Witch-Hunt – Margit Sandemo

September 25, 2019September 24, 2019 Book Chick1 Comment

3235317 | GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Seventeen year-old Silje Arngrimsdotter struggles to come to terms with the harshness of life in a high mountain valley among the witches and warlocks of the mysterious Ice People. Having fled there for her life with her adored ‘wolf man’ and two foundling infants from the Trondheim plague, Silje has bravely borne their first child.

Untitled

My thoughts:

The second book in the legend of the Ice people starts of a couple of years later after the ending in the first book. Silje is struggling with the burden of being a house wife, the weight of being a good mother, wife and the stress with poverty. There is dark clouds in the horizon and after unfortunately happenings, they have to flee the valley that have kept them safe for the last couple of years.

I have read this book before and it’s hard to try to review books I already read several times over. One thing I found now that I read it a third time and in adulthood is that it is a lot “easier” than I remember. It is still great and I love how intricate it’s starting to be, but it’s easy to follow, quick to read and not as deep as I remember. Not a bad book no. I would still give it the same rating as I did when I was younger. I only react over the different ways I perceive the book now.

For you who doesn’t know about this series, here are a short description.
The series is in 47 parts. We are following the Ice People with a start in the late plague ridden 16th century. It is about witches and wizards and a huge curse. Kings, queens and wars takes a big place in the story line. We are following them from generations through generations. Through birth, love, hate, good and bad stuff, war, more child births and eventually death. It is highly intricate and therefore should be read in order.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Young, New adult/College

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.

Untitled

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.

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

HEX – Thomas Olde Heuvelt

August 13, 2018August 13, 2018 Book Chick1 Comment

31560400 | GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay ’til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters your homes at will. She stands next to your bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting, but in so doing send the town spiraling into the dark, medieval practices of the past.

Untitled

My thoughts: Two nights in a row I have been dreaming about the wicked Witch of Black Spring. She have sneaked her way into the back of my mind and taken control in a way I have never experienced before. I’m not easily scared and specially not by books. And certainly not in a way where I actually wakes up, in the middle of the night with a racing hart and with a feeling that I don’t want to sleep anymore. I can feel discomfort and such but never really fear. I wouldn’t call this one a scary horror either but it’s still an unpleasant book in the way that it was uncomfortable and mesmerizing at the same time.

Well written with an really interesting and suitable history and backstory. The details fit together nicely and in a way that it did not feel exaggerated or cheap. The original story takes place in a Dutch town but when the rights for the English version was sold it was decided to move the settings to a Hudson Valley and change the ending. That is two major difference between the original story compared to the translated one. According some forum threads I found, there is no big difference and has no great significance. Since I’m never gonna read the dutch version, it really doesn’t matter to me.

There is a lot of mixed feelings toward this book out there and my own are probably more on the good side than the average. I found the book complex and deeper than I first thought. A little obsessive with tits, breast and nipples but hey it is a guy who have written it after all. I liked the ending (even though I hate it) and I like how it makes you think. It compels you to seek deeper and read between the lines. A book which awakens feelings and questions and do need to be discussed because it is all in the way it is interpreted.