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A review by allyhoo811
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I just finished reading Practical Magic for the first time, and I have to say that I quite enjoyed it overall. It was a fun, whimsical, fast-paced story that kept me interested. So while I definitely liked this book, there were a few issues that kept me from loving it (I gave it a 4 star rating, but that is really more like 3.5 rounded up to a 4).
**Most of my issues with Practical Magic probably fall under the category of certain content just not aging well, so I'm factoring that into my review**
Pros:
The Fairytale Feel -- Practical Magic definitely has the narrative structure of a fairytale. The omniscient narrator recounts a story about fate, magic, and true love without really delving too deeply into character development and the long term ethical consequences of characters' actions. For me, it worked. There are a lot of things in this book that would normally leave me rolling my eyes and possibly dnf'ing (insta-love of epic proportions, deus ex machina type mechanics, things just sort of happening without a real explanation), but because of the intentional fairytale structure of the narrative it didn't really bug me in this case. If you treat this story as the fairytale that it is, you will enjoy it more.
The Strong Familial Relationships (especially related to sisterhood) -- This story really shines with regard to its depiction of the various relationships sisters have with one another. This part of the story felt very authentic, while still keeping with the fairytale feel of the book.
Cons:
Issues of Consent within Romantic/Sexual relationships: A large part of this story focuses on love potions and love at first sight interactions. These are two elements very common in fairytales and so it is hard to penalize the book too hard for treating theses elements so cavalierly, but it was very cringy to read at times. There were a lot of instances where there was dubious consent given in romantic encounters, and certainly no enthusiastic consent. There were also several instances that were downright rapey without being called out as such in the text (love potions involved). In the book's example of a "healthy, good" relationship the dude insta-falls for one of the main characters and basically harasses her until she "realizes they belong together." Not healthy, not good....but very fairytale! Some (but not all) of these sorts of issues can be explained by the era the book was written in.
"The Aunts:" My other big issue with Practical Magic is the character of "the aunts." I feel like I was supposed to like these two women and think they were good people, but I don't know...I felt like their business of selling desperate women love potions (even to the point of stealing away already married men) was just evil. Then when it didn't work out right, they were all, "that woman was a fool." Not acknowledging that they were giving very dangerous substances to women barely out of their teens and not explaining the consequences fully. I don't know...just not a fan.
Possible Content Warnings: Rape, Sexual Assault, Domestic Abuse (none are explicitly described)
**Most of my issues with Practical Magic probably fall under the category of certain content just not aging well, so I'm factoring that into my review**
Pros:
The Fairytale Feel -- Practical Magic definitely has the narrative structure of a fairytale. The omniscient narrator recounts a story about fate, magic, and true love without really delving too deeply into character development and the long term ethical consequences of characters' actions. For me, it worked. There are a lot of things in this book that would normally leave me rolling my eyes and possibly dnf'ing (insta-love of epic proportions, deus ex machina type mechanics, things just sort of happening without a real explanation), but because of the intentional fairytale structure of the narrative it didn't really bug me in this case. If you treat this story as the fairytale that it is, you will enjoy it more.
The Strong Familial Relationships (especially related to sisterhood) -- This story really shines with regard to its depiction of the various relationships sisters have with one another. This part of the story felt very authentic, while still keeping with the fairytale feel of the book.
Cons:
Issues of Consent within Romantic/Sexual relationships: A large part of this story focuses on love potions and love at first sight interactions. These are two elements very common in fairytales and so it is hard to penalize the book too hard for treating theses elements so cavalierly, but it was very cringy to read at times. There were a lot of instances where there was dubious consent given in romantic encounters, and certainly no enthusiastic consent. There were also several instances that were downright rapey without being called out as such in the text (love potions involved). In the book's example of a "healthy, good" relationship the dude insta-falls for one of the main characters and basically harasses her until she "realizes they belong together." Not healthy, not good....but very fairytale! Some (but not all) of these sorts of issues can be explained by the era the book was written in.
"The Aunts:" My other big issue with Practical Magic is the character of "the aunts." I feel like I was supposed to like these two women and think they were good people, but I don't know...I felt like their business of selling desperate women love potions (even to the point of stealing away already married men) was just evil. Then when it didn't work out right, they were all, "that woman was a fool." Not acknowledging that they were giving very dangerous substances to women barely out of their teens and not explaining the consequences fully. I don't know...just not a fan.
Possible Content Warnings: Rape, Sexual Assault, Domestic Abuse (none are explicitly described)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Rape