first line: For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town.
rated: 5 out of 5 stars
Practical Magic is a story of two sisters, Gillian and Sally Owens, who are being raised by thier two aunts. They live in a small town in Massachusettes, and the other townspeople know that the Owens women are witches. Sally & Gillian are opposites. Sally is dark haired and serious, Gillian fair-haired and wild. When they are little girls, all of the other children are afraid of them, they get teased at school. But as they grow up, Gillian becomes a heartbreaker and a flirt. By age 18, Gillian leaves the aunts house and she elopes with her first husband, only to leave him 2 weeks later for a mechanic. She doesnt want to come back home, instead she moves from place to place. She writes Sally and calls her regularly.
'Night and Day, the aunts called them, and although neither girl laughed at this litte joke or found it amusing in the least, they recognized the truth in it, and were able to understand, earlier than most sisters, that the moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep.'
Sally has always just wanted a normal life. She doesn't want to be known as a witch. She ends up meeting a guy in town and marrying him. She and Michael have two daughters, and live happily until one day the 'deathbeetle' comes around and is heard clicking around Michael. Everyone knows that the 'deathbeetle' has come for Michael, but Sally refuses to believe it. Until one day, Michael is killed by a drunk driver. Sally goes through a depression for an entire year.
During that year, the aunts take care of Sally's daughters. When Sally comes out of her depression, she takes her kids and moves away to the city. Her eldest is angry with her and swears she will never forgive her. But soon enough Sally builds herself a new life, begins working as the school secretary and rasies her daughters by herself. They visit the aunts every year.
Sally and Gillian write to each other, but Gillian ever comes to visit. Until one night, Gillian shows up on Sally's front porch in need of help.
I won't give out any more details and spoil the story but it does get creepy and the book was hard to put down. I found it a wonderful read. There's magic involed in the plot with them being witches, but it's also a story about family, sisters and love.
I have quickly become a fan of Alice Hoffman's. After reading The Ice Queen and now Practical Magic, I will definitely read more of her novels.
'Practical Magic' the movie is one of my favorite films as well. The movie and the book are different in many ways. In the movie, the plot is centered mostly around the two Owens siters, and Sally's daughters are little girls. In the book, Sally's daughters are teenagers by the time a 36 year old Gillian comes to visit, and her daughters have a bigger part in the story. And for those who have seen the film, remember the part where Gillian is possessed towards the end? That doesn't happen at all in the book. Even though they changed the story alot for the movie, I enjoyed it anyway.
