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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
Magic Lessons: The Prequel to Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
13 reviews
gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
5.0
Ah! What a beautiful, enchanting prequel. This was written just as wonderfully as practical magic and I adored it just as much.
Hoffman writes generational, magical stories about women so fantastically.
I loved learning how the Owen's curse began and who began the legacy, and growing with them. I felt attached deeply to Hannah, Maria and Faith and though some decisions took characters down some dark roads, the character development that came from that was phenomenal.
There's a few heart wrenching animal deaths that absolutely broke me, so just prepare if things like that greatly upset you too.
The writing was lush and rich. I always adore the little spell work included between chapters/parts. It just feels so wholesome and perfectly placed.
Overall, I adored this so much!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Genocide, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual content, Infidelity, Infertility, Death, Dementia, Child abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Stalking, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Pedophilia, Blood, Medical content, and Violence
mary_juleyre's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
honeymoonleo's review against another edition
adventurous
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Misogyny
chasingpages1's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, and Death
Moderate: Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Stalking, Confinement, and Infidelity
Minor: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Infertility, Slavery, Sexual content, and Dementia
vistacanas's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
“Tell a witch to go, and she’ll plant her feet on the ground and stay exactly where she is. Instead of doing as she’s told, she’ll take a knife to her arm and let her blood drip onto the ground, and in that way she will claim the earth for herself and for her daughters and for all the daughters who follow her. It is the future she’s claiming, the right to be a woman who can do as she pleases.“
With every book I read about witches, I feel more and more connected to a tribe. Definitely not a typical one. This tribe isn’t restricted by the boundaries of time and place. It’s filled with countless generations of strong women who were/are deeply connected to nature and use its gifts to heal. They refused to follow the herd and be stifled by the patriarchy. They are my sisters.
This book is the prequel to Practical Magic…I have the full series and chose to read them in chronological order. It is the story of the matriarch of the Owen witches that takes place in the late 1600s in England, Curaçao, Salem, and New York.
Although it’s magical realism, you learn a lot about history…of each place and the plight of those women who chose to live on the edges.
The plot was formulaic, thus predictable…it was the characters that kept me turning the pages. Alice Hoffman has a gift for character development.
The two biggest detractions for me were the magical realism and Hoffman’s diversions into Jewish history. My personal preference is for more realistic fiction, so that’s totally on me. I think more readers would agree with me that the breaks from the story to educate us on the plight and contributions of Jews were overindulgent, wholly unnecessary and mild to moderately irritating.
Looking forward to reading Practical Magic, which I’ve heard is very different than the movie.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, and Infertility
Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Abortion, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Torture, and Slavery
srredd5's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, and Kidnapping
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
oliviaburley's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, and Pregnancy
waytoomanybooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It's been a while since I've been so gripped by a book! It has all of my favorite tropes: magical realism, female empowerment, deep personal connections, female joy, women supporting women, and strong mother-daughter relationships. I love that the core theme of the book is love of all kinds: familial, romantic, friendship, pets, and even neighbors.
A recurring line is that what you put out into the world will come back threefold. And I love that it really makes you reflect on your own choices, on your own energy. The book also repeats the line that what has been done cannot be undone. How are you living your life? What can you change?
I love that it made me think and hit me right in the chest with insights and self-reflection right along with the characters. I constantly had a highlighter handy because there was so much that stood out to me that I wanted to go back to. I went back a few times throughout the novel and sayw deliciously perfect morsels of foreshadowing, which makes it perfect book to reread and get something new out of it or notice something that you missed the first time.
I highly recommend this book!
A recurring line is that what you put out into the world will come back threefold. And I love that it really makes you reflect on your own choices, on your own energy. The book also repeats the line that what has been done cannot be undone. How are you living your life? What can you change?
I love that it made me think and hit me right in the chest with insights and self-reflection right along with the characters. I constantly had a highlighter handy because there was so much that stood out to me that I wanted to go back to. I went back a few times throughout the novel and sayw deliciously perfect morsels of foreshadowing, which makes it perfect book to reread and get something new out of it or notice something that you missed the first time.
I highly recommend this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Slavery, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Death, and Emotional abuse
j3mm4's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Listen. I love Alice Hoffman's writing, and I have ever since I bought a copy of Incantation at a Scholastic book fair when I was eight or nine years old, and I've loved every Owens Family book I've read of hers so far, but this one falls a little flat for me, both on a technique level and on an emotional level. Hoffman sticks to a very contemplative, internal monologue driven third person POV in these books, so you get told not only what's happening but how the people it's happening to feel about it and how the story wants you to feel about it an awful lot. I usually like it, because it's such a neat stylistic trick to keep things so free from traditional blow-by-blow action and still have them feel immediate and gripping, but in Magic Lessons, Hoffman's narration starts stumbling over itself, telling you thing after occasionally contradictory thing, and it doesn't feel like she's delving into an unreliable narrator or like she's revealing a change in understanding. It feels like a change of heart or of mind that wasn't contended with between drafts or by the editor.
And then, emotionally speaking, what happens to Faith makes me so angry. I understand it on a craft level; in order for the rules of the magic system to make sense, there have to be consequences for using the left-hand path, and Faith turning a blind eye both to the practical magic represented by both her bloodline and the teachings of the woman who gave that bloodline its name and to the warnings of her mother, the embodiment and origin point of both as far as the family lore is concerned, means she has to face consequences. The consequences being the loss of her sight and her access to magic at all is narratively fitting, and I fucking hate it. Why should she face such permanent and horrible consequences for something she did halfway when she was thirteen? For taking an inadvisable path to cope with the trauma of having been kidnapped and abused by a Puritan freak who kept her in irons so tight she'll live with permanently bruised indentations in her arms also until the day she dies to keep her "tainted blood" from manifesting itself and using the power she gained through dark magic after, again, five years of being made powerless by force primarily to help other abuse victims free themselves and get their own vengeance? Only, what, twice for selfish gains, and in the most egregious case, only to ensure that history remembered her violent, selfish, hypocritical biological father for the monster he was? She kills a bird, she doesn't kill Jonathan Hathorne, she tries to save her familiar when two drunk townies shoot him, she gets clapped in irons again and almost drowned (like her mother almost was!) and again only uses magic which is (to paraphrase) only as dark as the heart of the person it's used on and which barely even has an effect because she is in fucking irons to make her would-be murderers look like the monsters they are inside, and then watches the closest thing to a father figure in her life who she hasn't seen since she was a baby die saving her, and after her mom lucks into CPR and resuscitates him, she loses her powers altogether? Bullshit!
I get it on a craft level, I promise I do. There's even this constant direct address throughline about how you are who you are at your core no matter what you do, and therefore Faith is always good at her core even when she copes with trauma with a little bit of blood magic, and the sixth part of the book, the happy ending epilogue, makes a big stink about how the book she learned blood and dark magic from shouldn't be destroyed just because it was made by a woman who, because of how women were treated for most of human history, had no other choice to protect herself and others, and how it's the book that will one day undo the Owens curse. Faith is good, pain doesn't make you evil, even the worst ways you cope with pain can teach someone else something valuable that will help them escape or prevent or overcome their pain without it being an unhealthy coping technique - but if that's true, if pain doesn't make you evil, and if Faith is still good, and if what you do at your lowest can bring healing and warmth and safety for others, why can't it bring that for her? Why is she punished for how she handled being abused for five years? Why does she have to be cut off from "good" magic because it was stripped away from her by someone who decided all magic was "bad" and, when she got her power back, her fear and pain drove her to seek out the "bad" so she could protect herself and others like her? I get that Hoffman was going for restorative rather than punitive/retributive justice, but when it comes to thirteen-year-old girls who have spent more of their living memory being abused than being cared for and protected dedicating that energy to helping others and outing the one person who hurt her and the people she loves as the monster he is, I don't give a shit about restorative justice, I give a shit about that little girl being allowed to thrive and not being punished for how she coped with massive trauma when she was barely a teenager!
There are lots of things about this book that I love, and if I'd started writing this before I reached the climax, they'd all be listed with parenthetical citations and paragraph upon paragraph of gleeful dissection. But I liked the book so much that I didn't pause to start a review between sections, and now we all have to deal with the consequences.
And then, emotionally speaking, what happens to Faith makes me so angry. I understand it on a craft level; in order for the rules of the magic system to make sense, there have to be consequences for using the left-hand path, and Faith turning a blind eye both to the practical magic represented by both her bloodline and the teachings of the woman who gave that bloodline its name and to the warnings of her mother, the embodiment and origin point of both as far as the family lore is concerned, means she has to face consequences. The consequences being the loss of her sight and her access to magic at all is narratively fitting, and I fucking hate it. Why should she face such permanent and horrible consequences for something she did halfway when she was thirteen? For taking an inadvisable path to cope with the trauma of having been kidnapped and abused by a Puritan freak who kept her in irons so tight she'll live with permanently bruised indentations in her arms also until the day she dies to keep her "tainted blood" from manifesting itself and using the power she gained through dark magic after, again, five years of being made powerless by force primarily to help other abuse victims free themselves and get their own vengeance? Only, what, twice for selfish gains, and in the most egregious case, only to ensure that history remembered her violent, selfish, hypocritical biological father for the monster he was? She kills a bird, she doesn't kill Jonathan Hathorne, she tries to save her familiar when two drunk townies shoot him, she gets clapped in irons again and almost drowned (like her mother almost was!) and again only uses magic which is (to paraphrase) only as dark as the heart of the person it's used on and which barely even has an effect because she is in fucking irons to make her would-be murderers look like the monsters they are inside, and then watches the closest thing to a father figure in her life who she hasn't seen since she was a baby die saving her, and after her mom lucks into CPR and resuscitates him, she loses her powers altogether? Bullshit!
I get it on a craft level, I promise I do. There's even this constant direct address throughline about how you are who you are at your core no matter what you do, and therefore Faith is always good at her core even when she copes with trauma with a little bit of blood magic, and the sixth part of the book, the happy ending epilogue, makes a big stink about how the book she learned blood and dark magic from shouldn't be destroyed just because it was made by a woman who, because of how women were treated for most of human history, had no other choice to protect herself and others, and how it's the book that will one day undo the Owens curse. Faith is good, pain doesn't make you evil, even the worst ways you cope with pain can teach someone else something valuable that will help them escape or prevent or overcome their pain without it being an unhealthy coping technique - but if that's true, if pain doesn't make you evil, and if Faith is still good, and if what you do at your lowest can bring healing and warmth and safety for others, why can't it bring that for her? Why is she punished for how she handled being abused for five years? Why does she have to be cut off from "good" magic because it was stripped away from her by someone who decided all magic was "bad" and, when she got her power back, her fear and pain drove her to seek out the "bad" so she could protect herself and others like her? I get that Hoffman was going for restorative rather than punitive/retributive justice, but when it comes to thirteen-year-old girls who have spent more of their living memory being abused than being cared for and protected dedicating that energy to helping others and outing the one person who hurt her and the people she loves as the monster he is, I don't give a shit about restorative justice, I give a shit about that little girl being allowed to thrive and not being punished for how she coped with massive trauma when she was barely a teenager!
There are lots of things about this book that I love, and if I'd started writing this before I reached the climax, they'd all be listed with parenthetical citations and paragraph upon paragraph of gleeful dissection. But I liked the book so much that I didn't pause to start a review between sections, and now we all have to deal with the consequences.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Child abuse
bookishfaye's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is a very slow burn & very heavy on the historical elements so with that being said I can see how this book is maybe not for everyone. I have never seen or read practical magic & decided to go about the series in chronological timeline order so I’ve started with the story of Maria Owens. I absolutely loved every second of this book, it was beautiful, & heartbreaking, & hopeful, & devastating & I’ll be jumping right into The Rules of Magic Asap!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Violence, Chronic illness, Confinement, Abandonment, Animal death, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Sexism, and Toxic relationship