For generations, the Slayer was supposed to be the chosen, the one girl in all the world with the power to stand against the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. When Willow used the scythe to call up all the potential slayers at once, it changed everything. For years, the slayers have been working and fighting together as a team.

Then the Darkness came, killing many slayers and trapping the rest in an alternate dimension. And Frankie Rosenberg, the world’s first Slayer-Witch, found herself fighting evil alone. Sort of.

After their latest confrontation with the Darkness, the Scooby gang is more fragmented than ever. Jake is having a werewolf identity crisis, and the return of his troublemaker brother Jordy is only making things worse. Hailey is off pretending to be one of the rogue slayers. Sigmund is burying his broken heart in books. And Frankie’s mom, Willow, and Watcher, Spike, only seem to care about bringing Buffy back.

Now, Frankie must forge her own path, save the slayers, reunite her friends, and lead the charge to defeat the Darkness once and for all.

Picking up quickly since their deceptive double-cross, Blake details how the Scoobies reunion was just a band-aid over the doubts fracturing the group apart.

Let’s start character by character since there’s a lot to get to. Frankie felt unfortunately stagnated by the romance storyline. Her jealousy of Aspen making it hard for her to articulate why the rogue slayer is bad news. I get that she’s a teenager, but at least the other books have her fighting her self-doubt, worrying over her friends, and learning to harness her witch side with her new slayer skills. In this case, her conflict was external between Grimloch and Aspen, without the internal that would make me worry for her safety in battle or vicariously root for her to win.

Such a shame since there were so many routes to take this like Frankie getting disillusioned by Buffy/her mom’s decisions in the past and how it led to the lack of choice Aspen and the younger slayers. Maybe she learns to up her magic beyond telekinesis tricks since there is so much hype over her being the first Slayer-Witch.

There was a bit of an attempt to improve her fight skills, but was glossed over for the love drama. A con since the romance had always been the weakest aspect of the trilogy.

Hailey has the most interesting arc here as her double-cross agent undercover allows readers to get more of a glimpse of Aspen’s psychopathic chameleon charm.

Sometimes, she really does seem to believe what she is saying and brings up interesting continuation about choices that harken to the original series. In the original Watcher Council forcing one girl to bear the burden of the world, her choice was taken from her. When Willow shared the power with all the potentials, it lifted that burden, but also took the choice away from them to have normal lives not dealing with demons, death and trauma. So valid grievances for the characters and readers to grapple with.

Jake gets more of an arc as he deals with controlling his wolf powers, and I enjoyed seeing more depth on his part and his earnest attempt to take control and be of use to his friends. Plus it nicely ties in with his family’s inattention and his relationship with Oz.

Sigmund is unfortunately left out as his arc of standing up to his mother’s desires for him to embrace his demon side is off-page and unmentioned. At least his and Hailey’s relationship has finally endeared me enough to care.

Blake does get to showcase the power of addiction and relapses through a second Dark Willow arc that is less ham-fisted than the original shows, and just what I was waiting for after all the hints in the previous books.

Oh, and Grimloch is still here, and I tolerate him now which is the nicest thing I can say. At least Blake keeps a sense of self-aware humor around the situation.

The action and the magic of the story remains top-notch from the final battle with the Darkness to a brief, feral aside with a pack of lacrosse werewolves (like Josie and the Pussycats! It makes sense when you read the book), and readers will be pump their fists when the Slayers are released for the final battle.

3 stars