Slayer by Kiersten White – Take Me Away… On the Pages of Your Story

ARC, 400 pages

Release Date: January 8, 2019

Published by: Simon Pulse
Read from: December 26, 2018- January 2, 2019

Slayer, #1

Source: NCTE 18

TW: Death
For fans of: Paranormal, Fantasy, Action, Girl Power, YA

Into every generation a Slayer is born…

Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.
Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.
Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.
As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…
But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.
One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard.

MY THOUGHTS

Being that I grew up during the Buffy phase and my mom was a HUGE fan of it, (I watched with her even though I wasn’t supposed to) I was SUPER happy to get this in my hands. Although there were some issues, I really enjoyed it and it made me super nostalgic. I’ve passed it on to my mom to see if it feels her Buffy shaped void.

“Darkness was the great equalizer. Everyone was the same in the dark. Colorless. Featureless. Powerless.“

pg. 1

Nina and Artemis have grown up so much different than the average teen. At the school they attend they are trained to be Slayers or Watchers. Except Nina has never agreed with the violence and the way they do things, so she’s become the school medic. But then something happens that no one could have predicted. The protected little Nina becomes the last Slayer. It isn’t until then that Nina realizes all that she thought she knew about Slayers is really obsolete.

“Learning how to take lives beats knowing how to save them.“

pg. 7

As soon as I heard the synopsis on this book I was excited to read it. I hadn’t read the comic, but I watched enough of the show to know what happened. And White does a really great job at explaining what happened before it got to this story. At some points it got a bit info-dumpy, but I’m almost positive it was because she wanted to make sure that everyone understood what was going on in the story. It also caused the story to be a bit repetitive because she blamed EVERYTHING on Buffy. Which I took as setting the tone, but it did get excessive.

“Can’t you feel it? Everything is gone. Only evil is left.“

pg. 21

My favorite part of this book was the fighting scenes. I just wish there had been more of them. This was mainly about her training and finding out what she can do with her new Slayer-hood. It really is a set up for a really epic series. But ultimately, that’s what it felt like. A set-up novel. And now we have to wait forever and a day before the next one comes out.

“Nothing is ever black and white. Not prophecies, and certainly not people.”

pg. 321

As for Nina, I really liked her. She was bad ass with and without her powers. She helped in all the ways she knew how and she was good at doing it. She had a lot of internal strife going on, but I attributed that to her anxiety. (I wasn’t sure if it went away with her Slayer-hood or not but I hope it didn’t.) I thought it was an interesting way to tell the story.

“It- it’s not what it looks like […] Prophecies never are.“

pg. 324

This book was really good, but not exactly what I was expecting. It set up a great story for the rest of the series and I can’t wait to see what happens with all the characters.

Overall, I give this

*MY THOUGHTS*

Take Me Away

MY THOUGHTS