Review: The Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen

The Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen by Susan Griffith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks so much to my dear friend Ariel for clueing me in to the existence of this book and its sequel, Arrow: A Generation of Vipers, which I'm to read ASAP now. Maybe this one's more of a 4.5 than a 5, being a tad bit bogged down by overwrought prose and a few of my favorite characters not being present due to the book taking place roughly around the start of Season 2, meaning no Harry Wells or Wally West, boo hiss! - and, personally, I feel that the Griffiths' decision to write Barry's POV in third person instead of first was an oversight on their part, a missed opportunity to get into the guy's head like nobody else. But as a story worthy of being part of the CW series' canon, The Haunting of Barry Allen more than delivers enough to earn the full fifth star from me.

As I was telling my friend Koda while kinda-sorta pitching this book to him, it's professional fanfiction, but very good professional fanfiction, y'know? Hell, I noted a few similarities between my own fics and this book, particularly when Ronnie Raymond shows up - you'll know it when you see it. Between this and the other Flash story I read recently, Barry Lyga's more kid-oriented Hocus Pocus, I've got serious competition if I'm ever to take my unofficial Flash fanfiction career and make money from those speedster skills. I prefer the Griffiths' story, though, for several reasons.

One, being more for the adult audience allows it to pack much more of a punch, being a little less fun and games.

Two, the characterizations are not only super-duper on point (not that Lyga lacked in that department - I'm especially impressed with his depiction of Wally West, so superior to what we get on the show and so much more ready for Keiynan Lonsdale to properly portray him), but they give me all the right feels that I've come to expect from this world. Barry's actions from the end of Season 1 shape the story considerably, and the Griffiths take the opportunity to improve on the characterizations of just about everyone from that point in the timeline. Caitlin is smart and clinical but also very warm-hearted, far from her Killer Frost persona that sacrificed book smarts for street smarts. Joe is every bit the loving dad we all know he is. And Iris? She's perhaps best improved because there's no sign of the nonsense that befell her character in Season 2 and beyond, like the show pretty much forgetting her journalism career (the Griffiths don't forget, though), or of course the whole WestAllen adoptive-sibling-shipping shenanigans that have repelled the vast majority of my fanpeople friends. (Sure, maybe there's a hint of WestAllen romance in the future, but this book paints the two of them as best friends, as I feel they should be.) And Barry...my God, Barry. If you don't at least tear up and want to pull him out of the book and hug him, you have no soul.

Three, the very welcome inclusion of the Arrow cast - pretty much Original Team Arrow (Ollie, Dig, and Felicity) owing to the book's location in the timeline, so before the infamous Season 4 which Stephen Amell would have us all forget. They hit it off so beautifully with Team Flash that it makes me wish the Griffiths wrote both shows, because maybe then they'd both be my favorites - though they'd still have Agents of SHIELD to compete with, and that show ain't yielding the top spot on my current faves list easily. And while the main metahuman threat gets eliminated thanks to Team Arrow's help, the Haunting issue...erm...doesn't. There's a pretty meaty cliffhanger to set the stage for A Generation of Vipers, and again, why the hell don't the Griffiths write the two shows already? Or at least the crossovers. They could do better than most of the ones we did get, except for "World's Finest" or "Invasion!" (They only did better than "Crisis on Earth-X" because WestAllen dragged that crossover down for me. Hashtag #SorryNotSorry, I'm dying on that hill!)

Bottom line, this book, which I read in one sitting, forms the beginning of a super-promising two-part crossover that I need to complete ASAP. My review of A Generation of Vipers will come very soon, and my expectations are incredibly high!





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