I once asked my nephew why he didn't read books as often as he used to. His response floored me. "Books are boring." WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! Some one of MY KIN was telling me this?! This was not acceptable. After I calmed myself with a nice cup of cinnamon tea and a good long book, I came back and asked him...why?
He looked at me, serious as could be and said "because I can't decide what happens. I don't want to be told how a story had to go. That's not fun." FAIR POINT MY PROTEGE! I can understand how someone with the desire to create things, to make their own choices, may get stuck on stories that they have no way to alter or guide.
I got my first taste of "choose your adventure" books when I was younger with RL Stine's Goosebumps. There is truly a thrill in being able to decide what your character is going to do. I feel like this was the old school version of "RPG". LOL.
As a result, I immediately sought out books that he could enjoy in this fashion, starting with of course Goosebumps. While browsing for halloween reads, I came across Hoc & Pocus: Comic Book/Graphic Novel. This seemed like something that was RIGHT up his alley!
HOCUS & POCUS : THE LEGEND OF GRIMM’S WOODS
RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
FORMAT: eGalley ARC
From Goodreads:
Introducing a new series of interactive graphic novels--first published in France, and translated/transported to English language readers by Quirk Books.
Enter a world inspired by all of your favorite fairy tales--complete with gingerbread houses, a girl dressed in red, and seven children lost in the woods. Hocus & Pocus offers a new kind of reading experience--part game book, part graphic novel, and part Choose Your Own Adventure story. Readers can play as Hocus (a girl) or Pocus (a boy), choose a magic animal companion, and enter a colorful fairy tale forest of riddles, magical objects, and unusual characters. Succeed or fail, it's all up to you!
The Breakdown
Just looking at the cover of this graphic novel makes me giddy. Hocus & Pocus (and their side kicks) are just adorable. This is a choose your own adventure GN in the Middle Grade genre. At first glance, the art is fantastic. It's drawn in a very cartoon-y, impish design and it's delightful. It fits well with the witch and warlock theme of the novel.
As we open the book, we dive into a new world- full of magical creatures, witches, magic, and mayhem. The MC are Hocus & Pocus (though I'm still not sure who is who....). They are a brother and sister duo, top of their class and are working to become masters, which means magical creature care takers or something akin, and they have been tasked with a QUEST! Of course, the quest is to find a pair of lost children, somewhere out in the scary GRIMM WOODS! You have to pick one of these characters and follow them...er...guide them?.. on their quest.
The idea is fantastic. The art is phenomenal, I was STOKED. But that's where the excitement ended. Now, to be completely fair, I did have a eGalley - a physical copy of the book would have been MUCH easier I am sure.
The entire premise of the GN is that you decide what happens, so through out the novel you have to flip to new pages, find different items and follow mazes and quests to achieve your goal in the story. With an eCopy, it was almost impossible to find the right panels, to match up the symbols and to keep track of the story in general. I am fairly confident though, that a physical copy would be much easier and such fun! The story (what I could follow of it) was cute and well done but there was just not enough cohesiveness to the eCopy to really get a good grasp of it.
The duo is hilarious, and their antics would entertain anyone. I loved that they dealt with Magical Creatures buuuuut we didn't really see them much outside of the small tasks you are guided to do. Still, I got to tote around a magical pet, so that was alright by me!
Final Thoughts
Over all, I enjoyed it despite the issues I encountered. If you are going to purchase this for someone, definitely get the physical copy (but maybe the actual kindle/ebook will be automated to jump -- who knows). I dub this GN a solid 3.75 stars (rounded up to 4 stars).
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