Reviews tagging 'War'

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

19 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

colorwriter's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective slow-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

4.0

Having read Practical Magic first, I enjoyed this book more. In Rules of Magic I enjoyed the dive into exploring the siblings and their respective gifts and their awareness and use of then throughout their lives whereas in Practical Magic the sisters seem unaware of their gifts entirely. I loved the expansion of the Owens family through distant cousin April and entire other branches of the family that weren't explored in Practical Magic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Mental illness

Minor: Incest, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

sophactuallyreads's review against another edition

emotional 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

How do I even describe this? This was such an engrossing read and after Magic Lessons, totally not what I was expecting. It’s the strongest of the three Practical Magic books so far— and my absolute favorite.

1) I think Franny is a contender for my favorite fictional character I’ve read this year.

I simply adored Franny’s character. Granted, I always have, from the moment I saw the movie for the first time (yes I saw it before reading the book). The harsh one, with a great sense of style (which is NOT reflected in the book, but I respect it). The real one when Jet sugar coated.

I loved seeing her character grow from a gawky teenage girl into the rock of the family. Her flaws made her interesting— I love how she had her hard edges and was stubborn. You don’t see protagonists quite like Franny in much, save for Little Women, maybe. Parts of me related to her as she had to pick up responsibilities, and I’m an only child. I don’t know what it was about Franny, but she was just the most lovable, cranky witch I’ve ever read about.

Also, I loved the ups and downs of her relationship. Her and Haylin were so engaging. I hated them at times and loved them by the end. Lewis was pretty funny too, and while I wish she would’ve had a familiar more like Cadin, I understood why Lewis was written as he was. Cheers to you, Lewis.

2) Vincent and Jet were pretty darn cool too.

I got irritated with them both at times. And and Hoffman’s decisions to… well, write a lot of what happened with Vincent, were pretty alarming. Like, if it wasn’t for Franny being so awesome, what she wrote Vincent having done would’ve made me stop reading. In ways it was more concerning than Magic Lessons, which also bothered me. I wish I’d checked TWs before starting, just so I would have been aware going into it that I would be uncomfortable once again!

Overall, I loved Vincent’s romance, and Jet’s relationship with a certain older man warmed my heart. It’s nice to see people come together despite their differences.

3) I just… really liked it. Plain as that.

It didn’t make me emotional quite as Magic Lessons did, but it was such a quick read and just made me happy to read. I would’ve finished it a lot sooner if I wasn’t working late. It was never a burden to pick up, instead leaving me excited to see what Franny and gang would do next.

I wish we had more from Franny and Jet’s perspective. Picking up the Book of Magic next so we’ll see! All in all, I just love this series.

Put magic and New England in the same sentence, and I’m here for it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death of parent, Incest, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: War

thalia16's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, War, Pregnancy, and Medical content

skysbooknook's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Alcoholism

Minor: War, Incest, and Cancer

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

haileyanne's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Beautiful writing from Alice Hoffman. Like Magic Lessons, Rules of Magic is basically a life story. It’s difficult to tell at any given moment what year it is and how much time has passed. It’s just a bit too much content. But it’s still beautiful and emotional, and I will be finishing the series. Audiobook is probably best. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Death

Minor: War

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