ended up being David’s manager, saw David walking his dog down the street and told her he just saw Angel and he can send him. When she saw David walk in she ran to Joss and wrote that David was the guy. What an incredible story.

There were some endearing and likable insider info like the makeup artist saying he wanted to style Buffy's hair like a 16 year old would; he didn't want it to look like she just came out of a salon, but wanted something that's doable for people.

The second hurricane of the season swept through my state on the day I had planned to finish this. The power went off in the afternoon and I despaired I’d have to take another day to read. But that night I ended up reading the last 58 pages or so by kerosene lamp. Not the best light for reading and it was uncomfortable sitting up in front of the lamp and holding the book up at an angle to catch the best light, so at this point I just wanted to hurry up and be done. Also, I didn’t enjoy reading about the directing and production and soundtrack and makeup and the last 50+ pages was all about that so that’s another reason I was speed-reading just wanting to finish.

Finished 10:15 pm

[Alyisha]

Using this as a placeholder to represent “Slayers: A Buffyverse Story” (which, it turns out, isn’t an audiobook but a “radio play”, “audio drama” or “theater for the mind”). I can’t get those 8 hours of my life back; I’ll be damned if listening doesn’t at least count towards my Goodreads goal. 😆

[Susan Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually like behind the scenes type things but this was very very good. Not only does it break down every episode but you get to understand just how the magic of Buffy came together from start to finish. Avid Buffy fans should definitely read this.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reminds me of the good ole days before the technological age of "Wikipedia" and me being a hardcore Buffy fan wanting this Watcher's Guide as a kid for my growing Buffy book collection with character profiles, quotes, episode guides, background notes, interviews and everything to fangirl (or fanboy) over your favourite Scooby Gang!

[Kaitlin Winnie]

Who read this over and over and over to the point of memorization back in middle school? I did.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

How I Came To Read This Book: I was an avid Buffy fan and naturally picked up all 3 volumes of the Watcher’s Guide.

The Plot: More accurately, the concept is this: an episode guide with behind-the-scenes facts on the first two seasons of the series, plus character / actor / show / Sunnydale / memorable quote guides. Plus some colour photograph inserts of the stars. Basically a nice little almanac of the beginning of the show.

The Good & The Bad: The three Watcher’s Guides are actually all pretty different – the only linking thing between them is the episode guides. Compared to later volumes, this book was packed with more fluff than the others because it was much more of a ‘let’s ride the merchandise wave’ recap of the show rather than giving you a ton of insider info. That being said, this is also a pretty fun look at the first two seasons that doesn’t get weighed down by some of the elements introduced in the other Watcher’s Guides. It’s a fun exercise to read the book alongside a rewatch (or first-time watch) of the series, although beware of continuity spoilers if you’re watching for the first time.

The Bottom Line: A must-have for diehard fans.

Anything Memorable?: One forgotten feature of the Episode Guides was the super lame ‘Buffy’s Bag of Tricks’ that was supposed to showcase all the cool weaponry Buffy uses. Sadly this is actually pretty limited – it’s almost always a stake, with the occasional crossbow, and even rarer innovative tools like a pumpkin patch sign or a grenade launcher.

50-Book Challenge?: Nope.

[Tara Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So having just finished Julie and Julia, I've rediscovered my love for Buffy, the one girl in all the world...(If you have no clue what I'm talking about, stop reading, and go out and get two things: Buffy season I, and Julie and Julia. Both are very funny, although only one involves a hot cast and gratuitous violence.)

I actually managed to get through all of this in a day. (I was in bed, nursing arthritic hips I still hate to admit having. Damn you, JRA! I smite thee!) Anyway, there's nothing like the classics, and Buffy's the bomb.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this because my kid brother was the biggest fan I ever met that anything Buffy related, he either owned it or was about to, and he graciously lent me his copy under the guise that I can't eat or drink while reading it and that I needed to treat it like my baby. Lol.


This book provides in-depth episode summaries, trivia, and all sorts of information on makeup, costumes, locations, sets, among the character guides. I really enjoyed this behind the scenes look at what turned out to be a house favorite show.

[Faye Ducker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore Buffy and I'm a sucker for trivia so I totally devoured this book.

As it was released alongside the show, it is so gloriously 90s and it was enjoyable to read the writers, actors etc pondering what would be in store for the world's greatest TV programme in the future.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite television shows...arguably my favorite of all time. The Watcher's Guide, in my case, is essential!

[Tasha Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for Buffy fans, it has everything you could want, episode synopsis, fun facts, actors biographies etc

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge Buffy fan, since it first aired. I love reading the background books and collecting the series. This is a nice companion guide to the episodes, with info on the music, cast and creatures.

[Drululu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una pasada para los fans. Abarca más 2 primeras temporadas y contiene de todo: guía de personajes, guía de cada capítulo con anécdotas, guía de monstruos, análisis de las parejas de la serie, entrevistas a actores y resto del equipo y el listado de la música. A ello se unen varias páginas de fotos en color y todo está completado con diálogos de la serie.

Supercompleto. Realmente me hubiera gustado tenerlo en su momento porque lo hubiera devorado una y otra vez.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buffy the vampire slayer has been and will always be the greatest TV show ever created, and this book is the guide (literally) to this iconic series starring the one and only Sarah Michelle Gellar. I enjoyed this book just like many other buffy fans and I highly suggest anyone interested purchase a copy and read this fun little watchers guide...

[Olivia Ambrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read for any Buffy fan, but I mean it's pretty much printed Wikipedia pages. You can get most of this information off the internet nowadays. Obviously it was written before that was a thing, and there a some really fun tidbits that I didn't know before. Not earth-shattering, but a fun read.

[nidah05 (SleepDreamWrite) · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a fan of the show then you're going to love this. From the info on the characters, the monster guide and behind the scenes of the show and etc, is interesting. Makes me want to watch the show again. Really good read.

[Bexx Louise Bullock · Rating 3 out of 5]

More aimed at kids, it’s a bit childish. Interesting guide book but not for adult fans.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. It was nice to get a behind the scenes look at the show.

[Silvia Vicentini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carino, nulla di entusiasmante. Mi aspettavo qualcosa di più

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm re-watching Buffy on Disney+ and remembered I had this book when I was a teen, it was my bible and I felt so cool owning it. So interesting re-watching something from my teen years and remembering my crush on Angel.

[Don · Rating 1 out of 5]

I shouldn't like to use the word "worthless". But this book is pretty much everything I DON'T want from an episode guide: Lengthy plot recaps, pages and pages and pages and PAGES of quotes, script excerpts copied verbatim - because, y'know, it's not like I haven't already watched the show, right? How about some NEW information?

The only part of the book that you couldn't have gleaned just from watching the series itself is the "Behind the Scenes" section in the last third, particularly the interviews. (Although even there, the authors have some bizarre obsession with asking each subject about their scars.) But that doesn't make up for the fact that 3/4 of the book feels like padding and filler. Which, I suppose, is not without reason when the show you're writing about has only had 1.5 seasons.

If you want an episode guide filled with impressively obsessive detail, pick up Keith Topping's The Complete Slayer . If you want a well-written one filled with fantastic insights, track down a copy of Dusted by Miles, Peason & Dickson. This one though? It's just not worth the time.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why but I find myself once again being interested in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv show thus my interest in this book "The Watchers Guide". This book was not what I thought it was going to be. (Clearly, I didn't read the book description)I was expecting something along the lines of various accounts from various watchers telling the accounts of their slayers and the vamps and demons they faced. While this book is something altogether different from that it was still nice. For those interested it basically focuses on the first two seasons of the tv show and also includes character quotes, cast & crew bios and pics and info about the featured vamps and demons. This would be good for those who like to write fanfics and thats not really my cup of tea although I do love reading them.

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are lots and lots of guide-type books to various TV series but I believe this is the best one that I've ever seen!

This one has episode guides like other guidebooks do, but it's also has loads of fascinating information in addition to episode summaries. There are interviews with almost everyone involved in the series, lots of quotes from various characters, beautiful color photos and even material on parts of scripts that never made it to the aired program

You're not going to read this in one sitting, either. It's one of the largest guide-type books I've ever seen. There's so much here you will want to take your time reading it. The book is also written in an interesting way and it's also easy to read.

If you are a Buffy fan then this is an absolute must for your collection.