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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425190371
ISBN number: 0425190374
Label: Berkley Trade
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: August 05, 2003
Publishing house: Berkley Trade
Release Date: August 05, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 62661
Studio: Berkley Trade
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women had been blamed for everything that went wrong in their Massachusetts town. And Gillian and Sally endured that fate as well; as children, the sisters were outsiders. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, but all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One would do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they shared brought them back-almost as if by magic...
Amazon.com Review:
For most adults, fairy tales are among the childish things we've put away. Alice Hoffman, however, feels differently. Practical Magic starts out as a tale of Gillian and Sally Owens, two orphaned girls whose aunts are witches--of a mild sort. For the past two centuries, Owens women have been blamed for all that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town, ever since their ancestor arrived, rich, independent, and soon accused of theft: 'And then one day, a farmer winged a crow in his cornfield, a creature who'd been stealing from him shamelessly for months. When Maria Owens appeared the very subsequent morning with her arm in a sling and her white hand wound up in a white bandage, people felt certain they knew the reason why.' The aunts are daily ostracized by the same upstanding citizens who sneak to their house at night for magical love cures. To the sisters they are for the most part benevolently absent, though their bell, book, and candle routine makes life a torment for Gillian, beautiful and blonde and lazy, and Sally, who's all too responsible. But when one of the aunts' cures works too well, ending as a curse, the dangers of real love become all too clear. In Hoffman's world being bewitched, bothered, and bewildered is no mere metaphor--and neither is desire. The elbows of one enamored man pucker a linoleum counter, another walks around with singed cuffs. It's difficult to catch the author's power in brief quotes. She needs space and increment to build her exquisite variations of vision and reality, her matter-of-fact announcements of the preternatural. Practical Magic again and again makes one recall the thrill of hearing at bedtime, 'Now will I a tale unfold...' --Kerry Fried
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
Very good - Differs from the movie as it gives more insight into family life. At times, cannot put it down.
Rated by buyers 
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I very first saw the film when I was 17 and fell in love with the story. So after years of being a fan of the film I decided to try out the book. The book is nothing like the movie. I set that detail aside and decided to continue reading even though it was not the story I was hoping for. The book was dull with what I feel is poor character development. So 2 months after my purchase I still have several chapters to go and no real interest continue reading. Her style of writing is annoying at times when she tries to add poetic sequences in places where you just want information. Its likely I wont buy another book from this author.
Rated by buyers 
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For once, in the history of time, I've found that I like the MOVIE better than the book.
Such a shock.
This is still a good read, but having seen the movie first, I was disappointed that the characters weren't the same as the movie, and that there wasn't a fuller version of the story in the book, more on their witchy side, their lives filled in...
Well, their lives were filled in, but not as you'd expect the Sally and Jilly that you know from the big screen.
Alice Hoffman still pulls you in with her writing, she knows how to make it all real, sexy, and even dark.
A very good read - I'm just prejudiced by the movie!
Rated by buyers -
When their parents died, Sally stepped up to bad, calming the sitter down long enough to have her riffle through her mother's address book and called the aunts. If the aunts didn't step up to the plate, Sally and Gillian would become wards of the state.
The aunts took them in. While growing up, Sally and Gillian are teased and tormented while growing up, asll all Owens daughters are. Gillian, the youngest, rude and selfish, runs away at 18. Sally, ever so smart, calm and responsible, has done nothing but take care of them all, cleaning, laundry, healthy meals. She meets a man, falls in love and has two beautiful girls, Antonia and Kylie.
When her husband dies, remained in bed for year before she finally awakens and begins fresh. She's tired of the life she lives while in the aunts' house; Kylie, the youngest, is much like Sally, while Antonia is growing up just as spoiled, rude and selfish as her aunt Gillian. Desperate for a change, she buys a house on Long Island and moves the girls away.
And just when the monotony of life feels comfortable to Sally, Gillian shows up at her door in the middle of the night, her mean and abusive boyfriend, Jimmy, stone cold dead in the passenger seat of his car. In the heat of the moment, it's decided they'd bury Jimmy in the back yard.
And that's when their lives completely change...
While I thought the story was good, I had a hard time with it. Yes, the characters were interesting, watching them grow, and change from who they were to someone better, learning about themselves as they go along. When Hoffman wanted her character to be rude, the character was; happy, sad, determined... You could feel everything with the characters.
But I had such a difficult time reading this one. There were no chapters, only four parts - which made it a long story with no breathing room. It was getting to the point where my attention was wandering and I wanted to skim the pages, which I barely refrained from doing. There was no separation between scenes from the past, present, and future; it's reading memories as each of the characters are in focus, or what's to come later. And no differentiation between characters, either. And for me, that's a huge fault, and it took away from the book. I hate to say it, but if I'd read the book first, I may have never had the urge to watch the movie. And I own the movie on VHS and DVD.
However, I thought the feelings and lessons learned were beautiful. How each learned to love, forgive, forget, changing themselves into a better person, is the best part of the story. I'm rating this one 3.5 stars - I say read it and come to your own conclusions.
Rated by buyers 
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The book was delivered in excellent condition:) I was concerned when it did not arrive by the estimated date. Truckee has had some mail dilvery issues. I e-mailed the vendor and they responded very quickly:):) This put my mind as ease, and I received the book within a few days. Thank you so much. This vendor is absolutely wonderful to deal with :):):)
P.S. I am really enjoying this book!!!!
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