Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel By: A.w. Jantha Book Review by Miranda Moses (Fraser) ISBN: 978-136802003-9 Surprise!!! I managed to add an additional Book Review to this series before it was over. And with this being such a cult classic, I knew it would excite many people to see it. Now, I saw this book and dropped everything in my basket. They no longer mattered. HOCUS POCUS SEQUEL?! That movie is literally a necessity to every Halloween To-Do-List. And people have been asking for a sequel for years! My initial thought was, "Oh man, if this is well received there may actually BE a sequel!" So how did this book hold up to that dream? Well, let's jump into this. To begin with, The sequel doesn't actually start until page 198. The first approximate 200 pages is the movie Hocus Pocus written into a book. Honestly, that was kind of exciting. I don't think I've ever seen a Hocus Pocus book before, so I happily read the story. I could picture the characters, the various settings, and even the FACES the actors made in the movie. I mean, it was written so well and so true to the movie that I just sort of flowed through the pages. There are a few things here and there that seemed added to the story, and obviously inner dialogue we didn't get in the movie. But nothing that in any way took from the cult classic or upset me. I just want to give the author MAJOR credit for that. Now, the things that were added were information about the Sanderson sister's mother and an additional Sanderson member we've never heard of. And that is because the sequel involves those additional characters. Now, fast forward 25 years and the beloved characters Max and Allison are happily married with a teenage daughter of their own. Poppy Dennison is an awkward teenager with two best friends, a love of photography, and a deep distaste for anything 'Sanderson' related. She of course doesn't not believe her parents and Aunt Dani's crazy story about how they defeated the Sanderson sisters. With good reason Mr and Mrs Dennison have become extremely weary of anything magic and occult, and do their best to keep, not just Poppy, but other kids away from such things. They've locked away the black candle, shut down the Sanderson house, and warned Poppy all her life. But fate has a way of putting you in your place. And one bad decision leads to another and history repeats itself. In one poor move Poppy Dennison unleashes the Sanderson sister's into the world, much like her father all those years ago. Only this time the spells are different, their goal is different, and after 25 years the sister's have a new plan to stay on the living plane. I'm going to do my best to limit the information so as not to spoil too much. Interestingly enough, I don't know how I feel about the sequel. Let me explain some pros: we get to see old characters that we already know and love. We get more Sanderson sisters. We get new characters, including a Sanderson descendant. Information we needed answered- like what happened with Jay and Ernie?! And overall a pretty good story line that was fairly easy to follow and enjoy. What I didn't like was the ridiculous amount of times that something "modern" was mentioned just to prove the timeline. There was a lot of mention of social media, a sentence clearly structured just to mention Obama, and an overall push to be like, "It's 2018". I know that's the timeline but let's just say there's something about the heavy use of cellphones that kind of took away from what made the first Hocus Pocus enjoyable. (And before anyone comes for me, no I am not complaining about the LGBT aspect of the story.) I really got the feeling that the author basically took the formula from the first story and tried to shoe-horn in as many things as they could. For instance SURPRISE Winnie turns someone else into a talking animal, they're obsessed with her spell book, they use more 'modern' day cleaning items to fly on (because we've got new stuff since the 90s.), there was a random song that REALLY should have been left out. Unlike "I Put A Spell On You" that worked out great despite it not being a musical. Where this new song in the sequel really should have been cut and I'm shocked it wasn't. In the end I couldn't decide if I loved or hated the sequel. There were a lot of complaints I found myself making mentally. There were parts that I felt really shouldn't have been added at all. And things that were so annoyingly hyped up the whole story just to be rushed in three pages. Also Disney marketing was clearly put into this book- specific DISNEY costumes were mentioned that just HAPPEN to be current reboots they're making. A child might miss that but as an adult I saw what they were doing. But then for as much as I'm complaining I was also enjoying it. And I wanted to see what was going to happen next. I'd say this book is at least a 6 out 10. I didn't fully love it or hate it. BUT what's MOST infuriating is that when you think all is said and done. The disney ending has come and gone... they drop a bombshell of a cliff hanger and now I'm wondering if there's more coming? And I KNOW I will buy it and read it if there is. I have to keep returning to Salem and the world of the Sanderson family. I just pray the next one will be a 10 out of 10. Read on my fellow bookworms may we one day have Belle's library. And as always links to the author's pages can be found down below.
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