Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel

I love this book so much! One of my favorite book and movie. I would love to see Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel into a movie. OMG this would be awesome! Perfect to read to the kids on Halloween Day! Be still my beating heart. *sighs clutching the book like an obsessed weirdo* I was super excited to finally hold one of my favorite movies in book form in my hands. This is a two part book, first is the original retelling of Hocus Pocus and the second part is the sequel. It's a bit tough trying to rate a two part book with one rating, but I ended up giving an overall 4 stars. I'll break down my review for each part. First part, Hocus Pocus. This for me is five stars all the way as I loved revisiting the story that I've always been a fan of, but as we all know, books give us extras, so my excitement grew. It was easy of course to get into the scenery, to picture the characters and hear their voices because of the movie, but for bookworms like myself, there was a whole new excitement and experience of turning each page. I really enjoyed it and this book gives the feeling of holding a new treasure keepsake in my hands. Part 2, The All New Sequel. This was a four star rating for me. The reason is, for me, it's hard to top the original, but I still enjoyed it. In this story, we're introduced to new characters, Poppy, who's Max and Allison's daughter and her friends Isabella and Travis. We also of course reconnect with some of the original characters as well, but they're more in the background somewhat with the exception of the Sanderson sisters. Poppy has known about the Sanderson sisters and the story about her parents and her aunt Dani's run in with the witches, but doesn't really believe it and she is a bit embarrassed for anyone to know of her parents claims. Her friend Travis is the only one who knows until she spills the secret to her new friend and crush, Isabella. But as she's telling her family's secret, Katie, the mean girl, overhears and is set out to embarrass Poppy at her parents Halloween party. Later that night, on All Hallows Eve and a blood moon, Poppy, Isabella and Travis decide to ditch the party and sneak up to the Sanderson sisters house with an ouija board. Little did they expect that they'd bring the witches back and the stories of Poppy's parents and aunt were true. This time the witches won't be gotten rid of so easily, the Sanderson sisters may just be here to stay and Poppy's parents and aunt may be gone forever. I enjoyed the plot and the characters. When you think something would happen one way, it'd happen another and kept me turning the pages to find out what was going to happen. I was anxious to see how the Sanderson sisters would navigate 2018 vs when they did in 1993 and I got a laugh of what they found to fly on this time, for one, a swifter, lol and as well as the memory box, aka cell phone. I felt we didn't get as much as the Sanderson sisters this time as the last and I craved a little more if them and their witty humor. As for the ending, it has me excited as it hints another story to be told and I'm hoping there will be. This was a long review and I could of pointed out some other things, but I'll end it in saying that I enjoyed it and definitely recommend for all hocus pocus fans. Highly recommend everybody get it and read! If you love the movie you gonna love this book and also will your kids.

This was the perfect book to end my Halloween season of reading. Of course I’m a huge fan of the movie. Always have been. And I know there was an original novelization out there somewhere, but I never read it. When I found out about this I was all over it. Bought it immediately. And it was worth every penny. The novelization itself is just that: a retelling of the movie. There really isn’t a whole lot more going on in the book that you don’t see in the movie except a bit more character development and the slight lead-in to the sequel itself. Other than that, if you’ve seen Hocus Pocus, you’ll know how the novelization pans out. And it’s told in a way that maintains some flair without being just a bland rehashing of the story. Plus I love the little drawings at the top of each chapter. Super cute. The sequel, sanctioned by Disney, I assume, is kind of awesome in its own right. While I’m not a big fan of the high school sweethearts story it works here and sets Poppy up as a character nicely. It’s also LGBTQ+ friendly, which is awesome, and has a good mix of POC as well (despite the main character being white, so take that for what you will). I liked how the story progressed and how adult Max and Allison were portrayed (super paranoid, somewhat to the point of eccentric), plus Jay plays a fairly prominent role, which surprised me. He was the blonde bully that harassed Max in the original. I’ll save you the details of how his character ended up for you to read it. Truly interesting. Plus some of that is revealed in the character development in the novelization. So no spoilers. The plot itself was both kitschy in the way Hocus Pocus was kitschy, but dark too. I think the sequel itself was darker than the original. There was a bit more at stake and the kids involved this time around had a lot more to lose. So I liked how everything was amplified but still kept a little light. This definitely wasn’t a story pandering to kids, either. It’s firmly YA and it doesn’t talk down to its readers. For a hybrid story that (I imagine) is supposed to go either way (younger kids or older teens) like the original, that can be a tough line to teeter on. But Jantha was successful with it. HOCUS POCUS the movie is a yearly watch and I have no doubt this book will be a yearly read now. I hope Disney does something with the sequel that’s here. I’d love to see it on screen. Plus it would bring back all the original characters, even Max, Allison, and Dani because it’s supposed to be 25 years later so IT WORKS. Let’s get on this, shall we? 5

This is such an enjoyably delightful story, it always has been whether as a book and as a movie. The new book is also very good and frolicking new adventure. It follows some old characters and introduces some fantastic new characters. The characters all feel like they could be a part of your family. The story shows family and friends mean everything and good triumphs over evil most of the time. The writing is wonderful, the storyline is funny, touching and moving. The author does a wonderful job on character building and on their backstories. I love this book because the author shows that we are all stronger then what we think we are and we can learn and move on with confidence in that strength. It’s a story about the strength of family and friends, new and old. How relationships change and grow. How friendships grow stronger in some pretty fascinating and surprising ways. No matter what mistakes were made in the past, friendships go on and become more than what they were in the past. Forgiveness is one of the center themes of this story. It’s a very all endearing story, all the characters are lovable, even the Witches at times. I laughed out loud because some of the crazy things said by the characters and the mayhem and goofy situations they find themselves in. It shows a positive light on the LGBTQ characters. This story can be read by anyone or anyone can read this book to others around a campfire while eating s’mores. The chapter illustrations are playful and entertaining.

Amazing book highly recommend and in perfect shape/quality! For any fan like myself such a fun read.

Llegó un poco golpeado de las esquinas pero nada grave, el diseño es precioso y tiene un olor muy peculiar, sin duda una de mis mejores adquisiciones en literatura

After watching this movie, I had to read this one. There is so much in thos book that was not shown in the movie. You will love it. Delivery was amazing, books corner were not folded so that was a wao.

Llegó en perfecto estado!

I've been a fan of Hocus Pocus since I first saw it in the cinema all those years ago as a child! It was one of the first dvds I ever bought when I finally got round to ditching my VHS player! So when they announced the book with all new sequel I naturally preordered it! Had a fantastic time reading it, I couldn't put it down! So many memories of watching the movie reading the first half, and the sequel was really good too, I'm just hoping they get around to making it into a movie!