In Every Generation by Kendare Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A new Slayer for a new generation…
I’ll admit, like a publisher’s dream, that tagline got me. As soon as I read it, I knew that I needed to pick up this book.
The Buffy television series premiered when I was in college and quickly became part of my weekly routine. My best friend and I absolutely loved the show and would always watch it together.
Therefore, the series holds a lot of nostalgia for us. Sarah Michelle Gellar was our Queen. Those were good times.
In Every Generation follows Willow’s daughter, Frankie, who is a Sophomore at New Sunnydale High School.
Willow has been slowly introducing Frankie to magic, as long as Frankie promises always to use it for good. Frankie, it seems, is all for that, being quite ecologically-minded.
Willow’s dark times still haunt her and she doesn’t want her daughter to have to go through the nightmarish things that she did as a young adult. We all want better for our kids, Witches or not.
When Vi’s younger sister Hailey shows up in Sunnydale, she comes bearing bad news. It appears the annual Slayer convention has been attacked and all the Slayers in attendance, including Buffy, Faith and Vi, may be dead.
This leaves a major Slayer vacancy and therefore a new Slayer must be called. Hello, Frankie.
Frankie would be the first ever Slayer-Witch, but first she needs to learn to control her powers in order to be effective.
Unfortunately for Frankie, she is a little pressed for time, what with the hellmouth threatening to be reopened.
Together with a whole new group of Scoobies, Frankie must try to figure out what happened to the old Slayers, as well as defeat the forces of evil before it is too late.
Y’all, I had so much fun listening to this audiobook. I’m not going to lie, I was laughing my foolish head off while listening to this.
The narrator has great comedic timing and I feel like Blake definitely nailed, or should I say staked, that classic Buffy-humor.
While I know this won’t be for every Reader, for me it held just the perfect blend of old with new. It doffed its cap at the original series without going into copycat territory.
Also, I feel like Blake did a great job creating new characters to care about and root for. This fulfilled my hopes for a nostalgic read, but still felt fresh and modern. I would love to read more adventures with this cast of characters.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Disney-Hyperion and Disney Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review.
In Every Generation releases on January 4th and would be a great way to kick off a new year of reading!!