Just
yesterday I was talking with my friend Jackie (fellow member of the Sleepy
Hollow gang) about the joys of media tie-in novels. Like me, she never read very many growing up but she finds
herself jonesing for a Buffy the Vampire
Slayer fix and is interested in the many spinoff novels. Buffy
also led me down the rabbit hole of tie-in novels, which exist for lots of
shows, including some unexpected ones.
Full House alone had four
separate series and a total of 92 books!
For
a continuity hound like me books of this type are a welcome addition to the
mythos, especially when a show has been cancelled and is dearly missed (Buffy!)
as the books provide the sense that the characters and their world are still
evolving. Because they’re written
by a variety of authors, books of this nature tend to vary wildly in terms of
quality. Some are truly enjoyable
and the author nails the tone and characters. And sometimes they miss the mark
completely.
One
excellent thing about TV tie-in novels is that you can usually get used, extremely
cheap (like under a dollar cheap) copies online. And almost all of the respective series
have lots of holiday-themed offerings.
So
far I’ve loved the three Sabrina the
Teenage Witch novels that I’ve read, all of which were holiday-based. Ten
Little Witches goes the extra mile because not only is it a
Halloween-themed Sabrina novel, it’s
also based on Agatha Christie’s And Then
There Were None (aka Ten Little
Indians), one of my favorite mysteries. It’s a glorious, slightly messy mash-up of all my favorite
things! Don’t ask me why I love
the “people trapped in a house get murdered one by one” scenario SO much. But I do. I truly, truly do.
This
novel takes place in Sabrina’s fifth
season, her freshman year of college.
Season 5 actually has a Halloween episode, thereby making the events of this book impossible, but sometimes it’s best not to think too hard about these
things. Besides, with Sabrina you
can always just explain everything with: magic! Anyhoo, Sabrina and her mortal ex-boyfriend Harvey are invited to a mysterious Halloween party at a hotel in the magical Other
Realm. Suspicious of the
mortal-friendly invitation, her witch-aunts (and their talking cat Salem) forge
an invitation and tag along.
Once
at the hotel the gang meet several other mortal-witch pairs along with a
mysterious proprietor, a manic maid and a suspicious chef. Unfortunately because this is a YA
novel nobody actually gets murdered, but instead the guests get turned into toy mice one by one. It’s lame, I know, but
you still get the drama of people disappearing and plenty of suspects. And, true to the spirit of the show,
things get really weird. Really,
really weird. Here is a partial
listing of the weirdly incongruous things that play a role in this book: MIT
professors, a red feather, the ghost of a dog, not one but two cross-gender
characters, and the Salem Witch trials.
It’s
all pretty light on Halloween elements; other than taking place on Halloween and
some candy apples it’s really more of a mystery. However in terms of satisfying Sabrina fans this book pays off in a major way. It’s rich in continuity, with
references to tons of semi-obscure events from episodes of the show. As an added bonus, the character of
Aunt Irma plays a significant role.
Aunt Irma was a one-off guest role played by Barbara Eden. So I found myself reading a Halloween
magic Agatha Christie Sabrina novel
while picturing Barbara Eden as one of the characters. It’s a glorious pop culture
bonanza!
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