Norriss, Gregory L. Q Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Stuff You Didn’t Even Know You Wanted to Know… About Buffy, Angel, the Big Bads, and the Show That Won’t Die. New York: Alyson Books, 2008. 172 p. ISBN: 9781593500528. Softcover. $12.95.

When Buffy was big, I wasn’t watching. Though I had several friends who were devoted fans and the show was the WB’s biggest hit, my partner and I were slogging through several Star Trek series, Queer as Folk, Babylon 5, etc.

I had noticed Alyson’s Q Guides to other popular culture topics, such as Designing Women, Amsterdam, NYC Pride, etc. These are quick studies for queer audiences and generally do a good job introducing the subject to the reader.

Q Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer promised the same when I saw it in the bookstore. It delivered on this promise: Though I was at first uncomfortable that the book was organized by topic rather than chronologically by season, continuing subplots were easier to track than in other Buffy/Angel guides (such as Bite Me! or The Watcher’s Guide). The GLBT themes and pairings creator Joss Whedon put in the series are mentioned in Chapter 4 (“Love’s a Bitch”) and the Tara-Willow love story is covered extensively in Chapter 5 (“Coffins and Other Closets”).

This book mainly covers the seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the five seasons of its less popular spinoff, Angel. It also covers more sketchily other aspects of the Buffyverse, like the comic books and two other attempted spinoffs. The book succeeds as a basic introduction to the characters and themes of the two series but patrons looking for more detail would prefer Nikki Stafford’s books Bite Me! The Chosen Edition (for Buffy) and Once Bitten (for Angel). Still, the interviews, character profiles, and quizzes make this a worthwhile purchase. Recommended for public & high school libraries.

Reviewed by John Bradford
Librarian, Leather Archives & Museum
Head, Automation & Technical Services
Villa Park Public Library [IL]