The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Rules of Magic (Practical Magic, #0.2)

by Alice Hoffman

From beloved author Alice Hoffman comes the spellbinding prequel to her bestseller, Practical Magic.

Find your magic.

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is a story about the power of love reminding us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself.

Reviewed by Amber (The Literary Phoenix) on

4 of 5 stars

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Reading adult magical realism is such a change from YA magical realism, even when the characters are the same age (for most the book). I enjoyed Practical Magic and read it a couple times in high school. I have a battered, beat up copy I bought secondhand in eleventh grade that desperately needs replacing. When The Rules of Magic was introduced, I was SO EXCITED. Then my best friend read it and fell completely in love with the story, so even though it stagnated on my TBR, I was excited to read it.

I didn't love this books as much as I wanted to.

Don't get me wrong - it's beautifully written. Hoffman tells three different love stories, and she tells them expertly. She captures the feel of the world Franny, Jet, and Vincent live in without weaving in too much flowery language or dramatic flourishes. Simply put, the writing here is raw and lovely. The story is heartbreaking and beautiful. The end is a bit stiff for my tastes, but I appreciate that she transitioned into meeting the girls from Practical Magic.

Overall, I think people will continue to love this book. It's vibrant and sorrowful. It's just very, very slow. You have to fall in love with the characters, or else this book will be a chore. But Alice Hoffman is a very gifted writer, and you are bound to fall in love with one of the characters, even if you do not love all of them. Franny was my favorite, but I can see people falling in love with both Jet and Vincent as well.

Longtime fans of Hoffman's work will love this book, and new readers will fall for her careful, elegant writing. I think that this book deserves all the hype - I just wished I had gone into it a little more level-headed myself. The witchcraft is subtle and melds right in with the book, and there's no high action. Be prepared for a journey.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 January, 2019: Finished reading
  • 25 January, 2019: Reviewed