I put this on my tbr list on the strength of the title alone, I think. This book is a look at how fandom - specifically online Buffy/Angel fandom - changed one woman's life.

I haven't been deeply involved in a fandom since I was in high school, but I was deeply involved for several years and it has effected my life in some ways similarly to Allyson's - the threads of that involvement linger in old friendships and in-jokes and fond memories. It was fun to read about a fandom that was as close and intense as the one I was involved in, but because it was filled with adults rather than teens, the members could do things like travel across the country (or in some cases, across the globe) to gather and meet, contact the actors and other people involved in the shows and actually have them respond and occasionally get involved, and so on.

Overall it was a very enjoyable book, often laugh-out-loud funny and at times poignant (the story near the end about everyone donating money to bring their friend from Israel to the US for two weeks almost brought me to tears). It was a fairly easy read, too, especially for non-fiction, written in a conversational tone, perhaps similar to blog or forum posts. ( )

A collection of essays about fandom.

I'm never too sure how I feel about fandom. I have a few things I'm particularly interested in (Buffy and Angel among them), but I don't think I'm really comfortable engaging in any hardcore fandomy activities.

I am interested in what others do, though, and on that level I found this book just fascinating. Allyson has hardly a word to say about Buffy itself; instead, she focuses on the friendships and connections she's made through her fandom. This isn't a book about the shows themselves. It's about the people who connected over them, and who have formed lasting bonds because of a shared interest.

The essays are quick and entertaining; I found it easy to whip on through 'em. Even though I've never really been involved in fandom, I have been involved in a few different internet communities. (Y'all might have heard of one of them? LibraryThing?) I found that I could relate as Allyson discussed forum liars, random acts of PayPal, and the stigma attached to "internet crazies." It made for an enjoyable read that I'd certainly recommend to anyone interested in reading about fandom from the inside. ( )

I checked this book out of the library thinking I was getting a book about Buffy fandom. Instead, it's a book about Allyson Beatrice and what fandom has meant to her, how she's engaged it, what sorts of experiences she's had because of it, and so on. Name-dropping litters the first half of the essays, and there's no sense of coherence or continuity to the stories -- they read like blog entries polished up and shoved at a publisher in hopes of looking important on the Internet. Some of the experiences in fandom were totally familiar, even though I've never been a part of Buffy fandom; some of it was stuff I'm completely happy to have missed out on. All in all, this was not the book I was looking for, but it was very interesting to see someone's perspective on fandom in a printed format -- usually when I hear fen talking about fandom, it's on the screen to an audience of other fen. ( )

I tried but I just couldn't get into this one. I don't think it had as much to do with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer aspects but more that I don't really participate in an online community like the author writes about. I don't participate in fan forums or bulletin boards, so it just didn't appeal to me. ( )

Allyson Beatrice lives a not-quite-ordinary life. Her job and almost everyone she knows are the result of spending too much time on the Internet talking about vampires, slayers and lesbian witches. And her encounters are even more unusual than you'd imagine.

A hilarious collection of true stories from Allyson's days as one of the Internet's leading cult TV fan gurus, her mind-boggling escapades include meetings with network executives in dark steakhouses to try to save doomed TV shows and one hastily arranged wedding for two committed Buffy fans. Honest, emotional and side-splittingly snarky, Allyson Beatrice brings a fresh voice to these wild but true stories. Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? welcomes you to a fun and sometimes bizarre world where stupidity frustrates, wit triumphs and connections are made in most unlikely ways...a world, in fact, not too different from our own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and Beatrice’s writing style. The pages flew by with funny stories and mental images of crazy fans. In one essay titled “Munchausen’s by Internet” Beatrice writes about a forum member who duped the community into believing she was a married mother of two with a sick child whose woes were never ending. I’m sure anyone with more than one year experience on message boards can admit to knowing someone who has tried something similar.

Although the book is mostly based on the fan world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other shows of its creator Joss Whedon it’s a great read that I recommend to all. ( )