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Go Ask Malice: A Slayer’s Diary
by Robert Joseph Levy
Go Ask Malice gives us a much deeper insight into the character of Faith from the hit television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Go Ask Malice takes place less than a year before Faith’s first appearance in Sunnydale. The story gives a look into the childhood that Faith had growing up, her first watcher, the origins of some of her more trademark antics and staples, her transition from Potential to Chosen, even her Cruciamentum, and then it culminates with the murder of her watcher and running from Kakistos. AnyBuffy addict and any Faith fan will love reading this novel.
As fun as it is to see the origins behind her tattoo, the meaning behind her infamous “5 by 5″, the revealing of her last name, and even who the loser guys are that she mentions in her first appearance, nothing will compare to how this story is told though. It’s told in diary format.
Faith’s diary that is.
Now doesn’t that just blow your mind? Faith writing and keeping a diary? It doesn’t seem plausible, and in fact I’ll admit, I was leery of the book myself for just that reason. The premise that the story is told from the point of view of Faith and is written by her in her diary seems a bit far fetched. However, in the second entry Faith makes mention of how and why she came to be keeping a diary and the reason behind it fits her to a T. Her very first entry in the diary might give you a bit of a heat attack though, it’s something more akin to what Buffy or even Cordelia would write! That’s the true irony of her very sarcastic and biting first entry. She hasn’t even met these two people yet but already she can imitate them. Priceless.
Because the story is told in diary format you can expect some of the entries to have lines, and in some cases, whole paragraphs blotted out. While this lends to the credibility and atmosphere of the book it’s very irksome. Also there are some entries that read more like an actual novel and don’t stay true to the diary theme. Looking beyond that though I strongly believe that any Buffy fan, in general, is going to enjoy reading this book and all Faith fans will be absolutely thrilled to get some more insight into the enigma that is Faith.
Joana’s rating: 
Awesome. I’ve always loved Buffy but been kind of wary of the books. I like that you reviewed something so pop-culture/fan-oriented. It gives me a much better idea about whether I want to read it.
Eww Buffy. I was never into that show. That is an awesome cover tho.
EA Blevins,
It really disturbs me when people assume that because something was spawned off of a show or is based on someone else’s work that it’s not real work and not worth the time of day. I see this a lot with the books based off of popular television series and even off of more popular written works. Perhaps its because of my background in and my appreciation for fanfiction, but I believe that these works take just as much talent and are well worth being read. Perhaps, in some cases, even more so than some original works, because the author had to work extra hard to incorporate the given “cannon” facts and yet still make it original and theirs.
I am exceptionally glad that you enjoyed this review and that the review was helpful to you. I have been experimenting with my style for reviews, making them shorter or longer, providing more story information or refraining from spoiling the book, and it pleases me that although I didn’t feel this was one of my better reviews, it was still well received.
You can expect more popular pop culture oriented books in The Symposium from me in the near future as I strive to give the readers information about the books that interest them as well and not just me.
I’ve written Sailor Moon and other anime fanfiction, so I have fond feelings about it. I think it’s a terrific tool for writers to hone their craft, but I also think it’s unwise to stay in fanfiction when there is actual money to be made creating new places of one’s own.
This, though, is something I classify as Official Non-Canon. It’s sanctioned by the creators, but not created by the creators. So fans can still argue about whether they’re allowed to use it as the official be-all, end-all of everything Faith-related, pre-Buffy.
Whether they do or not, I don’t know. *shrug* It depends on how good a job Levy did, how well he catered to both the fans and Whedon’s vision, etc.
yeah i could never get into buffy.. but i guess a bunch of people loved it since it was on air for quite a while
[...] example, her review for Go Ask Malice offers a quick summary of the text and then quickly dives into why she’s skeptical about such [...]
I love Buffy, and this book was pretty fun to read. I haven’t really gotten far enough into the series (I only just started season three–how sad…) to quite know a lot about Faith, but I got a pretty good idea of her personality from reading it. Even if it’s not canon, it’s still worthwile to read, considering all of the other crud of Buffy books that are out there.