The Darkening

Rating:
Summary: A less than stellar start to the "Wicked Willow" trilogy
Review: "The Darkening" is the first book of the "Wicked Willow" trilogy by Yvonne Navarro which asks the question, "What if Evil Willow was never stopped?" The story begins with Willow inspecting Warren's skinned corpse at the end of "Villains." Buffy, Xander, and Anya show up to see Willow's handiwork but before the wicked witch of Sunnydale can say "One down, two to go" she experiences a split second of weirdness and things become very different. Instead of going after Jonathan and Andrew, Willow decides to banter with Buffy over Warren's fate, turning her cold fury into hot rage in the process. Nothing is going to stand in the way of her revenge.

Okay, so we have a reasonable set up to explore the path not taken. However, the problem is that is Wicked Willow is at DEFCON 5 at this point and we are still in the prologue of the first book of a trilogy, then it is going to be hard to keep escalating from here to the end, seven or eight hundred pages later. So instead, Navarro executes a sharp turn, which is sort of necessitated because if Evil Willow is never stopped then the world ends. Now Willow's immediate plan is no longer revenge, but resurrection, despite rather impressive indications that Tara cannot be brought back from a natural death. However, this decision undercuts the entire set up. Willow wins the initial battle between Buffy and Giles, but this time the victory is quicker and more significant. Then we settle into something of a waiting game where interesting new developments, such as Willow's selection of a pair of pets, really does not go anywhere. Navarro comes up with a great character idea in Ross, but abandons him as well. At the end, when the characters take stock of their situation and reaffirm their goals, I did not get the sense that we had moved much beyond where we essentially started.

Season Six of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" just came out on DVD so the way the unexpected way the season finished, with Darth Rosenberg turning out to be the surprise Big Bad at the end and with the world being saved this time around by Xander and the memory of a yellow crayon. The whole point of telling an alternative version of a story is to come up with something special and Navarro has not really let the cat out of the bag on what that would be here. Ironically, given that Evil Willow wanted to end the world, the alternative has to be something else, which, by definition, would tend to be less significant.

I also have a continuity question with "The Darkening" in that it is suggested that Dawn no longer has memories of the Scoobies that predate her appearance in Season Five. If there was something in "BtVS" that suggested that was the case I must have missed it. Then there is the idea that Dawn, who finally gets a moment to do something in "Grave" because there is really no other choice, would be sent off to be part of a battle on purpose, which I do not buy. Then there is the issue of Tara's Ghost, which I suspect is more than it appears to be. After all, I do not think she really sounds like Tara and since she is the biggest change between this alternative story line and the original I am both wary and suspicious.

However, the most problematic character in the book is Anya, which makes sense because she is the most problematic character in the series and in the "BtVS" original novels. The Anya who talked Xander into attending the Prom during Season 3 ended up replacing him as the comic relief in the series and the idea that she would not stop talking about their sex life was done to death (and beyond). Anya's lack of the social graces was also overplayed: she had been a vengeance demon for over a millennium, so how come in all that vengeance mongering she failed to pick up on any contemporary social conventions? But here the question is her feelings for Xander, which seem to be rather different from what they were in the final three episodes from Season Six. Navarro is trying to take more advantage of Anya being a demon again, and I keep tyring to figure out if she is going to be playing a pivotal role in what is to come.

The goal of the first book in a series such as this is have us wondering what will happen next, but with "The Darkening" I am still trying to figure out what is going on in the first book that provides a great hook for the next volumes. When I compare what we had at the end of either of the first two volumes in Michael Golden's "The Lost Slayer" serial novel, what we have here does not even compare. There may well be something suitably wicked coming this way and it could be set up by what is here, but we have yet to come to the point in the "Wicked Willow" tragedy where we get hooked big time. I give this one the benefit of the doubt only because I cannot imagine the editors would give the go ahead for a "BtVS" trilogy that would not justify being told in more than one book. But at this point the best that can be said is that the pieces are being moved into position for something bigger and better.

Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: "They say that there are millions of alternate life pathways, that each and every one of us generates a new path and alternate persona with every choice we make." Then why does this book cover the exact same ground covered on the television show?

Others have commented on the lazy editing and sloppy proof reading, so I will not delve into them here again, but they are there and distracting to the overall reading experience.

But these are minor, not because they are unimportant, but rather because the story they are obscuring is barely worth reading.

Killing Tara was a stupid concept and one that the writers of Buffy have been justly ridiculed for (not to mention the 15% drop in ratings after she was killed), this book compounds that sin ten-fold by suggesting that this is the only way it could have occurred; Tara dead, Willow insane and evil, a triple out straight out of the "Celluloid Closet". This book is another bit of kindling on the funeral pyre of the positive portrayals of gays and lesbians in the media.

I feel sorry for the teen or pre-teen lesbian that picks up this book looking for an "alternate life pathway" for Tara and Willow only to see the same death, murder and insanity that faces all gays in the Buffy-universe.

Beyond the issues of clichés (and there are more than just a few in this book) there is issue of story. It always comes back to the story the authors and auteur will claim. Well in that case the story is resoundingly poor. It is a thinly stretched idea from the "wouldn't that be cool" school of thought. Great, if you are Beavis or Butthead, but most readers demand and deserve more. This is thread-bare idea stretched over three books. So I guess quantity is better than quality here. Plot points not ripped off of the TV show (which had no business seeing the light of day in the first place) are simply repeated over and over (Oh! Willow is draining more dark magic! Oh no Buffy tries to reason with her and can't stop her!) In the end I wanted Willow to destroy the world so we could be done with this, but alas all bad news comes in threes and so does this dreck.


Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: "The Darkening" is the first book of the "Wicked Willow" trilogy by Yvonne Navarro which asks the question, "What if Evil Willow was never stopped?" The story begins with Willow inspecting Warren's skinned corpse at the end of "Villains." Buffy, Xander, and Anya show up to see Willow's handiwork but before the wicked witch of Sunnydale can say "One down, two to go" she experiences a split second of weirdness and things become very different. Instead of going after Jonathan and Andrew, Willow decides to banter with Buffy over Warren's fate, turning her cold fury into hot rage in the process. Nothing is going to stand in the way of her revenge.

Okay, so we have a reasonable set up to explore the path not taken. However, the problem is that is Wicked Willow is at DEFCON 5 at this point and we are still in the prologue of the first book of a trilogy, then it is going to be hard to keep escalating from here to the end, seven or eight hundred pages later. So instead, Navarro executes a sharp turn, which is sort of necessitated because if Evil Willow is never stopped then the world ends. Now Willow's immediate plan is no longer revenge, but resurrection, despite rather impressive indications that Tara cannot be brought back from a natural death. However, this decision undercuts the entire set up. Willow wins the initial battle between Buffy and Giles, but this time the victory is quicker and more significant. Then we settle into something of a waiting game where interesting new developments, such as Willow's selection of a pair of pets, really does not go anywhere. Navarro comes up with a great character idea in Ross, but abandons him as well. At the end, when the characters take stock of their situation and reaffirm their goals, I did not get the sense that we had moved much beyond where we essentially started.

Season Six of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" just came out on DVD so the way the unexpected way the season finished, with Darth Rosenberg turning out to be the surprise Big Bad at the end and with the world being saved this time around by Xander and the memory of a yellow crayon. The whole point of telling an alternative version of a story is to come up with something special and Navarro has not really let the cat out of the bag on what that would be here. Ironically, given that Evil Willow wanted to end the world, the alternative has to be something else, which, by definition, would tend to be less significant.

I also have a continuity question with "The Darkening" in that it is suggested that Dawn no longer has memories of the Scoobies that predate her appearance in Season Five. If there was something in "BtVS" that suggested that was the case I must have missed it. Then there is the idea that Dawn, who finally gets a moment to do something in "Grave" because there is really no other choice, would be sent off to be part of a battle on purpose, which I do not buy. Then there is the issue of Tara's Ghost, which I suspect is more than it appears to be. After all, I do not think she really sounds like Tara and since she is the biggest change between this alternative story line and the original I am both wary and suspicious.

However, the most problematic character in the book is Anya, which makes sense because she is the most problematic character in the series and in the "BtVS" original novels. The Anya who talked Xander into attending the Prom during Season 3 ended up replacing him as the comic relief in the series and the idea that she would not stop talking about their sex life was done to death (and beyond). Anya's lack of the social graces was also overplayed: she had been a vengeance demon for over a millennium, so how come in all that vengeance mongering she failed to pick up on any contemporary social conventions? But here the question is her feelings for Xander, which seem to be rather different from what they were in the final three episodes from Season Six. Navarro is trying to take more advantage of Anya being a demon again, and I keep tyring to figure out if she is going to be playing a pivotal role in what is to come.

The goal of the first book in a series such as this is have us wondering what will happen next, but with "The Darkening" I am still trying to figure out what is going on in the first book that provides a great hook for the next volumes. When I compare what we had at the end of either of the first two volumes in Michael Golden's "The Lost Slayer" serial novel, what we have here does not even compare. There may well be something suitably wicked coming this way and it could be set up by what is here, but we have yet to come to the point in the "Wicked Willow" tragedy where we get hooked big time. I give this one the benefit of the doubt only because I cannot imagine the editors would give the go ahead for a "BtVS" trilogy that would not justify being told in more than one book. But at this point the best that can be said is that the pieces are being moved into position for something bigger and better.

Rating:
Summary: Spelling Errors
Review: Although I would totally recommend this book, if you are quick to notice errors, then this is not for you. There are at least 20 errors made in the book, from when the facts of the characters are wrong to just plain errors! I did, however, get engrossed in the book, but next time I think someone should proofread it before printing it out!

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: As someone else posted the book is riddled with spelling errors which could be forgiven if the plot was actually interesting. The wicked Willow thing was already a rip off of the Dark Phoenix story in X-Men and this novel carries the plot to the point of absurdity. In any case, there is no what if to wicked Willow, the story was played out on the show. The logical conclusion of wicked Willow not stopping is the end of the world. There's a reason that this was a path not taken. The polt gymnastics used to keep the plot going don't make any sense. In addition, Willow is completely out of character here as are Anya, Buffy and Xander. (...)Dont waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: nice novel ideal
Review: for a season finale of buffy the vampire slayer in season 3, willow went evil after her lover tara was shot and killed. of course the writers figured out how to bring her back from the edge, but what would have happened if she could not have been stopped?

this book decides to take the reader on an alternate track and show what the tv show would not have time to do. this is the first in a three part series where willow takes over sunnydale and the population at hand is at a lost as how to stop her. it has wonderful insights into our favorite characters and it is too bad that this could not be made into a movie. i though allyson hannigan did a wonderful job as evil willow and this would really be a good role for her. for all of the buffy fans out there who thoght that season 6 season finale was probaly the best or second only to season 2(I liked season 2 better myself), this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful "what if?" idea.
Review: I admit, I was excited for this book to come out. Having always been a fan of alternate universes and the infamous "what if?" scenario, the idea behind this trilogy was right up my alley. Add in my favouritest little redheaded Wiccan in her darkest hour, and not reading this was out of the question. That said, I'm pleased to report that the book really didn't fail to disappoint. I was hooked from the first page, and sped through the whole thing in a few hours. Watching Darth Rosenberg interacting with The Ghost of Tara is simply heartbreaking; having Tara as Will's conscience is a perfect touch.

If I had one complaint about the story, it would have to be in the dialogue. While the idea behind the character's words rings true enough, the actual speech patterns tend not to. But what's more disconcerting is that sometimes they do - but then it jumps back to a sort of strange formalization, and the effect can be jarring. Not enough to detract from the overall enjoyment of the story, but enough to keep me from awarding five stars. That aside, the story was wonderfully paced and I'm anxiously awaiting the second installment.

Rating:
Summary: Can't really recommend it.
Review: I'd read Yvonne Navarro's "Willow Files" and thought she'd done a pretty good job at adapting the scripts, even if they were written down to a "young adult" level (if young adults can watch the show, why can't they read a book written on the same level?) Unfortunately, this entry didn't live up to her earlier work. I found it neither particularly well thought-out nor particularly well-written. It should fare quite well with the contingent of "we-know-better" fans who insist that Willow's arc "should have been done differently," but that's understandable as - IMO - it reads a great deal like the "alternative season six" fanfiction that litters the internet. A "what-if" scenario *could* work, but this one doesn't do it for me.

Rating:
Summary: A captivating look at the world of Evil Willow
Review: I've read most of the Buffy books. I'm big fan of the show and got hooked on the books early on. I have to say that this is one of the best of series.

Imagine if Giles, Xander and the gang hadn't been able to turn Willow back to good. Imagine a world where Willow is the new 'big bad' in Sunnydale. Imagine that Buffy's next mission is to stop her best friend. Having seen Willow go so far down the evil road during the season six finale, its not hard to imagine. And, Yvonne Navarro does a brilliant job of bringing that possible world to life.

The Darkening tells the story of Willow's grief. She turns her back on her friends and desperately tries to both make those responsible (in her mind) pay for her loss of Tara and to bring Tara back.

The Darkening captures the motivations and behaviours of the characters perfectly -- from Willow's grief and angst over her loss of Tara to Anya's pointed truth-telling. We get an incredible look into the world that might have been.

The Darkening is a 'must read' for any Buffy fan.

Rating:
Summary: Wicked Willow is Wicked
Review: It is difficult to believe that this one time socially challenged underdog has become one helluva wicked wicka. But that is what we get here. Having seen the episode on TV, I was able to picture her every move. Even more so, Navarro depicts a Willow mindset that we only saw physically on TV. This is a must have for any Buffy fan. Go Scoobies.