Chosen (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Pocket Paperback Unnumbered))

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Summary: The seventh and final season of "BtVS" as one giant "novel"
Review: "Chosen" is the longest "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" story you can read between two covers because it is a novelization of the ENTIRE seventh and final season of the classic television series cult series created by Joss Whedon. "Chosen" came out relatively soon after the final season ended and way before the final season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" came out on DVD, and all twenty-two episodes from "Lessons" to "Chosen" are weaved into one giant novel. Nancy Holder is well qualified to write a novelization based on the seventh season having co-authored both of the first two volumes in "The Watcher's Guide" and written several first rate original "BtVS" novels, both with Christopher Golden ("The Gatekeeper Trilogy") and by her lonesome ("The Book of Fours"). More to the point, she has done "novelizations" of individual episodes before ("The Angel Chronicles, Volume 1").

Dealing with the entire final season plays to one of Holder's strength, which is developing what the characters are thinking, adding to what is in the script without getting in the way of the story (e.g., Anya's final scene in the book). She also has an advantage because this time around there is no reason to hide what is happening at the beginning: the young women being hunted down around the world and being skilled by the Harbringers are Potentials. Consequently, the best parts of this book are not only Holder's retelling of our favorite moments from the season, but her explication of those moments where we were not quite sure what was going on (mainly involving the diabolical machinations of the First).

The end result is an entertaining way of dealing with the final season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the fact the series is over and we have to actually go out in the world and have lives now. It will be interesting to see how Joss Whedon fills in the gap that exists now between the assorted volumes of "The Xander Years," "The Willow Files," "The Faith Trials," and so forth in which various episodes of "BtVS" from the first four seasons have been adapted into short stories and "Chosen." Recent collections have tried to provide some thematic unity to the assorted stories they contain and obviously "Chosen" is an attempt to do that on the broadest possible scale. Will there ever be volumes forthcoming covering seasons five and six? Good question. But just like Dawn's final question to Buffy, it remains unanswered for now.