Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel
by A.W. Jantha
Published by Freeform on July 10, 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 521
Format: Hardcover
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Hocus Pocus is beloved by Halloween enthusiasts all over the world. Diving once more into the world of witches, this electrifying two-part young adult novel, released on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1993 film, marks a new era of Hocus Pocus. Fans will be spellbound by a fresh retelling of the original film, followed by the all-new sequel that continues the story with the next generation of Salem teens.
Shortly after moving from California to Salem, Massachusetts, Max Dennison finds himself in hot water when he accidentally releases a coven of witches, the Sanderson sisters, from the afterlife. Max, his sister, and his new friends (human and otherwise) must find a way to stop the witches from carrying out their evil plan and remaining on earth to torment Salem for all eternity.
Twenty-five years later, Max and Allison's seventeen-year-old daughter, Poppy, finds herself face-to-face with the Sanderson sisters in all their sinister glory. When Halloween celebrations don't quite go as planned, it's a race against time as Poppy and her friends fight to save her family and all of Salem from the witches' latest death-defying scheme.
Get a grip, it’s like a horrible bad dream.
Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel by AW Jantha is one of the many remakes that Freeform is doing with old Disney movies. This one was the first I saw and wanted to buy it. I mean it’s has a sequel I so wanted to know what happened. The author has their work cut out to make sure that it’s good and makes sense. The story also needs to please the zillions of Hocus Pocus fans.
Part 1
So the first part of the book is based on the Disney movie called Hocus Pocus. I watched this movie when I was younger, and I still watch it every year around Halloween. It’s a great movie.
Anyways back to the reason for this part. AW Jantha wrote the first part of this book based on the movie. However, it is different from the film as the author left out scenes and added her narrative to mix with her sequel.
Yet, the author gave a bit of backstory to Emily and Thackery Binx which I thought was cool. Along with the Sanderson sisters as well. I thought it was pretty cool to have it this way and I have to admit I did cry a bit while reading the story.
Three Stars
I am giving the first part of the book a three-star rating since it was cool but lacked the original pizzazz. I did like the backstories that we got from the movie part of the book. The author did miss some things from the movie for this part of the book, but I guess that’s okay.
Part 2
The second part of the book is the All-New Sequel portion of the book. The main reason that I’m guessing many of us bought this book. I am only saying that because that is what I did. Back to the review. I so wanted to like the sequel, but it just didn’t live up to my expectations for it.
We have Max and Allison’s daughter, Poppy is a seventeen-year-old junior and is crushing on this girl named Isabella. There is something fishy with Isabella though. Poppy’s best friend Travis joins the girls to give us the similar dynamics as the original.
I won’t spoil the story too much, but it’s terrible. From the writing to the way the witches come back, to the not very developed characters, to the characters that are just there to move the plot along, and lastly to the terrible ending. I don’t think I spoiled it but if I did then oops. The author also changes point of view from first person (Poppy) to third person limited (when the Sandersons arrive).
1 Star
With everything, I said above it’s because of that I am only giving this part of it 1 star. You all should know that I hardly ever do that except it’s just plain terrible, and I wanted to love it just I ended up hating it.
2 Stars Average
I am giving Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel by AW Jantha only two stars. I thought it was a lousy way to write like a movie script with one of the scenes, then go to writing like a book. This book is written like it was something that a group of people roleplayed out. Or possibly a terrible fanfiction idea that didn’t get fully developed before posting it on the web.
I am not going to be recommending this book.
To: Freeform, other TV outlets like The CW, or movie production companies, please stop taking ideas/movies/tv shows that were already here and turning them into something else that ruins or degrades the original feature. Stop adding your current marketing trends to our beloved features.
Anyways until the next time enjoy this review brought to you by
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge
- 2018 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
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