Today’s book review is Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel based on the Disney movie. I was excited to read this as I am a huge fan of the movie and it is a ritual to watch it every year with my family but unfortunately was very disappointed.
This book is in 2 parts. The first part is literally a book version of the movie. I tried to read it but seeing the movie a hundred times I didn’t feel like reading it. I was too excited to get into the sequel. Part 2 is the sequel and takes place 25 years later and centers around Max & Allison’s 17 yr old daughter Poppy who along with her friends come face to face with the Sanderson sisters 🧙🏽♀️and have to race against time to save Poppy’s family and all of Salem.
Sounds like a good set up right? I thought the same thing being a huge fan of the movie and franchise but I felt like Disney tried too hard on this one. First off I couldn’t get a feel for who Poppy was or looked like. Just that she was embarrassed of her parents and aunt Dani & she doesn’t believe the story she grew up hearing her whole life of her family coming face to face with the Sanderson Sisters 25 yrs ago. That part felt over explained (like it was in every other paragraph for the first 5 chapters). I wasn’t even sure if Poppy was a boy or girl for the first 2 chapters! Also the Gen Z lingo thrown in every now and then sounded forced (I live with a couple of Gen Zers and I know their lingo pretty well and it sounded like me a Millennial trying to throw out some Gen Z lines).
Poppy’s one friend, Travis is the only one whose character I could get a strong sense for and of course her father Max and mother Allison. There was a cute throwback mentioning Max wearing a tie-die bow tie every Halloween for Allison and Poppy doesn’t get the joke (but we the avid watchers of the movie do!). He also dresses up like the Hollywood sign for their Halloween party which was funny. I actually laughed at that part. Other than that it felt long winded, forced, and I was disappointed and didn’t finish it (I hate not finishing books). The best part was the cute spooky magnetic ghost 👻 bookmark by @ziledoshop.
While I can’t recommend this book it was still fun to reimagine everything, but for one of the few times I will ever say, the movie is better than the book. 🎃
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Until next time happy reading!