How I Survived My Summer Vacation
I have a confession to make about How I Survived My Summer Vacation: it took me an inordinate amount of time to read. As the first collection of Buffy short stories I’ve ever encountered, I found the format surprisingly annoying. Without the regular stopping points provided by chapters, I’d lie in bed reading page after page, only to feel as though whichever story I was on would never end.
The book contains six stories of roughly 40–50 pages each. That’s an awkward middle ground: too long to finish in a couple of casual reading sessions, but not substantial enough to feel like you’re making meaningful progress through a novel. I’d read half a dozen pages here, a dozen there, yet find myself stuck on the same story night after night. Before long, I was putting the book down feeling fatigued and less enthusiastic about picking it up again. It was a surprisingly disconcerting experience.
The stories themselves are also something of a mixed bag. Set during the summer between seasons 1 and 2 of the TV series, they range from slightly far-fetched but enjoyable to genuinely interesting.
“Dust” by Michelle West helps bridge the gap between Seasons 1 and 2. Cursed by the Anointed One to see visions of death whenever she touches someone, Buffy spends a lonely summer with her father while struggling with the psychological toll of what happened to her at the end of Season 1, the curse itself, and even having to stake a former friend who’s now a vampire. At times it’s a frustrating read, as Buffy can be so difficult with a father who clearly loves her that you want to jump into the pages and tell her to pull her head in. Still, given everything she’s dealing with, her behaviour feels realistic, making for an effective story that sheds light on her state of mind at the start of the second season.
“Absalom Rising” by Nancy Holder follows the Scoobies (without Buffy, of course), who are back in Sunnydale trying to decide what to do with the Master’s bones while the Anointed One and Absalom attempt to reclaim them. It’s a perfectly serviceable story, but one hampered by its place in continuity—assuming you remember this early era of the TV series, of course! If you already know the bones end up buried (and later unearthed in the Season 2 opener), there’s very little suspense. The result is a lot of running around without much sense of jeopardy. Given my earlier comments about spending night after night inching through these ‘short’ stories, being stuck with a plot that is so obviously heading towards a predetermined outcome made this one feel particularly frustrating to get through.
“Looks Can Kill” by Cameron Dokey is a fairly standard “villainous shape-shifter comes to town” story, right down to a climactic showdown in which the villain assumes the form of one of the heroes, leaving their friends to work out which one is the impostor. It’s one of those stories you can see coming a mile off, including how it will probably be resolved as these stories are so common. Still, a few nice flourishes elevate it a touch above the cliché, even if no points can be awarded for originality. Another of these stories where I was reading it thinking, “Yes, yes, just get to the point so we can move on…”
“No Place Like . . .” by Cameron Dokey sees Buffy encounter an aging Mexican shopkeeper whose daughter died years earlier, but whose spirit remains trapped in the world of the living. To be honest, it was taking me so long to slog through this book that stories started to run together in my mind, and I initially confused this one with the opening story also set in Los Angeles. In my memory, Buffy had the poops with her Dad, went shopping, and stumbled across this Mexican woman and had the adventure here. But no, this is a different story! Thankfully, it’s better than Dokey’s Looks Can Kill. I particularly enjoyed seeing Buffy investigate the mystery largely on her own, doing things that would normally be the job of other Scooby Gang members, and with occasional guidance from Giles over the phone.
“Uncle Dead and the Fourth of July” by Yvonne Navarro is one of those stories that leans into the show’s weirder, more comedic side. In some ways, it might even have made for a fun TV episode if presented properly. The basic storyline sees a famous—but quite crazy—Army General raised from the dead by a half-witted vampire, who then amasses a zombie army to keep Sunnydale safe from “enemy forces.” Giles has to raid a costume store and go undercover as a military officer in order to bargain with the General, who will only deal with fellow servicemen, and things only get weirder from there. Compared to the “we know where this one goes” nature of the Holder story and the first Dokey story, this feels far more unpredictable. It’s the sort of tale that leaves you wondering not only how much stranger things can get, but where the plot could possibly head next. And that’s a good thing.
“The Show Must Go On” by Paul Ruditis continues the collection’s more comedic streak, with a repertory theatre company stopping in Sunnydale for a couple of weeks and Xander and Willow getting hired as stagehands. Unbeknownst to them, the rest of the troupe are vampires. Yes, vampires who are deeply committed to theatre and putting on quality productions—in addition to killing people in the towns they visit. Much of the fun comes via backstage chaos while a performance is underway. Angel, Giles, and Ms. Calendar scramble to deal with the vampires without letting Willow and Xander—who are busy working the show—realise what’s actually happening around them. This story also produced an eerie effect (along with some of the earlier entries); seeing Angel working so closely and happily alongside Jenny Calendar. Knowing that he will eventually become Angelus and break her neck casts an unexpected shadow over what would otherwise be a light-hearted adventure.
All told, I think four of the six stories are worthwhile and, although it took me some time to work through the book (ironically, I’ve since read much longer books with proper chapters far more quickly), when I look back on the stories as individual pieces, I’m glad I read them. In particular, the final two stories by Navarro and Ruditis were a strong way to finish the collection. 7.5/10