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 … of Salem teens.
Shortly after moving from California to Salem, Max Dennison finds himself in hot water when he accidentally releases a coven of witches 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.
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Hocus Pocus is one of my favorite movies, so when I found out there was a sequel that takes place 25 years later with adult versions of Max, Allison and Dani – I couldn’t wait to dig in. In this case, it’s Max and Allison’s daughter, Poppy, and her run in with the infamous Sanderson Sisters. Read it over Halloween and loved revisiting my favorite characters again!
Talk about revisiting your childhood! I have loved Hocus Pocus since the very first time I saw it. I watch it multiple times around Halloween each year and many times throughout the year as well. I loved being about to revisit one of my favorite childhood movies in written form, but even better than that was the continuation of the story in Max and Allison’s (YES MAX AND ALLISON’S!!!) daughter and her friends!
Interesting to me, was the fact that one of the bullys from the original movie was now principal with a bullyish daughter. Funny how things come full circle like that, both in literature and in real life sometimes! I enjoyed the friendships that Poppy had and how in the end a group of seemingly misdirected kids were able to pull together and ultimately save the day.
The best though, the absolute best, is that the ending is left so very wide open for further sequels! I would read as many as they are willing to write!
The first book Hocus Pocus was reading word for word of the movie playing in your head. It was awesome! I was disappointed and didn’t like something about the new story. It is a spoiler so I won’t say. It wasn’t huge and didn’t alter my opinion much. I did overall enjoy the new story.
If you’re like me and love the Hocus Pocus movie, you should read the adapted novel version and sequel. Not only do you get extra character details and general info in part one, but you also get to see what happened 25 years after the initial summoning.
While the book seemed to be geared more toward a younger generation, I still really enjoyed the time spent reading it. My only issue with the book is the one scene in part two where Mary broke out into song for a portion of the chapter and how many struggles the characters seemed to have. Opposed to a normal book where you root for the characters because you want to see them succeed in their journey, I found myself slightly bored with exactly how many struggles and pushbacks there was. I found myself thinking, “Okay well they made progress. What’s going to be the factor that ruins this advancement.”
Overall it’s a fun read for fellow Halloween/Salem/Hocus Pocus nerds like me.
I grew up with the movie Hocus Pocus so I picked this up for the sequel. I really enjoyed it!
**Spoilers Ahead**
Goodness, where do I start with this book? I had high hopes. Probably too high. As a child who grew up with this movie, and then having it as my go-to Halloween movie every year, it had very large shoes to fill. So much so, that I even Disney wasn’t able to do the job.
Part 1
The first half of this book follows the storyline to the movie. And when I say follows, I mean it basically *is* the movie – with a few extra scenes added in.
What I did love is that we get a much deeper look into Salem circa 1693. The prose in these sections were luscious and beautifully written. I loved them. Even though they weren’t part of the movie, I absolutely loved them.
So, this set up my expectations for the rest of the book.
Then we have our first scene in “present day” Salem (or Salem 1993, anyway). There is a reason that writing a screenplay and writing a book, while very similar, are two different games. Football vs Rugby kind of thing. And some things just did not translate well. The descriptions of what the characters were doing, what they wore, the setting, it was all too heavy-handed. It was forced, and it felt like filler. And the reason is that they tried to make the book follow the movie too closely.
Oh, there were a couple of added scenes, like the one where Max and Allison are talking in the sewers after they first get away from the witches in the graveyard. They TRY to put a feminist spin on the conversation, but it was incredibly out of place. They tried to recreate the 1990’s so much, that slapping such a forward-thinking conversation in the middle of the book was not in-line with what teenagers would have been talking about in the mid to early 90’s. Just, no. Nice try, but no.
They set you up thinking that this story is going to be sort of re-telling, even if it has the same ending and same characters. And then they just ruin it by trying to follow too close to the movie.
Part 2
This was just a hot mess.
First, let’s discuss the characters:
Poppy Dennison: Max and Allison’s daughter. I didn’t hate her character. It was fun to see the story continue with the main character’s children. She’s skeptical, and thinks things through logically, which makes sense considering her past. Her father, Max, is one of Salem’s history teachers, and her mother, Allison, is a lawyer. Everything about this family makes perfect sense and I love it.
Isabella Richards: Isabella is practically perfect in every way! No, really. She is. She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s popular, she’s even distantly related to the 4th Sanderson sister, who happens to be Elizabeth that we met at the beginning of part 1! Her personality is also exactly like Poppy’s. Seriously, without dialogue tags, there’s no way to tell who is who when they’re speaking. They might as well be the same person – which brings me to another point of contention that I will get to later.
Travis Reese: Guess what? Travis is also smart! Oh, and he tries to be funny sometimes too. Sometimes. Not very often. Okay, most of the time I couldn’t tell he was trying to crack a joke until the dialogue tags said so, or the reactions of the other characters rolling their eyes happened. So, yeah… there’s that.
Over all, these characters aren’t that great. Travis is the only outlier because he tries to be funny, but the dialogue is so bad, you can’t even tell. They’re supposed to be smart, but you rarely see them actually use those smarts for anything. Travis is supposed to be good at chemistry and math. Does this help the plot at all? Nope. Do they sometimes discuss chemistry-ish things? Yes. But if it doesn’t do anything for the plot, then why bother putting it in at all?
The Plot:
Poppy wants to impress Isabella, the girl she has a crush on. So she takes a spirit board to the old Sanderson house, and they unleash the witches again. They must find a blood moonstone before the witches do, or else the Sandersons are going to bring all the witches back from Hell to rule the world.
So much time is spent in this book running around and going no where. It feels pointless. Part 1 was almost half the length and did just fine. Filler much to make a bigger buck, Disney?
Now let’s discuss a couple plot points that really got under my skin.
I commend Disney for creating black characters in Isabella and Travis, especially because Disney is known for whitewashing so much. But Isabell and Travis being black brings absolutely nothing to the table. You could replace them with someone who is Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, etc, and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference. They’re nothing more than token characters, and I feel like this is a step backward for Disney – especially considering how they have TRIED to improve the representation of race and culture through Moana (and making up for the horrid-ness that was Pocahantas).
I also commend Disney for creating a lesbian couple. Personally, I think Disney is putting out some feelers of what their audience may or may not find acceptable in the form of a book, before putting it in a movie. They dabbled in this just a bit with the live-action Beauty and the Beast, so it makes sense this would be the next step in that “feeler” process. But it felt like they were trying to put too much on Isabella’s shoulders:
– Smart
– Connection to the Sanderson sisters/has magic
– Black
– Lesbian
It was as though Disney were saying, “Look what we did! We created a black character who has magic that’s NOT voodoo! We also made her smart, AND we made her a Lesbian! Aren’t we awesome! Aren’t we so forward thinking?” No, Disney, you’re not.
Because you know what they did next? THEY TURNED ISABELLA INTO A DOG! A DOG!!!! They turned the black girl in the story into a dog. I’m not about to go into a history lesson, but if you don’t know why this is super bad, I encourage you to go look it up.
There’s some weird subplot about Mary, and how she feels unloved and mistreated by Winnie. She even breaks out into a song at one time, which I think was supposed to be a throwback to I Put A Spell On You from the movie/part 1. But this subplot goes nowhere, and the song feels weird and out of the place.
So, FINALLY, after running around for no apparent reason, getting very little help from Elizabeth (which, by the way, wasn’t she also a witch? So why didn’t she come back with the others? Or is it that she’s a good witch, and good witches go to heaven? This isn’t fully explained, and I find it annoying), they find the blood moonstone (which Isabella found because she could smell it. If that was the only reason they turned her into a dog, just… urgh! Cats have a greater sense of smell than dogs!), and take it to the top of the lighthouse.
Where they meet… the Sanderson sister’s mother. She’s supposed to be even more sinister and evil than her daughters. She talks about how SHE is going to rule all the witches and all the world by herself, which leaves Winnie feeling sad and betrayed.
We get to meet her for all of maybe a chapter and a half? Then she gets pushed off the lighthouse and dies. Seriously. All the mentions of her throughout part 1 (even extra parts that were added in), and all the mentions in part 2, she amounts to nothing but a monologue to only have the most anti-climactic death I’ve ever read.
Here is what I liked about part 2
Kate Taylor – Kate is a popular, snobby cheerleader. Her dad is also the school principal, who just HAPPENS to be Ernie “Ice” Taylor, from part 1. Yeah, didn’t see that coming either. But she has a great character arch. And I honestly love the tension that is still there between Ernie and Max all these years later. It even has a nice resolution, so Max and Ernie even have some minor character arcs in this.
I read this for the nostalgia. I read this because I love the movie so much. It kind of felt like when I forced myself to read The Cursed Child, even though it was terrible in book form, but dang it! I’m a die-hard Harry Potter fan, so I have to! Yeah, that’s kind of what it felt like.
I was so glad when it was over. This completely lacked the magic and wonder that came across on the screen. Some things just aren’t meant to be consumed in 2 different mediums, and that’s okay.
**Spoilers Ahead**
Goodness, where do I start with this book? I had high hopes. Probably too high. As a child who grew up with this movie, and then having it as my go-to Halloween movie every year, it had very large shoes to fill. So much so, that I even Disney wasn’t able to do the job.
Part 1
The first half of this book follows the storyline to the movie. And when I say follows, I mean it basically *is* the movie – with a few extra scenes added in.
What I did love is that we get a much deeper look into Salem circa 1693. The prose in these sections were luscious and beautifully written. I loved them. Even though they weren’t part of the movie, I absolutely loved them.
So, this set up my expectations for the rest of the book.
Then we have our first scene in “present day” Salem (or Salem 1993, anyway). There is a reason that writing a screenplay and writing a book, while very similar, are two different games. Football vs Rugby kind of thing. And some things just did not translate well. The descriptions of what the characters were doing, what they wore, the setting, it was all too heavy-handed. It was forced, and it felt like filler. And the reason is that they tried to make the book follow the movie too closely.
Oh, there were a couple of added scenes, like the one where Max and Allison are talking in the sewers after they first get away from the witches in the graveyard. They TRY to put a feminist spin on the conversation, but it was incredibly out of place. They tried to recreate the 1990’s so much, that slapping such a forward-thinking conversation in the middle of the book was not in-line with what teenagers would have been talking about in the mid to early 90’s. Just, no. Nice try, but no.
They set you up thinking that this story is going to be sort of re-telling, even if it has the same ending and same characters. And then they just ruin it by trying to follow too close to the movie.
Part 2
This was just a hot mess.
First, let’s discuss the characters:
Poppy Dennison: Max and Allison’s daughter. I didn’t hate her character. It was fun to see the story continue with the main character’s children. She’s skeptical, and thinks things through logically, which makes sense considering her past. Her father, Max, is one of Salem’s history teachers, and her mother, Allison, is a lawyer. Everything about this family makes perfect sense and I love it.
Isabella Richards: Isabella is practically perfect in every way! No, really. She is. She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s popular, she’s even distantly related to the 4th Sanderson sister, who happens to be Elizabeth that we met at the beginning of part 1! Her personality is also exactly like Poppy’s. Seriously, without dialogue tags, there’s no way to tell who is who when they’re speaking. They might as well be the same person – which brings me to another point of contention that I will get to later.
Travis Reese: Guess what? Travis is also smart! Oh, and he tries to be funny sometimes too. Sometimes. Not very often. Okay, most of the time I couldn’t tell he was trying to crack a joke until the dialogue tags said so, or the reactions of the other characters rolling their eyes happened. So, yeah… there’s that.
Over all, these characters aren’t that great. Travis is the only outlier because he tries to be funny, but the dialogue is so bad, you can’t even tell. They’re supposed to be smart, but you rarely see them actually use those smarts for anything. Travis is supposed to be good at chemistry and math. Does this help the plot at all? Nope. Do they sometimes discuss chemistry-ish things? Yes. But if it doesn’t do anything for the plot, then why bother putting it in at all?
The Plot:
Poppy wants to impress Isabella, the girl she has a crush on. So she takes a spirit board to the old Sanderson house, and they unleash the witches again. They must find a blood moonstone before the witches do, or else the Sandersons are going to bring all the witches back from Hell to rule the world.
So much time is spent in this book running around and going no where. It feels pointless. Part 1 was almost half the length and did just fine. Filler much to make a bigger buck, Disney?
Now let’s discuss a couple plot points that really got under my skin.
I commend Disney for creating black characters in Isabella and Travis, especially because Disney is known for whitewashing so much. But Isabell and Travis being black brings absolutely nothing to the table. You could replace them with someone who is Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, etc, and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference. They’re nothing more than token characters, and I feel like this is a step backward for Disney – especially considering how they have TRIED to improve the representation of race and culture through Moana (and making up for the horrid-ness that was Pocahantas).
I also commend Disney for creating a lesbian couple. Personally, I think Disney is putting out some feelers of what their audience may or may not find acceptable in the form of a book, before putting it in a movie. They dabbled in this just a bit with the live-action Beauty and the Beast, so it makes sense this would be the next step in that “feeler” process. But it felt like they were trying to put too much on Isabella’s shoulders:
– Smart
– Connection to the Sanderson sisters/has magic
– Black
– Lesbian
It was as though Disney were saying, “Look what we did! We created a black character who has magic that’s NOT voodoo! We also made her smart, AND we made her a Lesbian! Aren’t we awesome! Aren’t we so forward thinking?” No, Disney, you’re not.
Because you know what they did next? THEY TURNED ISABELLA INTO A DOG! A DOG!!!! They turned the black girl in the story into a dog. I’m not about to go into a history lesson, but if you don’t know why this is super bad, I encourage you to go look it up.
There’s some weird subplot about Mary, and how she feels unloved and mistreated by Winnie. She even breaks out into a song at one time, which I think was supposed to be a throwback to I Put A Spell On You from the movie/part 1. But this subplot goes nowhere, and the song feels weird and out of the place.
So, FINALLY, after running around for no apparent reason, getting very little help from Elizabeth (which, by the way, wasn’t she also a witch? So why didn’t she come back with the others? Or is it that she’s a good witch, and good witches go to heaven? This isn’t fully explained, and I find it annoying), they find the blood moonstone (which Isabella found because she could smell it. If that was the only reason they turned her into a dog, just… urgh! Cats have a greater sense of smell than dogs!), and take it to the top of the lighthouse.
Where they meet… the Sanderson sister’s mother. She’s supposed to be even more sinister and evil than her daughters. She talks about how SHE is going to rule all the witches and all the world by herself, which leaves Winnie feeling sad and betrayed.
We get to meet her for all of maybe a chapter and a half? Then she gets pushed off the lighthouse and dies. Seriously. All the mentions of her throughout part 1 (even extra parts that were added in), and all the mentions in part 2, she amounts to nothing but a monologue to only have the most anti-climactic death I’ve ever read.
Here is what I liked about part 2
Kate Taylor – Kate is a popular, snobby cheerleader. Her dad is also the school principal, who just HAPPENS to be Ernie “Ice” Taylor, from part 1. Yeah, didn’t see that coming either. But she has a great character arch. And I honestly love the tension that is still there between Ernie and Max all these years later. It even has a nice resolution, so Max and Ernie even have some minor character arcs in this.
I read this for the nostalgia. I read this because I love the movie so much. It kind of felt like when I forced myself to read The Cursed Child, even though it was terrible in book form, but dang it! I’m a die-hard Harry Potter fan, so I have to! Yeah, that’s kind of what it felt like.
I was so glad when it was over. This completely lacked the magic and wonder that came across on the screen. Some things just aren’t meant to be consumed in 2 different mediums, and that’s okay.
I remember seeing Hocus Pocus in the theater when it released in July 1993 ~ 25 years ago! I was still a preteen, and I remember loving the movie. I laughed, I got nervous when Max lit the black flame candle, I screamed when Sarah Sanderson was found hiding in Dani’s bed, and I, like all other preteen girls, developed a tiny crush on Thackery Binx.
When I heard about the new book re-telling the original story with a new sequel included, I was excited yet a little hesitant, hoping that it wouldn’t ruin the original story and that the sequel would live up to my expectations.
Honestly, I didn’t think I would like the re-telling of the original movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. The book alternates between Salem in 1693 and Salem in 1993. We get new details about Emily, like what she did that day before she was lured into the woods by Sarah. There is also a new character introduced who seems minor but should be noted. We get background info on what Dani and Max’s morning was like before they went to school that day, before Max heard the story of the Sanderson sisters in class. I liked these extra details and felt they enhanced the original story. Most of the story from that point is word for word the movie version. The plot and the dialogue are the same. You might be tempted to skip over the original and go straight to the sequel, but I would encourage you to read the complete original story first. There are little details added here and there that help set up the sequel.
Now…for the sequel…
For the most part, I thought it was fun and true to the original characters. I can picture Max and Allison grown up and living in Salem, trying to protect their teenage daughter from all things magical and witchy. I had always envisioned a sequel with Dani’s daughter as the focus, but I think this way worked. I won’t say much more about the plot because I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I will say that some unanswered questions from the movie are finally answered in the sequel such as:
Were Jay and Ernie (the bullies left in cages in the Sanderson Sisters’ house) ever rescued?
What ever happened to Winifred’s spellbook? (remember the creepy eye cover opening and looking around at the end?)
What ever happened to the black flame candle? Did it burn down completely? Could it be lit again?
In the sequel, we find out the answers to these questions and get to see what happens when “three ancient hags” enter the twenty-first century this time. The sequel had the same comedic element as the first story and really took off as its own story rather than just repeating the first adventure, though parts of it were predictable. If you’re a fan of the original movie, you’ll probably want to give this new book a chance.
I received an advance copy of this book from Disney Book Group through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Read full review at: KaitsBookshelf.com
Hocus Pocus and The All-New Sequel