Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

11 reviews

thebibutterfly's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

A beautiful, poignant book that was well written, but I was unprepared for the sheer number of deaths in this one, many of which were devastating. The massive time skips can be a tad jarring, but the ending was quite a full circle moment. My main issues with this book were the *multiple* incestuous relationships and an Adult/minor relationship.

They were said to be distant cousins in both cases, but still. It seemed incredibly weird that Bridget wasn’t even told until afterwards and that April practically jumped Vincent in his own bed, then blamed him for getting her pregnant. Further still, that Isabel didn’t intervene despite having “the sight” and claims that she always knew what was going on. That was all handled very poorly, in my opinion.

This one was overflowing with triggering topics, but most were handled fairly sensitively.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Child death, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Death, Incest, Sexual content, War, and Homophobia

ksilvio's review against another edition

dark hopeful 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and War

Minor: Animal death and Murder

ginbat's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Easy to get sucked into. Perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket, Wes Andersen, Forrest Gump and The Little Prince.

The plot is somewhat sad/bittersweet. But the true art is in the writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Grief, and Addiction

Moderate: Death of parent, Incest, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use, Terminal illness, War, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Cancer, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, and Forced institutionalization

There may be a lot of triggering things in this book, but because of the way the book is written, they pass by quickly to move on to the next (also triggering) thing. Death happens relatively frequently for instance, but specifically the death of a parent isn't a repeated thing. If something triggers you but you still want to continue reading, it's generally pretty easy to skip a few pages and then it won't be brought up again. Except for death!! If someone dies that shit is brought up like crazy! Incest:

is it really incest if it's your ninth cousin twice removed?

Addiction/Alcoholism:

One of the main characters becomes and alcoholic at like 14

Death/Grief:

people lowkey drop like flies and then people are sad about it

kbaker45's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Confinement, Death of parent, Bullying, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Animal death, and Pedophilia

chasingpages1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Alcoholism, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Abandonment, War, Animal death, and Homophobia

bookishfaye's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad 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

3.5

I love Alice Hoffman’s whimsical & folkloric witchy writing and the way she writes the Owens & their magic & curse & trauma & the history of the world around them so much!!!!!!!! God damn I love the Owens family 😤😤😤; I will definitely be continuing these books!! That being said, this book had some…. issues: 

1. The incest. There was literally no reason for it, & I know she had to include it because she had written it into Practical Magic already like almost 20 years previously, but hated that it was even there at all.

2. The lack of diversity. Hoffman tells such a profound generational story with these books & it would benefit so much more from being more diverse. Magic Lessons definitely had diversity, but this one was very bland on that front, apart from

Vincent’s

queerness (which i take issues with in some ways as well)

3.

Vincent’s journey to discovering his sexuality was a really annoying queer trope. Spoilers ahead: we follow Vincent as he sleeps with his older cousin (impregnating her in the process, & it is her daughter Regina’s kids who we follow in Practical Magic), & then his 30+ year old neighbour when he’s 14 years old. The way it’s written makes it seem mutual and him just “sleeping around,” but homie was being groomed & writing that situation in the way Hoffman did did not sit right with me at all. Vincent then becomes kind of a player, sleeping around with women quite often, before eventually realizing that he’s not attached to them because he’s actually attracted to men.

Yes, I realize this is a real thing that a lot of queer people go through in their journeys in real life, but something about a straight white women representing queerness only in this way doesn’t feel cool. 

Someone give me a diverse & queer Practical Magic style generational saga right MF NOOOWWW

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Car accident, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Cancer, Grief, Toxic relationship, and War

martamae77's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: War, Sexual content, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide attempt and Animal death

cararock's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, and War

alanahhill's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cancer, Car accident, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, and Medical trauma

allyhoo811's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

While I enjoyed Practical Magic, I found myself loving this second installment in the series. It was everything I loved about its predecessor, but better. There was more magic, more witchiness, and more character development -- Plus less absurdity. What's not to love? All things considered I give this book 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5). There were two small issues that dampened my enjoyment a tad, but overall a great read!

My Issues:

1. There was still too much insta-love. It was somewhat better than Practical Magic in this regard, but it was still too much for me personally. I know this series is supposed to have a fairytale feeling about it, but it just doesn't work for me in this regard.

2. I wanted more resolution to what the "curse" really was. Towards the end of the book, it seemed like the author was trying to get across the message that the curse had always just been in the minds of the family members, but then when Sally and Gillian's parents died it was written as if the curse had caught up with them. Doesn't ruin the story, but I didn't like feeling that you could actually trick the "curse", by doing things like changing your name or by living separately and not marrying.

Note: This story is told by a third person, omniscient narrator. There is a lot of head hopping. I found it worked fine for me (when it usually doesn't), but just know that going in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Terminal illness, and Cancer

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt