Sometimes I don’t understand release schedules from publications, this book I’m looking at today oozes Halloween and has the perfect feel for the fall season yet last year was released two days after Christmas. Releasing this book that late in the year is a missed opportunity in my opinion but I do imagine that the graphic novels have a schedule they must keep to even though they have skipped some of the books in this series. For example, this book comes much earlier in the graphic novel series than when the original was released.
The original was the seventeenth book in the series whereas the graphic novel was the thirteenth book released and considering what this book is about, I’d like to think that was done on purpose as 13 is known as an unlucky number and this book is all about bad luck.
Adapted By
Cynthia Yuan Cheng
This is a bit different from when looking at authors as the book still retains the story that Ann M. Martin wrote for the original book what Cheng did as an illustrator and cartoonist is find a way to bring those words to life in a three-dimensional spin. The BSC graphic novels have gone through numerous people working on them and they’ve all been great at bringing their flair to the BSC while keeping with what we know the characters to look like. Yes, I do understand that a sense of uniformity is to be expected when working on a series.
Cover
I adore this cover as it conveys a sense of mystery and fear seeing three members of the BSC walk through a graveyard late on Halloween night. It feels as though it comes late in the book and the fear has gotten to the best of them. This is easily the best cover for this story to showcase how much fear has overtaken the lives of the BSC. The other covers seem to depict things that aren’t that bad or rather minor inconveniences.
That’s not to say either of these are bad but this one truly grasps how dire the girls feel the situation is in front of them.
The Plot
Chain letters and bad luck are just the worst. Chain letters might not be as common nowadays as when the original book was published in 1988. I have to imagine that if this book had been adapted for the Netflix series, there would’ve been considerable changes such as making it a chain text and I think that might have been a way for the two stories of Mary Anne’s bad luck coming together.
Of course, there would have to be a lot more changes, and might feel similar to how the Netflix show handled the adaption of Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls. Still, the way the book handles the chain letter aspect is quite well done.
This starts because Mary Anne has the wherewithal to stand up to two girls who constantly pest and mock the BSC, Cokie, and Grace.
I admittedly haven’t read that many BSC books featuring these two but I’ve watched the nineties movie and Cokie serves as an annoying antagonist in the movie which seems to be her role in the books as well. Cokie is the type of person who will dislike someone for no reason whatsoever and made it her life’s mission to make the BSC miserable.
A big thing I like about Mary Anne standing up to these two is how Mary Anne points out that a year ago these two picking on her and her friends would’ve sent her crying out of the school cafeteria. This shows how much growth Mary Anne has grown and how the BSC has helped her grow into becoming a stronger person. Mary Anne after talking with the other members of the BSC decided to ignore the chain letter and throw it away. This seems sensible, but right after she does that, many bad things start to happen, including an accident in a gym class taught by Ted Lasso.
Mary Anne’s mind starts to run rampant imagining horrible things happening to Stoneybrook such as Godzilla attacking the city. This also comes after Mary Anne is sent a bad luck charm and the girls figure they should head to the library and look up curses and witchcraft which leads to one of my favorite panels in the book.
Something about Mary Anne imagining her and her friends as witches is so cute as they look for ways to break the supposed curse as I love witches. The girls decide to go on with their lives and head to the big school dance, the Halloween Hop which was first seen in Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls. Even with all of the bad luck happening and this is where it’s spelt out who sent the bad luck charm.
It takes the other girls a little while longer to figure it out but and I must admit there is a lot of fun such as seeing cool trick-or-treaters in awesome costumes like Toph and realizing how scared Mary Anne is as she and Dawn who’s her best and future stepsister had recently watched Night of the Living Dead. Good movie but probably not a good one to watch if you think you’ve been cursed.
Mary Anne gets another letter telling her to head to the Stonebrook cemetery and go to the grave of Old Man Hickory. Thanks to BSC leader Kristy, they decide they’ll say they’re having a sleepover as they are supposed to head over at midnight on Halloween night.
Though Mary Anne figures out who sent her the bad luck charm, she is more determined than ever to go and with help from her friends decides to get back at the people that have been making her and friends feel rather miserable. It is such a fun and karmic moment seeing Cokie and Grace get their just desserts as the BSC gives them what they deserve.
Turns out they sent the bad luck charm because they were embarrassed by how Mary Anne stood up to them at the beginning of the book. I also think Grace having a crush on Mary Anne’s boyfriend Logan might’ve played a part in them doing this and taking things a bit too far.
Turns out though they didn’t send the chain letter and that was just a happenstance and the BSC made the leap that the two were connected. I admit that I wish that they were as I think that would’ve made the story that much stronger.
My Final Thoughts
I can’t say that I have too many complaints about this book. Overall this was a fun read that is perfect for this time of year and of the three BSC books I’ve looked at this year, it is my favorite. It doesn’t hurt that Mary Anne is my favorite BSC member though so I was going to enjoy a Halloween book starring her. In some ways, this reminds me of Scare Master from MLP in how Mary Anne much like Fluttershy realizes she is braver than she thinks as we see at the beginning of the book. I hope that you’ve enjoyed with me looking at these various BSC books. Happy Halloween.
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