Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

52 reviews

gabrieldorian's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

pinto_los_flores's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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

4.0

Alice Hoffman explains the wide spectrum of male attention perfectly. I feel like I’ve been every single one of these women at some point or another. I found every woman wildly relatable.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Bullying

matcha_cat's review

dark medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Murder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Death of parent

moonlightreads007's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I really enjoyed reading this book! The plot unfolded at a relatively slow pace, but you can tell that the author has phenomenal story-telling skills based on how they describe every aspect of the story such as the characters' thoughts and feelings, the intricate detail included in each story, as well as the lessons learned from the stories and how the characters went on to apply (or not apply) those lessons in their own lives. The story really sucks you in - once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down! Thematically, the book also explores the topic of moulding yourself to fit in vs. standing out and being your authentic self, as the women in this book grapple with this issue as they explore their identities both within and outside of magic. Another interesting theme was the ever-changing nature of their relationships and life circumstances, and how those changes affected their relationships with each other as well as how they adapted to those changes. All in all, this was a very fun, interesting read and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about friendships, family and magic✨️😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Bullying

Minor: Death of parent and Animal death

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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

Blended reading (audiobook + physical)

The Details:
Narrated by Laurence Bouvard
Unabridged

Mild spoilers will be in this review as I talk about different parts of the book.

I was initally apprehensive about the lack of chapters, but I needn't worry about that because everything just flowed in such a gentle storytelling way. It was also helpful that it was broken into parts.

I wasn't expecting such a generational saga, but I loved growing up with the sisters Sally and Gillian as they went to live with their peculiar aunts in Superstition. It was interesting to see little bits of witch craft, and from the little snippets of the movie I've seen (only very small scenes out of context), I was surprised that there was a lot of hexing and manipulation of love. It was fascinating to see how both of the very opposite sisters felt about it and also how everyone around them changed their views in different ways as they grew up. I felt like Sally was always getting the short straw of life, rather unfairly, just for being kind and not as bold and carefree as her little sister, so when she finally got a chance at love later on in this part and had a family I was so happy.

In Premonitions I'm happy that Sally was still a main character but the focus shifted on her two children growing up and mirroring the experience her and her sister had with school. I also loved seeing the OG sisters, who had become more and more estranged, reconciled at last.... but not over wholesome circumstances.
The lilacs haunting the sisters, suddenly reminded me of a scene from Weep, Woman, Weep and I wonder if that was inspired by Practical Magic. A pivotal development in this part was Kylie's 13th birthday and that did not go anyway I was expecting it to!

With the way that part ended, I was super interested to see how Clairvoyance would progress the story futher, now that Kylie was coming into her own. The story really developed here as powers were further unearthed and consequences began to come to a head for the run up to the conclusion.

It's weird how fond of the aunts I was, despite them feeling more like off page characters. I missed them and the cats so much when we were following everyone else living their lives.

The whole feel of this story was very whimsical and cosy and felt as if you were being narrated through this odd life, that wasn't super out of the ordinary, but enough to make you second glance. I absolutely adored it and am looking forward to reading the sequel and two prequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Addiction, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Stalking, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Car accident

colorwriter's review

emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

3.5

It took me a bit to get into it as it's a very different style of writing than I'm used. This is a charming and unique style of prose and the author did a great job of describing each person's perspective of the family dynamics, making if feel realistic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Car accident, Drug use, Death of parent, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

oh_bother's review

dark funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.0

Wanted to love this as much as I adore the film adaptation. The stream of consciousness and switching between narrators randomly was jarring and hard to follow. A lot of boring stuff. Not enough magic. But still found myself rooting for the characters and being charmed a few times. The movie was better but this is different enough that maybe they should be judged separately. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Abandonment

lahariel's review

slow-paced

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

2.5

I was surprised that the movie was so much better than the book. It's written in a manner that is purely exposition, with only a few moments of character dialogue sprinkled in for flavor. If you're looking for something "witchy," you're going to be disappointed. Only the aunts dabble in any sort of spellwork and they're barely in the book. I guess you could consider Jimmy's situation a bit spooky, but he's often treated as a lingering afterthought until an ending is finally needed.

Hoffman loves to wax poetic about every character's entire background (and I mean EVERY character) for pages on end before getting back to the heart of the plot. There are multiple times when I felt like the story just ambled away on me, because ultimately this book is about seizing love in the moment, so it's all about the characters falling in and out of love, seemingly at random, the second they look at anyone.

My recommendation is to just watch the movie.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

Unique writing style; I liked it but it may not be for everyone. The pacing was pretty weird, a lot got packed in to the last 15% or so of the book. And I’m not sure how I felt about how casually the author wrote about domestic violence. This may be the rare case where the movie is better than the book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

marieeveparentroy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Death, Alcohol, and Death of parent