Practical Magic

This is a cozy, feel-good read! And to be honest, I loved it!

I do get the issues that others are having with the style. A lot of writers do not use 3rd person omniscient anymore. It can be harder to follow for some people. You are bouncing heads from paragraph to paragraph, so you have to pay attention. I do feel like she used this style well and it conveyed that the characters were stuck in their head. Communication was the main theme and I feel like the POV added to the sense of that.

The star deduction for me was the absolute lack of dialogue, especially around the inciting moments of romance throughout. That was a big problem for me. The romances included felt too easy like they were a spell. I would have loved a longer book that flushed the romance out as well as she did the characters. More dialogue would have helped give some substance versus fate like obsession. Dialogue is a tricky art and I wonder since this book was early in career if she shied away from it because it wasn't a strong suit.

To the reviewers that dislike this because they love the movie, I get that too. They are very separate things. Going into a book thinking it will be exactly like the adaptation is almost always going to lead to disappointment. I personally, loved getting to know the inner workings of these women. The book is far more focused on the lives of the women and their motivations rather than the movie focused on the magic and spookiness far more. Both have their merits.

I think it is also worth noting that this book is Literary Fantasy. Heavy on the Literary part. It is not supposed to read like an urban fantasy. To me, it reminded me of reading classic literature. It is somewhat flowery and poetic. In my opinion, she does poetic gracefully and it didn't feel overdone or lengthy. But it is a literary novel so it is going to be more character-driven.

The characters were the best part of the book by far. I felt the character were real living beings. I could relate to the characters. I saw myself, my own sisters, and mother in the thoughts of these women which drew me in even further. The book was almost like reading each of their diaries which is an unusual writing style. This is my first Alice Hoffman novel, and I'm looking forward to seeing how her style shifted and grew as time went on.

I will definitely be reading Rules of Magic before the end of the year as the Aunts' lives are fascinating to me! And I recommend this as a feel good book about family with a touch of magic.