Review: Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel by A.W. Jantha

Title: Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel

Author: A.W. Jantha

Genre: YA, paranormal

Publication date: July 10th 2018

Published by: Freeform

Source: e-ARC from publishers via Netgalley

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Buy it: Amazon

Synopsis:

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.

My rating: ★★★☆☆
I absolutely adore the Hocus Pocus movie! It is such a classic Halloween movie and you bet I watch it every single year!

So, because of this, I was super excited to read this book! Unfortunately it fell kind of... flat.

Hocus Pocus...

I have never before read a novelization in my life. And now I know why: I don’t like them. It is literally just the movie in book form, scene for scene, and pretty much word for word. I am not about that. There were a couple of slight additions, just extra, tiny scenes that were not in the movie, which was nice, I guess, but overall not for me. I would rather just watch the movie. I don’t really see the point of novelizations, tbh. So this first part of the book I was not a big fan of. My recommendation: just watch the movie then read the sequel part of the book.

However, I know some people absolutely loved this because they love the movie and don’t mind reading more about it. I guess with novelizations you either love them or hate them. I land in the latter camp, unfortunately.

I did learn one thing from this book, something I am ashamed to admit: all these years I thought the cat’s freaking name was Zachary. It’s not! His name is Thackery Binx. Wtf! My whole life has been a lie!!

The one major addition this book that the movie did not have was that the Sanderson’s had another sister! Elizabeth! It was an interesting detail... I guess. Lol. Anyway, this comes into play later.

...& the All-New Sequel

In the second half of the book we follow Poppy, the daughter of Allison and Max. They are very open with her about what happened with the Sanderson sisters, but she doesn’t believe them at all. Girl, if you only knew how true it was, then maybe you wouldn't have brought the witches back... again.

Her family's not into Halloween at all, and after what happened to them, I don’t blame them at all! But this will be first year they throw a Halloween party... and then everything goes to hell... more or less literally. Lol.

The new characters in this second part were... okay. Poppy was fine, just a big idiot like her dad was back in the day. It was funny because her parents were all mad at her for going to the Sanderson house when they literally did the same thing when they were her age. Dani reminded them that she, a mere child, was pretty much the only smart one back in the day. Lol. Anyway, I really liked Poppy’s best friend Trevor—he was really funny. And Poppy’s crush, Isabella... she was okay. She was really nice and I liked her, but maybe she was too perfect? Even the book itself admits it. Lol. But I do appreciate the LGBTQ rep! Poppy and Isabella were pretty cute together! That being said, I really wanted more of the original characters, but Dani, Max, and Allison are not in the sequel part very much. Especially not Dani. It’s such a shame. So if your hopes were the same as mine, burn those hopes straight to the ground right now because they got rid of them too freaking easily for most of the book. I did, however, enjoy seeing all these characters I know and love interacting with the new characters.

Another thing I enjoyed about the book was the magic! I really liked the new addition of magic in the sequel! It was pretty cool. And I absolutely loved how Poppy and her friends tricked the witches with modern technology! The part with the cell phone on speaker was pretty great! I loved it!

The story itself was fine... it was pretty much the same thing we went through with the movie, but the characters need to find another way of defeating the witches. And the climax... it was a bit much. I guess they needed a way to top the movie? I don’t know, I wasn’t the biggest fan of that.

Overall, it was just okay. The end was left open enough for another sequel, but I’m over here like, umm...

I love this world and the movie, but overall, I was not entirely impressed by the book. I didn't hate it though, it was just... fine.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)