Arthur Byron Cover’s “Night of the Living Rerun” (March 1998), the third original novel in the young-adult line, anticipates future episodes like “I Only Have Eyes for You” (2.19) and “Restless” (4.22), while also calling to mind the already aired “Nightmares” (1.10). Unfortunately, the ambitions of Cover’s writing outstrips the execution.
Set during Season 1, “Night of the Living Rerun” finds several characters dreaming that they are playing out a scene from the Salem witch trials. Buffy and Giles are naturally the Slayer and Watcher of the time, while Xander is a witch named Sarah. The Master, trapped beneath Sunnydale, dreams of his old self, as he was present at the Salem events.
Eventually, Giles and Xander are outright possessed by their doppelgangers, while Buffy doesn’t seem to be – or maybe it’s just because she shares the same aims as Slayer Samantha Kane. (Digression: I feel like I read somewhere that The WB requested Buffy’s name be changed to Samantha. Or did I imagine that?)
Willow doesn’t have a parallel character, in part because the show hadn’t established her Wicca abilities yet, and in part because Cover is saving a revelation for the end. Willow does eventually dream she is John, the male lover of Sarah, as the author predicts a happy future for Xander and Willow. But it’s too little, too late.
Cover’s writing about Willow’s unrequited love for Xander is his most on-point character stuff, as he really taps into her melancholy as represented at the end of “I Robot, You Jane” (1.8), when the trio reflects on their disastrous love lives.
But mostly, Buffy and Willow just do their things – slaying and computer research, respectively – while Giles is sidelined with an illness, as was the Watcher he’s linked to. Cordelia appears in one scene, making out with a football player in secret, which seemed a little off until I remember that she doesn’t want to be seen with Xander either.
“Rerun” also includes two ghost hunters similar to the Warrens from the “Conjuring” films, plus TWO reporters who specialize in supernatural stories.
The book is overstuffed convoluted at times, and other times pretty straightforward, like when Buffy has to wade through a bunch of zombies. Unlike the walkers on “The Walking Dead,” these can’t be killed via beheading or staking the brain — which seems rather unfair – so smaller and smaller parts of the corpse continue to attack the Slayer.
One thing “Rerun” has going for it is that it’s unambiguously set in Season 1, making it a rare early “Buffy” book without continuity gaffes. At 178 pages, it’s not too painful to get through, but the story is too uneven for the minimal payoff in character insight.
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