Early Reader Review: Hocus Pocus and the All New Sequel byA.W. Jantha

Source: From Netgalley and Freeform in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.

Hocus Pocus and the All New Sequel byA.W. Jantha
Series: Disney's Hocus Pocus
Publisher: Freeform
Publication Date:  July 10, 2018

 

Format: Ebook

Rating:


 



Goodreads 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.

Review: 
Halloween is probably my favorite holiday, I love being about to dress up and act a fool and then there is all the sugar that people give you for FREE (at least when you are a kid, now I have to buy it for the kids... and myself). With all this wonderful fun, there are Halloween movies and traditions that I keep up. So every year I watch Hocus Pocus about 15 times before Halloween, I own it and actually watch it all year - so much that my husband quotes it sometimes and he is not as big a fan as I am. 

When I saw this book in an Instagram post, I jumped over to Netgalley to request it and YAY, request granted. The book is really two in one. The first third is actually a retelling of the original movie/story. It is pretty much the same as the movie, so if you want to read it - it is just as fun and funny, but if you want to move right into the new stuff you can do that too without missing much.

The Sequel is about Poppy, who is the daughter of Max and Allison. She has grown up knowing the story of the Sanderson sisters coming back on Halloween and almost killing her Aunt Dani and she has always put up with it. This Halloween though, it has been 25 years and her parents are throwing a party but to impress a girl she likes Poppy decides to bring her to the Sanderson house... sound familiar? It is kind of the same set up as before but it works. 

In this book, we learn about another Sanderson sister, and even get more depth from the previous story, but with an all new adventure, because the sisters have found their way back into the moral world and are still out to take it over.

The sequel was good, I think that if you are lover of the original it is a great way to relive it in a new way. I loved seeing the Sanderson sisters again and the characters in this book were fun as well and you get to see old faves too (BINX!). It may not be the best book as a stand alone, but it gave me everything I was looking for. New old meets new...and possibly another story?... yea, how's that for a cliffhanger?! (I die!)