Practical Magic

The Owens sisters, orphaned as girls, were raised by their eccentric aunts in a ramshackle house in Massachusetts and were shunned and scorned and feared by their peers, while the aunts greeted at the back door various townswomen seeking cures for heartbreak, unwanted pregnancies, and other hazards of being a woman and dealing with love. One sister left at 18 and never looked back. The other waited until her heart was crushed by widowhood until she took her own two daughters and fled looking for a more normal existence for them and for herself. But magic in one’s blood isn’t something you can escape, and despite a vow made as children, love and all its messes catch up to all Owens women eventually.

Magical realism is hit or miss in show more the extreme for me. If a book falls into that genre, I either throw it across the room in disgust or absolutely adore it. This one I loved. Such strong and strongly written women are found here, and their stories are a perfect blend of everyday and extraordinary. And I love that it’s a story filled with women and their relationships with one another, and although people of the male persuasion are key parts of the plot, they are certainly not in starring roles. They’re the celery of the recipe: background supporters but in no way a distraction from the main flavor of the tale. show less

‘’Once a year, on midsummer’s eve, a sparrow would find its way into the Owens house. No matter how anyone tried to prevent it, the bird always managed to get inside. They could set out saucers of salt on the windowsills and hire a handyman to fix the gutters and the roof, but still the bird would appear. It would enter the house at twilight, the hour of sorrow, and it always came in silence, yet with a strange resolve, which defied both salt and bricks, as though the poor thing had no choice but to perch on the drapes and the dusty chandelier, from which glass drops spilled down like tears.’’

First things first. I have not seen the film adaptation. You couldn’t pay me enough to watch Kidman and Bullock. Their acting chops show more are worse than a scarecrow’s and I couldn’t care less whether the book is equal (!) to the film or not. And I can’t begin to imagine what the ‘readers’ who make this claim have inside their skulls. Because brains they have NOT.

This is a book of sisterhood and the contradictory sides of our souls, when we desire independence but our sense of duty wins. It is a book about flying away and if you crush, you crush. Life is full of crushes. In fact, life IS MADE of crushes. But you need to stand up and start again. Easier said than done…

‘’Never look back, that’s what she’s told herself. Don’t think about swans or being alone in the dark.’’

It is a book about womanhood and making mistakes. A book of looking back in anger, of looking forward in a fluttering hope, a book of being a mother and a book of being a daughter. A book of orange leaves dancing in the blowing wind, a book of fireflies playing in summer evenings. Of twilights, wisterias and lilacs, cats and toads. Of crickets, hazy afternoons, orange moons, evening silence, dangers in the dark. Of little dialogue which gives the chance for Hoffman’s prose to shine in a novel that is both a psychological study (if you are clever enough to understand it…) and an almanac of old wives’ tales.

If some of you think this is ‘mediocre’ writing, I dread to see what you consider ‘superior’.
Colleen Hoover and similar garbage have turned your brains into omelettes. Distasteful omelette…

‘’Trouble is like love, after all.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less

I love the film. The film is the perfect fairytale of strong women, true love and magic, and the scene where the circle join hands to save Gillian always gets to me. I never really thought about the book until I discovered that Alice Hoffman has recently written a prequel/sequel - and I honestly wish that was still the case. Stand alone, the book is fine, if a bit disjointed and lacking in unity, of both plot and characters. But, and I don't often say this, so I'll say it loud: THE FILM IS BETTER.

Like way, way better. The film is centred around the aunts' house, which only Gillian leaves and finally returns to, so there is a feeling of home and history at the heart of the story. There is also a definite emphasis on magic, with the show more aunts and Sally, although she fights her inheritance, practicing both the white and black sides of the craft. I also like the detail of the aunts interfering in Sally's love life - the first time around. When she finds her true love a second time, the magic is purely Sally's. All missing from the book. Sally leaves home with her much older daughters and moves to New York, so both the house and the aunts are removed from much of the story. The pacing is also very weak, and the final scene is an anticlimax compared to the film.

The book is trying to be 'gritty' and realistic, I think, despite the fairytale language, discussing sex and self-loathing and splintered families over love and magic and sisterhood. Sally is a depressed single mother of teenagers, Gillian is still Gillian, and none of the women can be happy until they meet 'the one'. Sally doesn't meet the perfect man of her conjuring but a lovesick fool conducting a half-assed investigation. Gillian is rewarded with a biology teacher instead of being 'possessed' by her dead lover's spirit. Even Antonia and Kylie go weak-kneed for the nearest boys. The happy ever after effect of the film is lost by the implied message that women just need a man in their lives to be happy.

The bones of the story are there, but the flesh is weak. Stick to the film. show less

Despite reading about everyone’s disappointment in this book, I really enjoyed it and as much as I liked Rules of Magic. Maybe because I read the prequel first? In this one, 2 nieces come to live at the witch house as tiny little girls, we watch them grow, “escape,” make mistakes, and come to discover the aunt-witches are pretty wonderful people who can solve a pretty nasty problem. I look forward to watching the movie soon!

Sisters Sally and Gillian Owens were raised by the aunts, witches who specialized in helping people with love problems. They suffered bullies in their small Massachusetts town and as they grew up, they grew apart: Gillian had relationship troubles and multiple marriages, Sally married and had two daughters but suffered grief after her husband died suddenly. Now, Gillian returns with a secret that just might change their lives forever.

Alice Hoffman certainly knows how to write a book with an otherworldly atmosphere of magical realism. It permeates this story so much that it's more about the setting and the words than the characters. There's very little dialogue for the first 100 or so pages, and as a result I had a really hard time show more getting into it. But if you enjoy the atmosphere and the elements of magic, it's a solid read and I'd certainly recommend it to people who appreciate a wordsmith. show less

I’m going to say right off the bat that this review is not going to be fair to the book. And that is because I watched the movie back when it came out. And was obsessed with it (what teenage girl isn’t mildly obsessed with anything witchy?). I struggled because I am unsure how you could possibly name the movie Practical Magic if it was based off of the book that I just read. I kept a running tally and there are at least 20 pertinent plot lines that are different between the two!

This being said, I truly believe that my disappointment with the book relies solely on how much I loved the movie. Because the rest of the books in the Practical Magic series I easily gave 5 stars - they are all utterly amazing. So, I am sure this one is too show more - as long as you haven’t seen and loved the film version! show less

I want to hate this book. However, it's still the source material for one of my most watched childhood movies, and I have to give it some credit for a strong idea. (One way or another, there is a bias that I can't seem to shake. Would I be more forgiving if I hadn't seen the movie? Would I let my hatred rain down if I hadn't seen the movie? I dunno.)

But, sheesh! So much bleh and so little magic OR practicality. I found EVERY character unlikable. They each have their flaws and their charms, but the mix isn't enjoyable. The writing has a kind of rambling feel, and there's not a lot of plot compared to the length. The ending is fairly anti-climatic, and it gives the impression that their issue wasn't particularly serious.

Also, the way the show more Owens ladies fall in love kinda feels like the start of horror movie -something doesn't sit right. It's too deep, too perfect, and too fast in every single instance. Magic? Maybe. Still creepy. show less