Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel – A.W Jantha

October 31, 2018October 31, 2018 Book Chick1 Comment

| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: 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 Salem teens.

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.

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My thoughts: I really did not enjoy this book. Hocus Pocus is such a cult movie, a movie I watch every October, every year since I was a child. I never miss it and I loved the idea of a continuing. Bought it last summer but saved it just so I could read it in October. Such a mistake.

While the novelization of the movie is pretty good, the All-New Sequel should never have been written. I found the author was trying too hard to connect it with the first book with both details and happenings but nothing new. It is the same but different. Let’s take some small examples.

Instead of a cat, there is a dog.
The witches loses their brooms, again!
Again they use vacuum cleaners.Again it is the “rule the world” mentality.
Again it is circulating around one place. Just not the cemetery this time.
The humour (which I loved in the movie/book) are lame and forced. Not funny at all.
Instead of Zombies, there is ghost. But still the same thing.

I could keep going but I’m afraid we will go into spoilers so I will end here. The author tried too hard to include the 21- century in the story that it was just, overrated and not functional. And the worst part of it all is that the final act of the story just goes on and on and on. I actually fell asleep several times reading it. But I would not give up. It took me embarrassing long time to read it but I had to.

And to top it all, The book ends on a completely unnecessary cliffhanger. Come ON! That just makes me mad.

Final conclusion!
Oh Disney. I was so, so happy when I found out about the book. But it didn’t work for me. This was not what I wanted. It probably would have been better as a movie. One thing is for sure. The world of Hocus Pocus deserves so much more.

TBR

My October TBR top 5 + 1

October 1, 2018September 27, 2018 Book Chick1 Comment

October is one of my favorite reading months of the year. It is getting dark earlier in the day, the summer is officially over and my consumption’s of tea and candlelight is tripling. My reading genre tends to be for the most part horror but I never plan a TBR. So I thought that this year I should. I have accumulated several horror books this year and what a perfect time it is to get some of them read. This is my top 5 + 1 bonus, planned To Be Read now in the month of October.

Sleeping Beauty by Stephen King and Owen King.
Come on. Off course I need to push in some Horror King in the long list of books to read. I’m excited to read this new gem by the father and son. It is highly acclaimed and I do hope I don’t have to high expectations.
Hocus Pocus & the all new sequel by A.W Jantha
My favorite Halloween movie, which I have watched every year since 1993 has come as a book. Disney had a limited release earlier this year and I was lucky enough to snag myself a copy. It was so popular that they started printing more of the book right away and it is now available everywhere. I have waited for months for October so that I can start reading this one and I’m so excited to read the New sequel, included after the story of Hocus Pocus.
Blood Cruise by Mats Sandberg
Sometime I feel translators just butcher books when they are translated. I mean “Blood Cruise” for a title! Can it be more cringe? Anyway, I have had this book since last spring and it is by an Swedish author I have read a couple of books by before. I got it for a dime and sure, let’s try and see how he is in the horror genre.
A monster calls – Patrick Ness
I have had the book in my TBR pile for soon a year and it is time to get this one read. It is a short, young adult, horror story by Ness, who I never have read anything by before.
Lazarus by Lars Kepler (not yet translated to English. Synopsis on Swedish.)
The seventh book about Joona Linna is finally, after such long wait, getting released. Planed publication date is 19th October and I’m counting down the days.

Bonus

I do have one more book I wish to tell you about and I see this as a bonus on my TBR since it is a graphic novel. Uzumaki by Junji Ito is a Japanese graphic horror novel and the edition I have includes volume 1-3. As you may know I’m trying out the comics genre and I got fascinated by this deluxe edition and just had to buy it. Since it is horror I feel it fits perfect in October.

What are you going to read in October?

Contemporary · Romance · Young, New adult/College

Simon vs. The homo sapiens agenda – Becky Albertalli

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 Book Chick2 Comments

| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

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My thoughts: I have been avoiding these cutesy, young adult romances as the vampire avoids sunlight. Not only because they often are to fluffy and angst filled for my taste. But also because they feel to unrealistic and predictable. It is like these teenage movies where you have 75 minutes of “funny” cringe worthy scenes and you still KNOW that the prins and princess will get each other in the end. I can see the charm, I do, and I do watch them sometimes when I don’t have the energy to use my head. At times I only want to be filled with something shallow, where I can remember or forget. Depending on the mood. And I do wish I could enjoy them, as much as so many others do. I feel I miss out a lot but the most of these YA I have tried, I have not enjoyed no matter how much I have tried.

But I did enjoy Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens agenda. It is not specially fun, it has its moments, and it brings up the storm of emotions in a young boys life who knows he is gay, but has yet told anyone. Except Blue. The mysterious, email friend Simon has but don’t know who it is. Blue is also gay and they talk a lot about how it is to still “be in the closet” and the big “coming out” thing. I loved that I could not predict who Blue was until he was revealed and it was a total surprise.

What I liked the most with the book was the day to day life. Simon is a great character. He is deeply developed, funny and sarcastic. He is grounded in the story and who is easy to relate to. I had some trouble the first 50+ pages since there is a lot of characters and it was hard to keep track of who talked when or did what. But as soon as I got used to the way it was written it was much easier and the book was a fast past read.

It is a great book but still a little to light and fluffy for my taste. But then again, YA Romance is not my favorite genre. I did like it and feel that this is a great book for all ages. Now in 2018 the movie on the book, Love Simon, have had a release and of course I want to see it. Haha. I love movies made on books. Usually not as great, “The Book was better”, you know, but still want to see them.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Thriller/Horror

Brilliance – Marcus Sakey

June 13, 2018June 13, 2018 Book Chick2 Comments

| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in – and betray his own kind.

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My thoughts: With its highly cliché content, generic story and with a complete lack of original ideas from the author, it is sad how this novel has been raised and praised in the bookish community. The original idea of it all is pretty cool and something I could love since I’m a total “superpower” buff. But this is just a lame version of x-men. Without the cool powers, the sexy suits and expensive toys. But still the corrupt governments, the terrorists, the two sides against each other and the family conflicts are the same story that we have been fed for like 20 years now.

It is even more sad how Sakey have focused more on the style of the book than the content itself. Written it “ready” for the movie business and it is almost like he wants to flip us off with a highly obscene gesture. I feel the book is written like a screenplay, ready for Hollywood, not the bookshelf’s. It feels like he did not care about the book itself but only hoped on the possibility to get an Hollywood movie contract to bring in the money and fame. There is no real character development and the male protagonist is a boring, apathetic, grey guy with no real emotions and the total lack of self-confidence to use his own head.

I actually gave this book a two star rating at first but now after I have had the time to sleep on it and really think about the book, I feel that it is not fair, and lower it to a one star rating. Why you may ask? Well it is as simple as that the book did not give me anything. It was highly predictable and nothing surprised me. It was not funny nor exciting. I did not like the characters, the plot or the way it was written. This will probably be a movie in the future ( oh wait, it is actually already in development according to IMDB) and I’m not that interested to even see it. So that’s that. Let’s move one shall we?