REVIEW: Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel - A. W. Jantha

Title: Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel
Author: A. W. Jantha
Publisher: Freeform Books
Format: Hardback
Pages: 521 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

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.

Thoughts

When it comes to October and Halloween, the first thing I think of is Hocus Pocus (I love that movie), so when I saw that this book was being released and with an added sequel, that had me sold.

The first half of the book is a novelisation of the movie (I don't think I need to explain more on this, you've seen the movie, if not where have you been), and the second half deals with the sequel and follows Poppy Dennison, and her friends. Poppy, like her parents, is not a fan of Halloween, as all the kids have heard the story of her parents story of Halloween 1993. With her friends, she decides to visit the Sanderson House.

I loved the first half of the book as it was exactly word for word like the film, and that just made this half so easy to get through. The second half was just as brilliant, and was great to see a new twist on the story, and how the Sanderson Sisters deal with the 21st Century rather than the 20th.

I will admit I did find bits of this story predictable especially when mentioning another Sanderson Sister who had married and had children, I predicted who her descendant was.

I found Poppy to be an OK character, she had her moments where she was a strong capable girl, then she had moments where you just wanted to shout at her. I did like that in a Disney book they brought in some LGBT references with Poppy and Isabella.

Overall, a really good book and I really did enjoy it, such a great easy read for Halloween.