Time to do another one of these and we've got an interesting one here. We have a sequel to rework and an especially bad one. The first Say Cheese and Die had its share of problems but it at least had some good moments while the sequel made the characters incredibly stupid just to force our way into a plot that had Greg getting fat. Riveting. Honestly, there wasn't much room for a direct sequel and they made no effort to really make up for that. I don't think there should be a sequel but if you had to, my goal was to think of a better way to do one and I think I've got one. One that relied on a more fresh idea while still having a lot of photo taking action. So yeah, we're basically just making a new story instead of reworking the existing one, again.
So we're leaving the first book as it is, except for perhaps we could have Greg be the one to take the photo that kills Spidey as one aspect of this works better with it being him. Anyway, the twist of the first one was that the bullies took a photo so we'll run with that. The bullies came to school soon after babbling about seeing something scary but not wanting to say what it is. The kids are scared but think they could just be pranking them. Sometime later, things calm down and the bullies step down from being bullies but some new ones move in with Donny and Brian. They hear about Greg's camera story and mock the kids for it, leaving them frustrated. Some of them think of possibly getting the camera to prove it to them but Greg and Shari are especially against it after seeing what it can do but do have the idea in the back of their minds. Soon, bad things start happening, mostly to people like the bullies which leads the kids to blame themselves as they think one of them stole the camera and used it for revenge. They all deny it though.
Things keep escalating, and it's hard to figure out if these are just coincidences are not. They seem to hear a flash before the things happen but no one can found, nor the camera. Meanwhile, Greg starts having nightmares about the camera and a mysterious figure starts appearing in them. He also starts seeing bits of it around when these bad things happen. Btw, you fill in these things, I'm too lazy to think of them, just imagine they are super bad and scary.
Eventually they decide to go back to the Coffman house to see if the camera is still there, to prove someone has taken it. Soon after they get there, the person behind all this shows himself: Spidey. Or rather, his ghost. The picture the bullies took brought him back as a ghost and seeing that is what scared them so bad. Afterwards, he spent some time planning his revenge on the kids for killing him, even if it was by accident. So he went around and took the pictures and went with people like the bullies first so the kids could get blamed, before starting to target them. Here Greg realizes his nightmares have actually about his guilt about accidentally killing Spidey. (This is why I wanted to change that, if this was Shari it would not give as much to the actual protagonist)
They tell Spidey it was still just an accident and he really shouldn't be doing this. He goes into a rant about how he thinks he didn't deserve to die like that. He made a lapse in judgement by trying to take the camera like that and he got his punishment with the curse being placed on it. He was at least trying to live his days in peace but these kids came around and took the camera, causing all sorts of trouble. He may have gone too far by trapping them but he only just wanted to prevent other people from being punished by the camera.
The kids, feeling guilty, to agree it he had it pretty badly but also think he dwelled on it too much and has become more evil in the process. We then get this big think where Spidey has a breakdown and the kids formally apologize, and also forgive Spidey once they see how broken up he gets. They reconcile and Spidey moves onto the afterlife, finally being at peace. Happily ever after. As for a twist...eh, I don't know, it could ruin what I'm going for so come up with one yourself.
So there ya go. The ending may be a bit much for this series but I do like the idea of Spidey's ghost coming bin and doing all this. It allows for bad things to happen without the characters being idiots. And I really like the idea of dealing with how unfair his death was and working it into the story. That part's mostly a me thing though, but the rest I do think is a clear improvement over what we got. Actually, the bad things could have at least been better if the setup was gonna be forced. Some books can have weak stories but still have memorably fun stuff to make up for it. Heck, that can be applied to the first book.
Either way, this was an easy one to come up with so that's good. And that's about it, hopefully you like what I came up with for this one. Oh and aside from a few minor things, I'd leave Say Cheese and Die Screaming the way it is, that is all.