The carnival is coming to town in Sunnydale. It's an old style carnival complete with a Hall of Mirrors, Horror Ride, Tunnel of Love and the compulsory clowns. But Sunnydale being Sunnydale, it goes without saying that this particular carnival is going to be an instrument of evil.

Professor Caligari's Travelling Carnival has been in existence for a long, long time, journeying from town to town, exploiting the weaknesses of visitors, increasing the urges for the most tempting of seven deadly for each person.

Buffy and each of the Scooby Gang visited the carnival intent on investigation and countering any evil intent. The problem is though that each of the Scoobies has a weakness for one of the seven sins, and Caligari's carnival is geared up to exploit these weaknesses.

For this latest volume of the Buffy novel series we have once again moved backwards in time to the High School years – an era I've often said was the shows best in terms of consistency of storyline. So this book appealed to my preferences in terms of Buffy. But it also means it has to be good – I expect a lot from this.

And it brings a lot to the table this book. The author has a total grasp on the characters, and just the right balance of jokey humour, action and supernatural ingredients to make a very enjoyable Buffy novel. And this book has one quite wonderful extra ingredient - that of finding out what each of the Scooby Gang's weakness is. Now I suppose you can guess what most of these are, and you would be right for most of them I'd imagine. But it is a good fun part of reading this book.

Since the TV series ended and Angel was cancelled the only way I can continue to get my fix of this Buffyverse is in books (I on't read graphic novels or comics much). So I am happy that the books are continuing to be published and hope that this will continue for some time, and with books of this quality I am hopeful this will continue for some time.

Synopsis
There is definitely something not quite right about the Traveling Carnival. Perhaps it's that no one can recall the arrival of its hard-to-miss caravan of old-style wagons, countless performers, and horse-drawn carts. Maybe it's the creepy calliope music that tirelessly beckons visitors. And no-one who visits its Hall of Mirrors seems to come out the same as they went in. Somehow they have different personalities. When a once-shy pair of homely twins begin to parade around Sunnydale High like divas, Buffy and the others decide to investigate the Carnival firsthand. But soon it becomes apparent that the price of admission is higher than they imagined. Willow is consumed by envy, Cordelia by greed, and Xander by gluttony. Angel reveals a dangerous new persona, while dark anger rises in Giles. More powerful still is the blinding pride that threatens to overwhelm Buffy and destroy all those she loves.