The Rules of Magic

What a beautiful story. Lots of detail, was like watching a movie! It'll make you laugh, cry and go thru a whirlwind of emotions. Highly recommend reading this!

4½ stars. It has been quite a few years (a decade or two) since I first stumbled across Practical Magic in my teens. It is a singular novel full of beauty & sorrow, much like life, & I've often reread it, though the last time was more than a few years ago. But it always stuck with me (the movie was good, too, despite being vastly different from the book), so I was of course interested when I learned that The Rules of Magic, telling the story of Aunt Francis & Aunt Jet, was coming out. And I have to say that upon finishing this prequel, I feel very much similar to how I felt that first time reading Practical Magic.The Rules of Magic begins with Francis-- Franny-- & Bridget-- Jet-- as children in New York, & continues throughout the course of their lives, ending in the moments Practical Magic began, with a call from a serious little girl named Sally Owens who had just lost her parents. Like it's predecessor, it is filled with instances of magical realism & anecdotes about the dangers inherent in magic, love, & life. Franny & Jet also had a brother, Vincent, whose story is (in my opinion) the most tragic yet beautiful one of all of the siblings.I'm not sure if it's because I am older, but this book seemed to me to have a more serious side to it than Practical Magic did. Of course, when I first read that book I was a teenager, & thus related to the characters close to my age, whereas now some of the joys & sorrows that Jet & Franny experienced as they aged spoke to me more. Either way, I found it an easy to read book that on more than one occasion moved me to tears. The writing is both lyrical & fast paced, painting a picture but not bogged down in the details. Much of the advice & anecdotes shared will, I believe, speak to anyone who has fallen in love, lost someone they loved, lost themselves, or experienced any of the many perils that are the cost of living.I would definitely recommend The Rules of Magic first & foremost to fans of Practical Magic, but you do not have to have any familiarity with that book, as they both stand perfectly well on their own. I think it would be interesting to read them back to back, yo see what carries over from one to the other & to take new meaning from Practical Magic due to what I've learned reading The Rules of Magic. In fact, as soon as I finish writing this review I intend to find my old battered copy of the original & reread it with this prequel in mind. Obviously it will also appeal to fans of Alice Hoffman in general, & probably to anyone who enjoys any type of magical realism or books about witches (Paula Brackston comes to mind, among others, as an author with similar style & subject matter).Bottom line: if you're looking for a sweet & touching book that will stick with you long after you've finished it, filled with a multitude of highlightable lines & memorable bits of advice (magical & otherwise), then The Rules of Magic might just be the book for you.

This book was about Maria Owens family in 1960s NYC. Susanna Owens left home and made her to Paris to be a model. She practiced magic in those days. But after meeting and falling in love with a man only to have him die on her, she wanted to have a normal life. She married a doctor and had three children, Frances, Bridget, and Vincent, raising them with strict rules. No reading certain books, she sent them to an elite private school, but the children knew that they were different.When their magic starts to awaken they hide their gifts from their parents. When Franny, the oldest, was invited to her Aunt Isabelle's home in Boston. Susanna couldn't turn down her invitation, so all three kids went for the summer. That's when they discovered that they were witches. They found out about Maria's curse and the consequences of falling in love. Franny was the only one who listened to that rule. She avoided the curse at all costs.Jet, short for Bridget, had black hair as did Vincent. Franny had red hair. Both Jet and Vincent fell in love and paid for the consequences of doing so.After losing their parents on the same night that Jet lost her boyfriend, Jet loses her magic. Aunt Isabelle wants them to move in with her, but all three kids want to stay in New York. There they sell their home and buy a place where people visit them for their remedies.Vincent's life is tested when the draft for the Vietnam war comes knocking on their door. Due to their magic, he can cause no harm to others. So escaping the draft is his only way. Franny still loves her childhood sweetheart, but refuses to interfere with the curse. But when he gets injured in the war, she comprises to be with him. Jet will always mourn her love, visiting his grave every month.A fabulous story, one I definitely recommend reading.

Great read. Funny, sad, touching, silly and deep. The more I read, the more I liked it. You'll like it too.

I ordered this book when it was published, but after many false starts...I was determined to read it all the way through this summer. Before I had been too afraid to swim into the sadness in this novel, but this summer was a difficult one and turned the novel into a welcome companion. The magic threaded through nature and the nature threaded through prose is what sends me back to Hoffman again and again. When I finished the novel today, I closed the book and tapped my forehead, closing my eyes and maybe tearing up a little. Hoffman is that good. There are enough reviews here to tell you plot snippets, but it's the tenacity of Franny and Jet that felt more medicine than story this summer. But then story is medicine.

Never drink milk after midnight, always dance naked under the full moon, and perhaps don’t read this book expecting a wholesome, cozy experience like the first one. I wish I was Vincent *spoiler* and could run away from this miserable and melancholic piece of black soap.

What a fantastic magic realist novel, with characters I quickly came to care for, complex inner lives and relationships. Even better than the first novel, with neo-Pagan touches added in, potion recipes, a lovely portrait of a family.

Muy buen libro

For those of you that are regular followers of my blog you will know that I love a witchy read. Luckily a few of my friends in my book club also love these types of books so we decided to read the Practical Magic series together. We all loved the first book of the series, Magic Lessons, and were keen to start the next one. Whilst I had this as an eBook I opted for the audio.I flew through this book and literally could not stop listening. Prior to starting this series the only knowledge I had was based on the film version of practical magic. When I realised that this was about the two crazy aunts from the film I could not wait to find out more about their past.The story follows the three siblings, Franny, Jet and Vincent as they navigate into adult life. As children they were forbidden to use magic and their mother tried to treat them as normal children but they all knew that they were different to everyone else. When they suffer a tragic loss the siblings are forced to face adulthood alone and they use this opportunity to embrace their talents.Franny is the most sensible of the three and I feel that she sacrificed the most. She had a tough exterior but she felt every loss and every pain of her siblings. If it wasn’t for her I honestly don’t know what Jet and Vincent would of done. Franny’s relationship with April and Isabel was very interesting and an added bonus to the story.Jet was the most emotional of the three and definitely wore her heart on her sleeve. She lost so much so early on and I felt that she never recovered. Her story was the most heart breaking of all but I did like how quiet she was with some of her actions.Last but by no means least is Vincent, the most outgoing of the three and perhaps the naughtiest? Vincent wasn’t shy about who he was and early on, he was very curious of his families past. He was also the bravest of them all and decided to take the curse at face value. I loved his story and how it ended especially the link with April.As I’ve come to expect from Alice Hoffman, this story was littered with remedies and concoctions that I couldn’t get enough of. I was fascinated with the different herbs they used and hope it continues in the next two books. Another fantastic story that has made me even more excited to continue!

un plongeon dans le passé et la jeunesse de la fratrie Owens qui donne envie de revoir le film, et d'en savoir plus ! des personnages aussi attaquants qu'agaçants, qui mériterait chacun leur propre livre

Some parts I enjoyed far much than others. Bits of the story were a little bit repetitive, but others I really loved. Even though the characters seemed int resting at the beginning, they weren’t so much towards the end.