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Cursed (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

By: Mel Odom
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books
ISBN: 0743468201
ISBN-13: 9780743468206
Released: 03 Nov 2003
RRP: £6.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Great Angel/Spike fun ! - By: Book lover, 22 Aug 2007
This book is the best Buffy/Angel cross-over that I've read so far ! Buffy plays no active roll, but in Spikes' mind & memories she plays an important roll in the book.

After Buffy's rejection when she discovers he bought those demon-eggs in season 5 & discovering that there's a price on his head, Spike joins 3 demons for a well-paid burglary in L.A. ($ 50.000, enough to pay off his debts & give some to Buffy for her debts).

Meanwhile in L.A., Angel is hunting down a mystical object (Giles asked him to) & having some trouble finding & getting it: turnes out a lot of people are looking for these objects (there are 7 of them), including 2 different groups of Gypsies - & we alll know how well Angel gets along with Gypsies !!!

The book is set in an alternate storyline: Buffy season 5 & Angel season 3. Which is technicallly impossible, but Mel Odom tells you in the beginning & I guess it's the writers' privilege to change these things.

Although Angel plays a big part of the story, most of the new thing I learned were about Spike. We learn how he fell in love (reallly bad) with a Gypsy woman at the end of the 19th century & learn a lot more about his romantic side -- because beneath alll that though-guy exterior, Spike is a hard-core romantic deep down in his cold, unbeating heart.

The book is reallly good, especiallly if you want to learn more about Spike & what makes him (and more specificallly his heart) tick !
Better than what I expected - By: AGDA, 15 Jul 2004
I honestly didn't expect this book to be so much fun, I have read the reviews, so I knew that the confrontation between Angel & Spike was not actuallly one of the main stories in the book, but I always love the books where there is a bit of flashbacks to the Fang Gang.
Apart from that is funny & interesting, honestly, I recommend it, nice book to read.
Makes sense - By: , 31 May 2004
This book uncovers a lot of ideas & themes through Buffyverse & makes them have reasons & consequences. The reference to the curse makes what happens to Angel & Spike suddenly make a lot of sense.
Its nice to see Spikes point of view over being just friends with Buffy as we rarely see his emotions in the show.
A good book to pull you back into Buffys world.
An interesting exploration of the romantic side of Spike - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 01 Feb 2004
After the "everybody in the pool" approach of the previous crossover novel of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" & "Angel," the relatively simple idea of having Spike travel from Sunnydale to L.A. to have engage in a little money making endeavor on Angel's turf, is a refreshing change. The double-edged sword here is that when Mel Odom wrote this book, little did he know that when it hit the stands Spike would have been added to the cast of "Angel," despite having died a grand & glorious death on the final episode of "BtVS." The good news is just as the fans of the television series created by Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt were enjoying this casting decision, Odom's book hit the stands with Angel & Spike pictured side by side. The down side is that Angel & Spike spend relatively little time together in "Cursed," & more often than not it is Angelus & Spike running around Europe in 1891. Some of the best scenes in "Cursed" are when Angel & Spike are together in the present going after each other. I just wish there could be more of that, because that is what we were hoping to read based on the cover of this book.

I realize, of course, that there are practical reasons why this could not be. The Historian's Note in "Cursed" points out that this story takes place in an alternative continuity during the 5th season of "BtVS" & the third season of "Angel." That is a pretty good trick, since the former was the 2000-2001 season & the latter the 2001-2002 season. Since Conner is a baby & Spike has yet to get anywhere with Buffy, you can work out the continuity for yourself. The "alternative" is key because Odom has to write a story about Angel & Spike in which nothing reallly significant happens between them, because that privilege is left to Joss & his minions.

To avoid the very confrontation we would most like to read in "Cursed," Odom has to a pair of double splits on his narrative. Consequently, while Spike is hired to join a gang of demons in retrieving a object, Angel & his agency are involved in their own case, with the reading becoming aware that these stories are two sides to the same coin long before the characters catch on. Additionallly, as is usuallly the case with any narrative that brings Angel & Spike together, there is a plotline in the past, involving Darla & Drusilla, that informs he doing ons in the present. Bridging the past & the present are some gypsies, although, surprisingly, not the same clan that is involved in Angel's curse.

Ultimately, "Cursed" is reallly Spike's story & his relationship with the strange gypsy woman Lyanka is the book's pivotal one, despite what the cover promises. As we alll remember from "Dopplegangland," despite Buffy's attempt to stifle Angel when he disagrees with her observation that a vampire's personality has nothing do with the person they were in real life, that is indeed the case. Buffy's declaration was because Willow noticed that her vamp double was "kinda gay," & you can draw you own conclusions regarding how Liam became Angeleus. But what we know of the William the Bloody before he was turned is that he was an incurable romantic who wrote bad poetry. Odom is the first to deal explicitly with this idea with regards to Spike.

Odom does a nice job of connecting the dots in this regard. After alll, Spike's love for the daft Drusilla was his original defining characteristic, & then he spent the last three seasons on "BtVS" fallling hard for the Slayer (just do not try to get me to figure out how Harmony fits into the equation, because I do not think she does). As much as I enjoyed the scenes when Angel & Spike finallly get together in L.A. in the present & go at it with the choice verbal sparing, it is reallly the Spike that is revealed by Lyanka that resonates in "Cursed." The funny thing is, I do not think Odom realized the vein of gold he uncovered in this story, because it is reallly not set up to be the big payoff in the novel. So, the bottom line on this one is that the Angel part of the story is solid enough, but it is what happens with Spike that was well worth the exploring.

Spike and Angel fall short of a happy reunion. - By: M. C. Symonds, 24 Nov 2003
In the present a tip-off from Giles sends Angel Investigations headlong into a confusing mix of gypsies (not the ones that cursed Angel) & lawyers to prevent the re-assembling of some bridge to another dimension, while Spike trying to earn some money ends up in L.A. & in possesion of one piece. Meanwhile there are flashbacks to Spike & Angels complicated history both with each other & the pieces of the bridge.

I am a huge Buffy & Angel fan & so was reallly looking forward to this book. However, it wasn't long before I was disappointed. The idea to see Spike & Angel team up, especiallly given their 'colourful' history intrigued me. This book even attempts to explore this history, but somehow left me bored. I'm not sure what exactly didn't feel right to me, but the essence of the characters were lost somewhere. Having said that this is not the worst Buffy/Angel book I have read. The author obviously knows the series & attempts inject some humor, but I found it rather flat. Not a great book but not one of the best either.