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Buffyverse Novels #14
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Night Terrors
YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE Welcome to Sunnydale High, where midterms and peer pressure are the least of your worries. The Stake Your Destiny series returns Buffy Summers and the Scoobies to the glory days of high school. But this time you control the action and accept the full responsibility of being the Slayer. Interactive story lines advance by the choices you make, leading toward more than a dozen possible endings. Do you have what it takes to be the Slayer, or will you fail and summon a successor? Banished to the realm of dreams, the Night Terror stalks its victims as they sleep. By replacing another's soul with its own, the demon can assume anyone's physical body and wreak havoc in the real world. But the effect is short-lived. Human bodies soon break down under the tremendous stress of the transfer, and the Night Terror is forced to find a new body to inhabit. That is, until it discovers Buffy's secret and imagines the Slayer would make an ideal -- and permanent -- host....
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 22, 2005
1 person is currently reading
316 people want to read
About the author
Alice Henderson
30 books802 followersAlice Henderson's love of wild places inspired her thriller series which begins with A Solitude of Wolverines, and continues with A Blizzard of Polar Bears and A Ghost of Caribou. The latest novel is The Vanishing Kind, about jaguars in New Mexico. The series features a wildlife biologist who encounters dangerous situations while working to protect endangered species.
She has also written media-tie in novels, including official novels for the TV shows Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While working at LucasArts, she wrote material for several Star Wars video games.
She was selected to attend Launchpad, a NASA-funded writing workshop aimed at bringing accurate science to fiction.
In addition to being a writer, Henderson is a wildlife researcher, geographic information systems specialist, and bioacoustician. She documents wildlife on specialized recording equipment, checks remote cameras, creates maps, and undertakes wildlife surveys to determine what species are present on preserves, while ensuring there are no signs of poaching. She's surveyed for the presence of grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, jaguars, endangered bats, and more.
Please visit her at www.AliceHenderson.com.
She has also written media-tie in novels, including official novels for the TV shows Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While working at LucasArts, she wrote material for several Star Wars video games.
She was selected to attend Launchpad, a NASA-funded writing workshop aimed at bringing accurate science to fiction.
In addition to being a writer, Henderson is a wildlife researcher, geographic information systems specialist, and bioacoustician. She documents wildlife on specialized recording equipment, checks remote cameras, creates maps, and undertakes wildlife surveys to determine what species are present on preserves, while ensuring there are no signs of poaching. She's surveyed for the presence of grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, jaguars, endangered bats, and more.
Please visit her at www.AliceHenderson.com.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 28, 2017
Maybe I’m biased because I made it through this book to a happy ending on my first try, but this was my favorite of the Stake Your Destiny Buffy books. I wrote in my review for Keep Me In Mind that “the entire thing reads like a long dream sequence (I hate dream sequences).” Night Terrors actually featured a lengthy dream sequence so now I’m reevaluating my stance on the topic. I think the problem with Keep Me In Mind was that the entire book felt like a training drill with zero stakes (sorry, bad pun… how about consequences) for the reader. In Night Terrors I was making what I felt was the best choice each time but I constantly felt like I was leading Buffy to her death as the plot got weirder and wackier.
The plot of Night Terrors is that people around Sunnydale are getting sleepy, and feeling paralyzed in their sleep but feeling as though they are awake. It starts off affecting Buffy but spreads to others like Angel and her classmates. As Buffy feels like something is sitting on top of her, and that she’s not alone in her room, she lies paralyzed and unable to do anything about it. Once the feeling has passed, we’re given the choice of going to find Angel, going out on a patrol, or studying for a test that day that we’ve so far neglected. The choice is simple enough, but right away the book at least gave options that felt either more authentic to how Buffy would behave in the tv series or that an average reader would consider in her place (the previous Stake Your Destiny books have seemed addicted to offering a day spent with Cordelia right out of the gate).
**Slight Spoilers follow**
I flipped around when I was finished and saw other happy endings possible for the reader, and since it’s difficult to review this book without giving away the track I followed, reader beware. I started off patrolling before ending up heading toward the gym at Principal Snyder’s direction. Before I got there I decided to check on a crying student. After I learned more from the Scoobies, I decided to sleep and confront the Night Terror right away (my thinking being that staying up would just lead to a later confrontation with a tired and weakened slayer). After entering the dream world, I tried to locate Willow to communicate with the other spirits. When that was a dead end, I decided to Trust Ned, the man from Planet X who worked with the Lava people and build a dreamcatcher to catch the Night Terror.
For those following along, yeah that took a turn well away from anything in the series. I can only say that the alternative options presented to me seemed like tricks by the enemy, and that my path resulted in a happy ending. Spending about one third of this story in an anything goes dream world actually felt more like an episode of the tv series than one would thing just from reading that recap. In particular, it felt like the season four finale where Willow, Buffy, and Xander are encountering the First Slayer in their sleep.
**End of spoilers**
Besides feeling like a fun episode of the series and rewarding my obviously excellent choices based on years of watching the show and reading the books and comics, Night Terrors also benefitted by not having the ultra predictable page numbering problem present in some of the other Stake Your Destiny books. I jumped into the last 200 pages fairly early and often my two choices were close enough in page numbering to not give away which way the book was steering me. Although I wouldn’t put this book up there with Dune or East of Eden, I’ve now read all of the Stake Your Destiny books and this was the only one that I didn’t come away from with grievances, and I actually had a really fun time reading it. That earns a perfect score from this reader.
The plot of Night Terrors is that people around Sunnydale are getting sleepy, and feeling paralyzed in their sleep but feeling as though they are awake. It starts off affecting Buffy but spreads to others like Angel and her classmates. As Buffy feels like something is sitting on top of her, and that she’s not alone in her room, she lies paralyzed and unable to do anything about it. Once the feeling has passed, we’re given the choice of going to find Angel, going out on a patrol, or studying for a test that day that we’ve so far neglected. The choice is simple enough, but right away the book at least gave options that felt either more authentic to how Buffy would behave in the tv series or that an average reader would consider in her place (the previous Stake Your Destiny books have seemed addicted to offering a day spent with Cordelia right out of the gate).
**Slight Spoilers follow**
I flipped around when I was finished and saw other happy endings possible for the reader, and since it’s difficult to review this book without giving away the track I followed, reader beware. I started off patrolling before ending up heading toward the gym at Principal Snyder’s direction. Before I got there I decided to check on a crying student. After I learned more from the Scoobies, I decided to sleep and confront the Night Terror right away (my thinking being that staying up would just lead to a later confrontation with a tired and weakened slayer). After entering the dream world, I tried to locate Willow to communicate with the other spirits. When that was a dead end, I decided to Trust Ned, the man from Planet X who worked with the Lava people and build a dreamcatcher to catch the Night Terror.
For those following along, yeah that took a turn well away from anything in the series. I can only say that the alternative options presented to me seemed like tricks by the enemy, and that my path resulted in a happy ending. Spending about one third of this story in an anything goes dream world actually felt more like an episode of the tv series than one would thing just from reading that recap. In particular, it felt like the season four finale where Willow, Buffy, and Xander are encountering the First Slayer in their sleep.
**End of spoilers**
Besides feeling like a fun episode of the series and rewarding my obviously excellent choices based on years of watching the show and reading the books and comics, Night Terrors also benefitted by not having the ultra predictable page numbering problem present in some of the other Stake Your Destiny books. I jumped into the last 200 pages fairly early and often my two choices were close enough in page numbering to not give away which way the book was steering me. Although I wouldn’t put this book up there with Dune or East of Eden, I’ve now read all of the Stake Your Destiny books and this was the only one that I didn’t come away from with grievances, and I actually had a really fun time reading it. That earns a perfect score from this reader.
January 18, 2021
I randomly found this book somewhere, I honestly don't even remember. I just knew by the cover that it was one that I didn't have and it was available to me for pennies, so I grabbed it. Had it in storage for awhile. Recently, I moved and have been unpacking my entire life and re-discovering lost loves, like my Buffy collection.
I've never read a single "stake your destiny" book and didn't even realize it was an "interactive" book until I pulled it off the shelf tonight. Due to re-watching the Buffy TV series, I've been reading the books that I have, in order of which they occur in the timeline. This was listed as season 2 and that's where I am in the show, so here I am.
SPOILERS for endings here on out...
Ok, not a fan of the POV. I rather it play out in third person, where I get to choose the actions, instead of the constant "YOU" sentences.
My first ending was the one where it took over Buffy's body and Planet X guy sang her back. Didn't love it. She just took her body back and it was the end, no banishment or fix, just her back after two weeks and yay!
Second ending: Went to Giles, ended up with a mummy that "we" bored to death and Giles actually banished the Night Terror. Ok, better but *shrugs"
3rd ending: Ate by Zombies... Wtf?
4th ending: uhhh.. it was in Angel but Angelus took over but Buffy dragged Angel back from dreamland and then a German spell fixed everything. *Face palm*
5th ending: same as 4th but just took a longer route apparently.
6th: so... I live in the forest now??
7th: Dreamcatcher fixed everything
8th: Willow saves the day
9th: Night Terror-like creatures saved the day.
10th: Night terror creators save the day.
11th: the mummy killed me. Really?!?
12th: would have been a repeat of 4 or 5
13th: death by Angelus
Good God... Will this ever end?
14th: happy ending with parents and mortal Angel
15th: Giles and Buffy dead by Angelus
16th: stepped on by a mummy
17th: death by mom
18th: Ethan saved the day
Ok... I don't even care anymore. I just started back at the beginning of the book and flipped until I found a page I hadn't read before and just went straight through.
I enjoyed books like this in the past, but this one jumps wayyyy to far in pages and has entirely too many damn endings. 5 would have been enough. 10 I could deal with, but it looks like we are gonna definitely clear 20 endings in a 300 page book that I could have been done with in half the time.
I've never read a single "stake your destiny" book and didn't even realize it was an "interactive" book until I pulled it off the shelf tonight. Due to re-watching the Buffy TV series, I've been reading the books that I have, in order of which they occur in the timeline. This was listed as season 2 and that's where I am in the show, so here I am.
SPOILERS for endings here on out...
Ok, not a fan of the POV. I rather it play out in third person, where I get to choose the actions, instead of the constant "YOU" sentences.
My first ending was the one where it took over Buffy's body and Planet X guy sang her back. Didn't love it. She just took her body back and it was the end, no banishment or fix, just her back after two weeks and yay!
Second ending: Went to Giles, ended up with a mummy that "we" bored to death and Giles actually banished the Night Terror. Ok, better but *shrugs"
3rd ending: Ate by Zombies... Wtf?
4th ending: uhhh.. it was in Angel but Angelus took over but Buffy dragged Angel back from dreamland and then a German spell fixed everything. *Face palm*
5th ending: same as 4th but just took a longer route apparently.
6th: so... I live in the forest now??
7th: Dreamcatcher fixed everything
8th: Willow saves the day
9th: Night Terror-like creatures saved the day.
10th: Night terror creators save the day.
11th: the mummy killed me. Really?!?
12th: would have been a repeat of 4 or 5
13th: death by Angelus
Good God... Will this ever end?
14th: happy ending with parents and mortal Angel
15th: Giles and Buffy dead by Angelus
16th: stepped on by a mummy
17th: death by mom
18th: Ethan saved the day
Ok... I don't even care anymore. I just started back at the beginning of the book and flipped until I found a page I hadn't read before and just went straight through.
I enjoyed books like this in the past, but this one jumps wayyyy to far in pages and has entirely too many damn endings. 5 would have been enough. 10 I could deal with, but it looks like we are gonna definitely clear 20 endings in a 300 page book that I could have been done with in half the time.
May 2, 2020
This last and final (for me) Stake Your Destiny book was fun, but it felt like, despite the number of choices offered, you ended up with the same general story no matter what you chose to do. Naturally, there were a few oddball choices that led to strange, one-off deaths, but only 3-4 of them.
I didn't care for this one as much because Buffy (or the reader, rather) had very little agency in the outcome of the story. In all the major "true" endings, someone else had to do the main dirty work.
However, major points for the pop culture references in this one. I enjoyed all of them, including the reference to the future Buffy adventure "Restless," (the cheese man makes an appearance.)
I didn't care for this one as much because Buffy (or the reader, rather) had very little agency in the outcome of the story. In all the major "true" endings, someone else had to do the main dirty work.
However, major points for the pop culture references in this one. I enjoyed all of them, including the reference to the future Buffy adventure "Restless," (the cheese man makes an appearance.)
May 9, 2020
I really liked this Stake Your Destiny book! I didn't get the good ending right away, but it was still a lot of fun to read!
February 12, 2013
This is one of those, pick your paths books.I found it fun, especially since I never knew they made them for the vampire slayer series. Now you get to hunt down the blood suckers. You know before vampires sparkled and were mostly bad guys, even when they looked good doing it. I ended my story with saving the guy in distress. But so many different options are there to pick from all depending on your choices. You could read it 5 different times and come out with different endings. I have checked out another from the series to read. So enjoy!
February 16, 2015
I used to love Create Your Own Adventure books growing up so I was excited to find them in the Buffy universe. Good little story with a few twists and turns. Set in Season 2 it's a good story with some old characters back for a visit. Well worth a look and no doubt I'll return to this to follow a few other paths and choices.
June 28, 2011
In this book, you choose the fate of Buffy. In this book Buffy faces life as a normal high school girl and your not so typical choosen vampire slayer. In this series she faces a demon who appears in her dreams. He feed on her dreams which makes it difficult for her to face him.
April 10, 2016
Being an avid Buffy fan and always liking the choose your own adventure books when I was younger, once I saw there was a Buffy Stake your destiny book I had to read it. Each choice you make could lead to victory or your death. Which will it be?
February 25, 2019
Another Choose Your Own Adventure, lots of fun
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews