Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel

These characters deserved SO much more!

I could write my own book about how bad this sequel is. I had the audio book, which only made it more bland and painful.
The first book is simply a written version of the movie script. The narrator lost me when she made Winnie sound more like an anal soccer mom than a witch with her terrible, sing-song-y rendition. I had to stop listening and go to the sequel even before Max summoned the Burning Rain Of Death.
This sequel, with its overly blatant moral high ground would have been better suited for a Disney Channel “best-friend-high-school-movie special.”
Too much focus on the teenage angst and love interest. However, I very much appreciate the fact that the author DIDN’T make a big deal about the main character being gay. Her crush was just her crush, as it should be, so BRAVO.
The witches were basically non-existent. They weren’t mean, or conniving or even entertaining.
The story felt forced.
They waaaaaay over used our favorite parts of the original and failed miserably at trying to make them work.
Sarah’s only presence in the story was to repeat words three times.
A sad attempt at creating a crappy sub-plot for Mary just trails of into nothingness only after being annoying for several paragraphs too long.
Winnifred’s mother was neither evil or powerful. She was a complete joke.
And stop trying to make us feel guilty for being happy about Jay getting left in the cage in 1993. He got what he deserved damn it!!! #teammaxforever
It’s all just tooo saccharine and politically correct. EVERYONE makes up. Everyone decides to be friends. And EVERYONE apologizes for things that aren’t even their fault!
I wish I could give this less than one star.
The BEST part of the entire book was the last few minutes of the last chapter.
I wish they had written THAT story!!!!! It would have been sooooo much better.
For the love of all things Holy, PLEASE don’t let them make THIS into a movie!!!

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Great narrator

The narrator was great, however the story was repetitive to the original. So I found the sequel rather boring. So many repeated quotes. Almost the same story line with small changes.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Starts off interesting, Dies Quickly

When it started i really thought this would be a "fresh take" on the movie. I thought, given how much the opening was revised, we were going to get a good novelization that would actually delve into the characters and add dimension. (They best novelization I've ever read of a movie THE ABYSS by Orson Scott Card, did all this and the cast was actually given the first 3 chapters to give their characters depth and backstory) But it did none of this.
Emily is still little more than a Redshirt who dies to prove the situation is serious, Thackery (played wonderfully by the two actors In the film) who has a lot of pathos and inner monologue that could have been expressed (and is not), is under used.
We don't get to know Allison or Dani much better, and while we do get more inside the mind of Max, it's mostly "Duuuuuuah-hah Allison Pretty me likey, do dumb things to impress her," which some how known only to movies and badly written books actually works.
Winnifred and Sisters are given a *little* more depth through the device of "Mother" and "Elizabeth" but since this is mostly sequel setup it falls flat.
While the sequel has some interesting ideas it's hardly worthy of the original nor a very good plot, though the ending scene at the lighthouse is pretty interesting.
The "love story" element of the sequel should not have even been a thing since it made very little difference ultimately. Deep friendship does not have to involve romantic love and shouldn't have in this case, especially since it just because ANOTHER element rehashed from the first (movie) part.
It sets up a 3rd story but my guess is that we will never see it (unless its a contract thing) Because the fans will reject this "sequel".
The narrator is Okay and certainly listenable, but is pretty much just reading and not acting, giving the characters (especially the witches) their due.
If you are a superfan of this movie (which I would consider myself) you might enjoy it and a little "fan fiction" for the follow up, but ultimately this falls flat and isn't worth the time. Skip it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Narrator ruins it

The narrator is sort of annoying, and is so flat toned it makes it boring she would be better for another book but not this one. It ruined it. I couldn’t even finish it. She made it so boring and hocus pocus is my all time FAVORITE movie! Really disappointed . Wish I would have returned the book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I was hoping for something like this

nice to see the story continue, finally. also nice to see what became of not only our heroes from 1993 but Jay and Ernie. waiting to see more

Incredible story with a horrible narrator

The novelization of the movie is smartly written, and expands on the relationships of the well known characters while cleverly setting up the plot of the sequel. The sequel is modern and relatable while interesting and exciting in ways the original doesn’t quite match. A beautiful continuation that is faithful to the origin story. The narrator of this book is a moron. Her inflections are constantly incorrect and make no sense with the text. She does an ok job of doing character voices, but the descriptions are often muddled by her horrible inflection errors and her random breaks in the text that end up somewhat changing the author’s original meaning.

Near Perfect

The retelling of the story was well done and good to get the listener adjusted to the story telling style while still reminding of the cult classic movie. The sequal felt natural and almost perfectly written. One minor flaw, IMO, was the character progression of Sarah felt off in the sequal but it did not harm the overall story.

The reader was very good and I enjoyed her style. Only criticisms are her inability to intensify her story telling at a "intense" part of the narrative which made it feel a little one note at times. Second, all her male characters sounded the same.

disappointed sequel wonderful original story

the first book was great and classic. the sequel was bad in my eyes. not the sequel these characters deserve and a few more distasteful choices

Despite efforts to seem like a modernization its just blah

Despite efforts to seem like a modernization its just blah. It reads like lots of cool parts of other stories brought together in a horrible mashup.

The first story is best

I really enjoyed the first story based on the movie I grew up with but the sequel I was not a fan of. I realize an author tries to appeal to a new audience and some might enjoy the sequel story but I personally didn't.