Practical Magic

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman is the story of two sisters, Sally and Gillian Owen, who couldn't be more different. When the girls' parents die, the girls must move in with their strange aunts who live in a large, creepy house and meddle in the love lives of women in the town. Sally and Gillian grow up being taunted by the other children in the town for being strange and weird. Everything that goes wrong is always blamed on the Owens' girls. When they get older, spirited and carefree Gillian runs off with a man while practical and sensible Sally stays behind to raise a family. When Sally's husband dies, she takes her two daughters (also very different from each other) to New York in order to allow them to live a normal life. When something terribly wrong happens to her sister, everything that Sally has worked for in New York might be at risk. I picked up this book, because I loved the film so much. I would have to say that the film was better (for once) and the changing of verb tense in the book drove me a little insane (maybe just cause I'm an English major). All-in-all a fun, quick read. Read this book if you like magical realism, if you like stories about sisters, or if you're interested in a quick, fun read. I give it a 6.5 out of 10.