The Sanderson Sisters are back! 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.
Rating: 3/5
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.
This is definitely an interesting read. This book was broken up into two parts ~ the first being the story we knew, Hocus Pocus, and the second part is this All-New Sequel that follows Max and Allison’s daughter 25 years later. I liked the idea of this continuation, plus the fact it’s showing us similar faces. We get to see Max, Allison, Dani, and of course the Sanderson Sisters! All from Hocus Pocus.
What I didn’t like was how hard the author tried to make this sequel more modernized. It made it feel like a fan-fiction. Plus this sequel is set up the same way as Hocus Pocus. A Dennison is trying to impress a girl. Max and Allison’s daughter has a crush on a girl. Why does there need to be a romanticized subplot again?! Why couldn’t it just be a group of friends who did something stupid? Having this subplot really took away from the sequel for me. It just felt like a major eye roll. The ending felt cheesy with this included. I would have much preferred it wasn’t there at all.
What I didn’t like was how hard the author tried to make this sequel more modernized. It made it feel like a fan-fiction. Plus this sequel is set up the same way as Hocus Pocus.
Besides this unnecessary subplot, I enjoyed the creativity of this sequel. We’re led to believe the Sanderson sisters’ are gone forever, but there’s a loophole. This sequel shows us this loophole and creates a unique sequel that wildly different from the original but also has the same ending. Initially, when I first came across this book at Barnes and Noble, I was like “Woah! No way! How did they come back?” So I was pleasantly surprised at how the sisters were indeed brought back from the dead a second time. It didn’t feel like a stretch at all.
We’re led to believe the Sanderson sisters’ are gone forever, but there’s a loophole. This sequel shows us this loophole and creates a unique sequel that wildly different from the original but also has the same ending.
There were some scenes within the sequel that I felt were questionable. In the original story, Winnie was the leader of the Sanderson sisters. Often mocking her sisters’ stupidity. The sisters’ just going along and accepting the insults thrown at them. In this sequel, Mary final questions Winnie’s need to always be right and even has her own little music number and everything. Then, once it’s over nothing was said of it. Nothing changes, Winnie continues to be in charge and Mary does nothing to change that. This whole scene just felt out of place and added nothing to the overall story. It really just felt like a distraction. Reading it I was like “Yeah, girl! You go, Mary!” Then, I expected Mary to overtake Winnie, that didn’t happen and it just left me going “What the…”
I read in another review that the author shouldn’t have messed with the original story. While I was reading the first part, the original story, I had contemplated skipping it. It was all familiar, almost exact scenes from the movie, word for word. I chose to keep reading it because I enjoyed this first part. It felt like I was watching the movie in my head. Then, I came across something, not in the movie. There’s a fourth sister? It was weird, but I rolled with it, curious how it played a role in the sequel. After finishing the book, I felt like that other review was right, the author shouldn’t have messed with the original story. The sequel could have happened without this new addition of a fourth sister. In fact, adding this fourth sister just adds more questions. Questions that got no answers, and will never get an answer.
I read in another review that the author shouldn’t have messed with the original story... After finishing the book, I felt like that other review was right, the author shouldn’t have messed with the original story.
The ending of the sequel leaves the question of “will there be more?” It definitely seems possible, but at the same time, I’m not all that interested to find out. With the new ending, I doubt the Sanderson sisters would be involved. And a third chapter without the sisters wouldn’t be the same.
Overall, this was definitely a fun Halloween read. It wasn’t so great to have me love it, unfortunately. Though I’m glad I read it. I love Hocus Pocus, so I knew I had to read this. I definitely didn’t think this was the most ideal sequel. But it was fun to read about the sisters again. I think any fans of Hocus Pocus would love this one.