Dream Slayer Book One, by Jill Cooper, starts off showing us the fantastic world of Natalie; where she fights evil while attending high school, maintains a social life and tries to figure out her elusive demon warrior boyfriend all while protecting the world from impending doom and death. In the first chapter of this book I quickly noticed that it was reading like one of my favorite shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was concerned that the efforts of the story wouldn’t be able to hold up to the high standards that I felt for Buffy. There is the slayer Natalie, and her two best friends, demon boyfriend and her custodian (her trainer, or watcher). But then Natalie wakes up and she is no longer the athletic, witty slayer. Now she’s just a normal looking teenage girl who is endlessly bullied and lives in her fantastical dreams.
We find that there is something special about Natalie when she dreams of her bully tormentor being possessed and then killed by a demon and the same thing happens in the real world. The things that Natalie has dreamed about start to break through the veil between her reality and her dream world.
The story definitely took a quick twist which I enjoyed. There were a lot of things that did remind me of Buffy but instead of empowering a girl who already had so much going for her, not only in looks, Jill Cooper gave the power to an ordinary girl who happened to be modest looking and a little round. Natalie was tormented and pushed down her own self worth but when things started to go wrong she reached deep inside to find that she was so much more than she thought she was and that she does have the power within her to make a difference and save the world.
The dialogue between the characters was witty and had me laughing. The story was interesting and just when I thought it was about to end something more exciting came along. Anyone who enjoys things like Buffy would probably enjoy Dream Slayer. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with this series.
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