Hocus Pocus and The All-New Sequel by A. W. Jantha
Hocus Pocus is beloved by Halloween enthusiasts all over the world. Diving once more into the world of witches, this New York Times bestselling two-part young adult novel, 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 vile scheme. For more spellbinding Hocus Pocus stories, check out these magical titles: Art of Coloring: Hocus Pocus The Hocus Pocus Spell Book Hocus Pocus: The Illustrated Novelization.
- Author - A. W. Jantha
- Publisher - Disney Press
- Publication date - 07-10-2018
- Page count - 528
- Hardcover
- Age range - 12-15 years
- Fiction
- Dimensions - 5.5 W x 8.3 H x 1.5 D
- ISBN - 9781368020039
Web ID: 14717374
Hard to Read
Part One Review (2 Star): Part one is based on the original screen play of Hocus Pocus, told in 3rd person (past tense) mainly through Max's and the Sanderson sister's point-of-views. Unfortunately, it did not reach the standard set by the movie, released back in 1993. Though some new details were included, many details from the movie were left out or altered. Additionally, the descriptive words used and much of the sentence structure used made the book a difficult read. Part Two Review (3 Star): Part two is a new preceptive, told primarily in 1st person (present tense) through Max and Allison's daughter's point-of-view. I actually preferred this style of writing and this part of the story in comparison to part one. I also loved Poppy, Isabella, Travis, and Katie. They made a wonderful team, and the slow burn romance between Isabella and Poppy was adorable. However, there was still some strange use of descriptive words and awkward sentence structures that made the book difficult to read. Especially toward the last several chapters, where many mistakes were being made. Overall, the book, particularly Part Two, was better than the Hocus Pocus 2 film, released in 2022. I'm not sure why the film makers decided to go a different route. I think Part Two would have made a great sequel.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
The sequel has a lot of recycled plot
I’m sure most of you have seen Hocus Pocus – the first part of the book covering the original 1993 film didn’t vary much. The only thing that stuck with me was the addition of Elizabeth Sanderson and the other named witches in the book. It was fun reading a movie as a book even though I knew the plot and lines – I hadn’t seen Hocus Pocus in a while so it was even better giggling to myself about the movie lines. I may have missed new additions to the original story other than the names because I haven’t recently watched it. It is something I intend to rectify soon, I just found out my husband has NEVER seen it!!!!!!!! I’m not sure if the author wasn’t given much leeway to craft her story but there were a lot of recycled parts of the original storyline. Isabella shares a lot of characteristics with teen Allison – her qualities that Poppy finds endearing are nearly a carbon copy of what Max found attractive about Allison. Poppy and Max both being the ones to decide on going to the Sanderson house, setting off the return of the witches. Allison’s costume choice as an adult being Lady Gaga (a modern version of Max’s mom’s Madonna costume). Katie Taylor cast as the class bully like her dad back in ’93. I think my favorite parts of the sequel was everything after Poppy and crew accidentally brought the sisters back for a second round. I had higher hopes for the sequel than for it to recycle aspects of the original storyline. In my opinion, it would have been better as a complete retelling with no shared characters. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the “cliffhanger” for yet another book and/or movie in the new series. I’ve made it a point never to watch any of the “sequels” to main Disney movies and I will stick with it. Speaking of sequels… did you know there are FOURTEEN Land Before Time movies!? I didn’t watch any beyond the first two and that was enough for me… I can’t believe they’ve made twelve additional movies.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com