The Enchantress Returns
2013
- fairy tales
- characters in literature
- magic
- brothers and sisters
- fiction
- twins
- characters and characteristics in literature
- youths' writings
- children's fiction
- magic, fiction
The story
Alex and Conner Bailey have not been back to the magical Land of Stories since their adventures in The Wishing Spell ended. But one night, they learn the famed Enchantress has kidnapped their mother! Against the will of their grandmother, the twins must find their own way into. The Land of Stories is no longer the joyful world Alex and Conner Bailey remember from their Wishing Spell adventure: The evil Enchantress, who cursed Sleeping Beauty, is back with a vengeance, and the fairy-tale world lives in fear. When the Enchantress’s evil reach extends even to Alex and Conner’s world—and their mother is kidnapped!—they must defy their grandmother’s orders and find their own way into the Land of Stories to rescue her.
What it’s like
Brisk, chatty middle-grade prose with short chapters and a conversational narrator who keeps nudging the reader forward. The sensory world is built from fairy-tale staples: castle halls, enchanted woods, the glint of spellbooks and magic mirrors, and a creeping sense that the familiar kingdoms have grown darker and more fearful. The mood is adventurous and warm at its core, with a tension of dread rising through the middle chapters rather than settling in. Violence is limited and non-graphic, with menacing villains and brief scares rather than gore. Sexual content is absent, and cruelty stays at the level of threat and peril. The emotional register centres on two siblings who bicker, doubt themselves, and grow closer as they face frightening situations together, with the wonder of storybook characters and magic carrying the reader through. It suits a rainy afternoon, a comfort reread, or a family read-aloud, and it will reward readers who love fairy-tale retellings, playful meta-humour about stories, and the ache of being a kid who must act when grown-ups fail. Gentle enough for younger readers, with enough suspense to keep older ones turning pages.
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