Reviews

Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman

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shelbysimps's review against another edition

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slow-paced

4.0

snazel's review against another edition

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This book, for me, falls in the very rare category where I like the movie better than the book? For a variety of reasons.

First of all is that the movie is much more practical (heh) about its magic, while the book is must more of the "magical realism" type, where it's really unclear what is magic and what isn't.

Second of all, in the book the emphasis is much, much stronger on the romance side than on the sister-relationship side. The owens women really are not happy until they're in romantic relationships, they don't become really themselves, fully women, fully alive and present, until they're in love (with a hearty sprinkling of lust). Even their relationships with each other are catty, backstabbing and venomous until they're in love. (In love with men, there is no mention of any lgbtq relationships at any time.) Three of those relationships are love at first sight, which is not really my jam.

And third of all, there's just a non-trivial amount of physical violence paired with romantic love through the whole book.

Spoiler

There's a bunch of mention of domestic violence in flashbacks, some of which comes RIGHT up to the edge of rape, if not crossing that line. The whole notion of consent and what happens if you don't have it is just really not interrogated at all. Someone who we're supposed to see as a beautiful romantic man thinks about how he'd like to "make love to her right here, he’d like to do it all night and not give a damn about anything else, and not listen if she told him no." He's not that kind of man and never will be, we're told, which makes it fine, but I'm really not psyched about that glimpse of an internal monologue. This is the same guy whose grandfather told him to shake a woman by the throat if you get lost in her eyes, cause she's a witch. And suicide! It's mentioned in passing, sort of as a description of how beautiful she is, that two men killed themselves for love of Aunt Jet, in horribly violent ways, and she didn't notice.

There was probably more on this subject, I just didn't notice all of it cause I was skimming my way onwards from about the 40% mark.

So not for me, really. Really enjoyed the movie, wish the book had like even half of the sisterhood.

vanessa_issa's review against another edition

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5.0

Eu simplesmente amo essa história! O filme já faz parte da minha vida há muitos anos e, por gostar tanto dele, eu tinha medo de ler o livro e acabar me decepcionando de alguma forma. Mas, não! A adaptação foi realmente muito bem feita e adorei conferir a versão original.

vanessa_issa's review against another edition

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5.0

Como eu amo essa história! Para os que nunca leram, não esperem que seja igualzinha ao filme, porque não é. Muita coisa é diferente. As filhas da Sally já são mais velhas, por exemplo. Mas toda a essência dos personagens é a mesma. Foi ótimo reler e ver que continuo amando da mesma forma.

rebekkaemmi's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

jennaparker3's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

pretty good but for some reason it didn’t really hold my attention like i was hoping. i like the modern witches concept but wish a little more magic was involved.