The Burning

 Unseen: Volume 1: The Burning

-Written by Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte
- 274 Pages
- May 2001
  Summary: Salma de la Navidad, a friend of Willow's, is having problems: her brother Nicky has disappeared and is believed to be joing a local Sunnydale gang called the Latin Cobras. Salma's also got a black shadowy nothingness that Buffy can sense but can barely fight. Meanwhile in LA, Angel is tied down by a case where his client is wrngfully accused of murder by crooked cops while Cordelia discovers a pack of pre-teens who revere vampires and have been promised eternal life by a vampire. Buffy's work takes her to LA along with Willow to the de la Navidad household where the same black shadow continues to attack Salma. When Salma suddenly disappears as does Kayley (one of the vampire lovers) everyone knows that something is up. After an explosion of oil fields, caused by Nicky, in Sunnydale, Riley rushes to LA where himself, Buffy and Angel have to work together to solve the disappearances and to calm down the gang warfare going on in LA.
   
  Rating: 3/5
   
  Review: It took me forever to get into this novel but I finally did manage to get into the swing of things and I did enjoy it. Warning: this is NOT a novel for those that greatly dislike Riley. Buffy tends to go off in tangents (in her mind) about the gorgeousness of Riley and of course there's Angel on the sideline looking all pained. Not a pleasant reading for the Buffy/Angel shippers. I don't have to much to say about this novel because not much really stuck in my head about it (not a good sign) but a crossover idea was a good one and I hope it continues to play out a little better than it did in this novel. There's two more novels so it should pick up. There are a lot of storylines happening in this one and I'm expecting they'll all mesh into one big confusing circle.
   
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