Practical Magic

Alice Hoffman beautifully excels at bonding the real with the mystical until they're one. And here that shines like a magic fireball with the tale of sisters Gillian and Sally Owens.

They come from a family of witches, not exactly welcome in their hometown but secretly courted by those who want their talents. Whether the hocus pocus is real doesn't matter, this story makes you appreciate the wonders of love and life, and that is indeed magic. 

Sally and Gillian Owens are outcasts in their small Massachusetts town, largely due to a rumored family curse and two aunts who delight in playing into that rumor.

But while the aunts may enjoy being called witches, the sisters don’t find those pointed hats quite so comfortable. Each sister tries to escape their legacy in different ways, but they eventually discover that magic isn’t so easily left behind, and neither is family.

I love this book (and the movie based on it) because each woman is strong in their own way and the witchcraft has a degree of realism not… show more.

Seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary isn’t always easy, but this enchanting story casts a spell over day-to-day life and reveals the magic everywhere.

Trying to escape your past or hide who you are never truly works, and I love how this story encourages me to face my fears, accept myself just as I am, and see how self-love profoundly changes everything.

Orphaned Gillian and Sally Owens grew up with their magical aunts, but they come to womanhood with very different ideas about love and magic. Still, the bond of being sisters is the only one they can count on when things get tough—as they do. That’s when they discover that sisterhood (and reaching out to other women-as-sisters) is at least as strong as magic. (Also, while the movie has a stellar cast, it’s more of a Cliffs Notes guide to the book—there’s so much more depth to Hoffman’s writing).

Twenty-five years ago, Alice Hoffman’s vivid novel lured readers to fall in love with the witchy, complicated, Owens family and led to a popular movie. Through the four-part book series, I’ve been spellbound by the deep, compelling characters and their magical abilities as their bonds stretch, fray, and re-align over generations. Hoffman’s prose leans somber, but in a beautiful, wistful way. In Practical Magic, we focus on sisters Gillian and Sally, raised by their eccentric elderly aunts. The sisters cope with their offbeat upbringing in opposite ways: one marries, stays, and faces tragedy; the other runs away. Yet their… show more.

I'll admit I did things in reverse and watched the movie version of this story with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman before reading. Yet again, the book is better but very different—there’s room for so many more scenes that get eliminated when you’re going from page to screen. The focus here is on the women in one family (and their use/misuse of magic)—elderly aunts, adult sisters (Sally & Gillian), and Sally’s two teenage daughters. And there’s the family curse, that whomever they love will end up dying. The story is charmingly written, and while not as heavy on the magic… show more.

A classic. Published in 1995, long before children everywhere started waiting for their letters to arrive from Hogwarts, this book made grown women long to be witches, and many started on their journey after reading it. You may have seen the movie, but the book is every bit as delightful. The writing is lyrical and sensuous. Reading it is like taking a long bath with bubbles and candles on the night of a full moon. This was one of the books that made me want to become a writer. 

In my opinion, Alice Hoffman is the undisputed queen of Magical Realism. Anyone who has both read this book and seen the movie will tell you that they diverge greatly. However, both are excellent, and the themes remain virtually the same between the two mediums. Practical Magic tells the tale of a family whose women are cursed in love. Exploring themes of being shunned by one’s community for being different, female empowerment, sisterhood, family, aunts and nieces, mothers and daughters, and love conquering all, Practical Magic will leave you starry-eyed with wonder, warmth, and hope.

This is another book that I picked up because I saw the movie first, which stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the witchy Owens sisters. I couldn’t wait to hunt down the book at my local library.

The book has a different feel. It’s darker and sadder, but I enjoyed it anyway. The writing captivated me, and the characters drew me in. A book allows you to live in a character’s head, to be privy to their thoughts and motivations, in the way a movie can’t. 

I loved the strangeness of the two sisters’ witch-family lives and the despair… show more.

This book is the basis of the movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. While the plot is loosely the same, the book’s tone is different, darker, and more serious, with less of the movie’s whimsy. The author more fully explores how this family of witches is shaped by the jealousies, triumphs, and tragedies that mold every family. Their family dynamic is why I love this book. Gillian’s questionable actions infuriate Sally, but she’d do anything to save her sister. The push and pull of love, loyalty, loss, and disappointment are so real. You can forget for a minute that… show more.