Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1138077 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 128 pages

Synopsis
Discusses the hit television show and the actors and actresses who portray the main characters.

Customer Reviews

What the teen magazines were saying about the "BtVS" gang
"Meet the Stars of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'" was published in 1998, when the show was about to start its "third sizzling season" on the WB as "the coolest kickin' hour of teen power on TV." Those sentiments along should be enough to warn you that this unauthorized biography by Jan Gabriel is aimed at the young fans the WB was trying to attract to its network with shows like "BtVS," "Dawson's Creek," "7th Heaven," "Felicity," "Charmed," and all those young-skewing situation comedies. Today, however, "BtVS" is the province of syndication and scholars who are writing about the show from the perspective of philosophy, spirituality, feminism, linguistics, and any other discipline in which its adult fans happen to have their advanced degrees. So there is something refreshing about this book about the young stars of the show aimed at the show's young fans (notice that Anthony Stewart Head as Giles does not get a chapter).

Six of the thirteen chapters focus on the "Buffster" herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, starting with her early career in commercials, getting to her Emmy award winning role as Kendall Hart on "All My Children" in the third chapter, and being cast as Buffy in chapter four. The other two chapters look at what Gellar does away from the set, where she explores her "Passion for Fashion," and her initial movie career as a scream queen in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Scream 2." Getting their own chapters are Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, and Seth Green. These basically read like interviews, culled together from other publications such as "Seventeen" and "Entertainment Weekly," but clear aimed for young readers (you will be reading along and suddenly a "Huddle alert" is called, so you know to pay attention because what follows is something you can gossip about with your friends). Chapter 12, "Camp 'Buffy': A Day Behind the Scenes," groups together stories about the cast on the set (and proves the book is unauthorized by not referring to the show by the Joss Whedon approved shorthand "BtVS"). The final chapter is filled with "Quick Bites on the Slayer Team" so that you can learn SMG loves anything vanilla along with standard biographical information and a long list of favorites from actors to whether or not they believe in vampires for her and the rest of the cast (including Head).

Gabriel tends to get a bit gushy at time throughout "Meet the Stars of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'" but she does provide a lot of information. I was thinking that this was going to be one of those quick and dirty little books that comes out to take advantage of the hot television series du jour, but there is a lot of information about the young cast members of "BtVS." Gabriel must have read everything that was available in magazines from "Rolling Stone" to "YM" to put together this book, and since the vast majority of these magazines is not on my reading list, there was enough "new" information in this 165-page book to make it worth my while. If you spent the seven years that "BtVS" was on the air cutting out everything you could find about Sarah Michelle Gellar and the rest of the cast, then that might not be the case. But that should be easy enough to figure out going in to this paperback.

Not an overly informative book
This book has complete biographical info about the stars, their likes and dislikes, statistics and other bits and pieces that might possibly be interesting. It wanders off from the main subject often, and includes a day at 'Camp Buffy'. This chapter doesn't actually describe a day, annoyingly, and instead gives you various snippets of information about the set. It includes a 'rumours' section. Nothing any dedicated Buffy fan would bother to know there. This book would score a lot higher if it was more informative, actually stuck to the subject and thought about what it was writing about.

Great book, if you like to learn about behind-the-scenes!
I bought this book for my friend, lynsey Young, while I was in CT, America. Toys 'R Us, to be exact! But when I returned to Scotland later that week, I was also going on holiday to Disneyland Paris that same week. I didn't have anything to read, so I took the book with me ! I wasn't really in to BtVS then, but that book, and the episode, the Pack, got me hooked! Totally essential read for newbies to BtVS.