Lord, this one was... a struggle.

For starters, the plot was almost non-existent. I truly do not know why this was a trilogy, when this entry into the series consisted of almost entirely filler. Eventually we find out the reasons behind everything that's been going down, but it didn't require 300 pages for us to get there. Instead it's full of the Scooby gang just venturing out and fighting some demons and then regrouping, talking about the demons, and then going out again. And we have some flashbacks throughout 20 years of Russian history and scientists carrying out experimental physics tests, something that just felt too science-fiction for Buffy. And the final missing piece to all of this? Some gang warfare!

So all in all, a pretty uninteresting combination.

Add into that some incredibly uncharacteristic dialogue (Giles and Wesley greeting each other with "God save the Queen"? Willow acting as though she can't tell the difference between Giles and Wesley? Anya just making constant blunt references to sex?) and it was very hard to push myself through.