You poor unfortunate soul. It’s sad but true. If you want to cross the bridge, my sweet, you’ve got the pay the toll. Take a gulp and take a breath, and go ahead and sign the scroll. Let’s deal with Bad Bargain, by Diana G. Gallagher.
Synopsis:
“Off the rack gives me hives.” — Cordelia, “Out of Mind, Out of Sight”
The Scoobies are used to being personally affected when demonic nasties come to Sunnydale. And they’re used to strange things happening at Sunnydale High — after all, the place is built over the Hellmouth. But they’ve sealed the Hellmouth, so they don’t think anything’s out of the ordinary when items to be sold at the first annual band fund-raising rummage sale are stored in the school basement…which, one might recall, is directly above that Hellmouth.
Once the rummage sale begins, it’s clear the stuff for sale is far from ordinary. People seem to be strangely affected by the items they’re buying — things from undemonic homes, donated by undemonic people. So the reactions these items are producing are, to say the least, unexpected. Willow’s acting weird. So’s Xander. And even Buffy’s mom bought something….
The situation quickly spins out of control, and the school has to be quarantined…leaving Buffy and Giles to sort things out before whatever demon this is sells them down the river.
Source: Goodreads
SPOILERS BELOW
Bad Bargain concerns a rummage sale being held at Sunnydale High. Unfortunately, a large number of highly unpleasant vermin have escaped the Hellmouth and infested the items for sale, resulting in prospective shoppers coming down with a variety of infernal diseases and parasitic infections. As powerful of a Slayer as she is, pest control is a bit outside of Buffy’s wheelhouse; but it’s nonetheless up to her to put a stop to the infestation before it spreads.
This book struck me as one of the strongest Buffy tie-in novels I’ve read thus far, and the reason was the broad cast of characters. It features not only the Scoobies, but also Spike, Druscilla, Harmony, Snyder, and Jonathan. Not all of them are essential to the plot, of course; but it’s remarkable how much just giving them a few scenes to demonstrates their personalities and play off each other does to make this story feel like an integrated part of the rich and detailed Buffy universe rather than just an isolated dead-end of continuity featuring only the main cast and some non-canon characters who will never be mentioned again. What’s the point of having access to Buffy’s vast cast of supporting characters if you’re not going to use any of them, right? If a story must be padded with filler, let it be filler like this: amusing and engaging character moments that take advantage of the show’s established personalities.
So, overall, this ended up being one of the better Buffy tie-in novels.
Final Rating: 3/5
profmorbius 