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 rohshey on

2 of 5 stars

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2.5

In life and in literature, witches often get a bad rap and Alice Hoffman tried to change that with this book.

In the heart of the story lies Owens siblings - Franny, Jet and Vincent - who are witches/wizards and suffer from a generation long family curse that entails any person who falls in love with them will die.

They cope with high-school mean girls, apply to college, play music and oh yes, can hear each other’s thoughts, move furniture with their minds and are unable to sink in water. But like every human being, the witches were doomed to lose the ones they love most.

It had an endearing start and I enjoyed the smooth writing but as I read I come to realize that I find it difficult to connect with the characters and the plot. It feels as if there’s a glass barrier between the story and myself. Since this is a character centric story, not being able to connect to the characters dampened my enjoyment. There were moments that I truly enjoyed and thought were well written, but they ultimately felt like sporadic unconnected flashes of light in a dark room.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 7 November, 2017: Finished reading
  • 7 November, 2017: Reviewed