Review: Practical Magic

Title: Practical Magic
Author: Alice Hoffman
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Release Date: June 13, 1995
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman.

For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape.

One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back–almost as if by magic…

Review:

I picked up this book because I received an ARC of the prequel that just came out, called The Rules of Magic. 

I enjoyed this story. It was very character driven. I usually don’t like stories that are character driven, but a strong plot emerged in the latter half of this book that brought all the characters together. 

I really liked the duos that are in the book. There are three sets of two sisters. There are also dueling kinds of magic. The Owens have a natural kind of magic, while Ben likes doing magic tricks. Ben is also the science teacher, and science is kind of a magic in itself. 

I loved the ending of this story. It felt complete. I like it when all (or most) of the loose ends are tied up by the end. 

Now, I’ll have to watch the movie adaptation!

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett