By Willow Rosenberg, Text by A.M. Robinson

Titan / Insight, out now

Throughout the seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow Rosenberg played a vital part in Apocalypse prevention (except that one time she went all dark and veiny, but nobody’s perfect) as a friend, computer nerd and badass Wicca. In this Grimoire, Willow kept a record of all the strange goings-on at her friendly neighbourhood Hellmouth, and the various spells and rituals she performed for personal, protective or vengeful reasons.

Told mostly in the form of diary entries, spells and the occasional insert (such as letters, essays and maps), the Official Grimoire is an entertaining retelling of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Willow’s viewpoint. However, the book has its own plotline: set during season 7, the First Evil is closing in, and Willow has thrown open her Grimoire to the keen eyes of her friends, in the hope that they can spot something in her magickal arsenal that she has missed. Whether they have found anything useful is debateable, but each have left their mark in its pages with witty, characteristic, sometimes indignant notes and doodles, which provide an original, balanced edge to events already known by the reader. Personally, what really resonated with me was Willow’s perspective on her gradual, heart-breaking descent into darkness, which makes choices that seemed ludicrous and fatal to viewers sound eerily rational.

Verdict: A fresh, insightful telling of Willow’s evolution from mousy sophomore to all-powerful Wicca, both enriching for diehard Buffy fans and intriguing for the complete newbie. 9/10

Sophie Simpson