As little girls, Sally and Gillian’s world turns upside down and they end up living with two elderly aunts in a mysterious old house on Magnolia Street in a sleepy Massachusetts town.
Practical Magic tells the story of Gillian and Sally Owens set contemporaneously to its publication at the close of the twentieth century. Each novel explores the themes of love, sisterhood, and women supporting women, always with a health dose of magic stirred in. Hoffman’s novels build prequel upon prequel as she works closer and closer to the root of the Owens’ family story and its curse. By reading all three novels together, I enjoyed a month of magically lovable witches battling the challenges and frustrations of being independent creatures in a world that doesn’t appreciate their unconventional style or power. Thus, I convened with the Owens family in Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic (1995), Rules of Magic (2017), and Magical Lessons (2020). I’ll be picking up a copy to read again, too, and I hope you’ll join me.As the days grew cooler and darker in October, I found myself increasingly drawn to mood reading books like Alice Hoffman’s magical series, in part because her latest prequel of the series came out early in the month. If you’re ready to bask in the spooky season this October, I can think of no better read than Practical Magic. I remember Teen Me being shocked at some of the differences between the two, but enough years have passed that I think it’s time to revisit the novel that launched a cult classic. Having watched the film at least 100 times over the past twenty years, it’s overridden my memory of Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel. Fear of the family curse sends the sisters down very different paths as adults, but when things go wrong, their sisterly bond is the only thing that can save them. Orphaned as children, the sisters move in with their elderly aunts, who soothe neighborhood accusations of witchcraft with brownies for breakfast. Women the town blamed when anything went wrong. The story follows Sally and Gillian Owens, descendants of powerful women. For years, every time I visited my dad, I hid myself away and played my recorded VHS, disappearing into a world of magic and loss and sisterhood. When I couldn’t read, I gravitated to my second favorite love-the Practical Magic movie. Yet on the weekends I spent with my dad, finding a quiet space to read could be tricky. Growing up, I read everything I could get my hands on, the more magical the better.
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