Practical Magic the book: A review of sorts.

I had the pleasure of seeing Practical Magic on the big screen when it first came out. I wasn't entirely sure what I was in for, I just knew it was about magic and that was enough for me. I fell in love. I think this is the very movie that made me love Sandra Bullock and want to watch all her movies.

There was so much about this movie I loved. The sisterhood. The them-against-the-world feel. The magic. The family bond. The final acceptance from those who previously ostracised them. I love this movie.

It wasn't until many years later that I found out it was based on a book and knew I had to read the book because books are always so much better... right? Life got in the way though and I never got around to reading the book until recently.

Did I mention that I truly love the movie? Well, if you do too and you haven't read the book, then I do not recommend reading the book. Usually, I agree that a book is better. That is not the case with this one. I was actually pretty disappointed with the book. It took me a really long time to get into it and I had to pack away Movie Sally and Movie Gilly and Movie Aunts. I can see the threads the moviemakers took from the book and I am actually truly grateful they created the movie the way they did. I may not have enjoyed the movie nearly as much if it had been truer to the book. 

That's not to say the book is entirely bad although I think part of my struggle was around how it was written. There was no single point of view and it flipped between POVs erratically and constantly. One minute you're reading as though you are in the experience of Sally and the very next sentence you've switched to the reading as though you are in the experience of Gillian. It's disconcerting to say the least. I do not enjoy this style of writing. It's almost like it is written in third person but then it's not. It's like the book can't decide whose POV to tell the story from and it can't decide if it's 1st person or 3rd person or somewhere in-between. There are even moments where it goes from present tense to past tense that left my head spinning.

I love the characters and their traits and personality quirks in the movie, it's what helps make the movie great. I do not enjoy the characters, their traits and personalities in the book. I love how covert the magic is in the movie. I do not enjoy the overtness of magic in the book or rather the way the book eludes to magic but denies its existence at every turn. Part of what I love about Practical Magic is that the characters Practice Magic. In the book, they do not. The Aunts are the only ones who overtly practice magic in the book. I missed the magic when reading the book. 

Once I packed away the characters I love so much and know so well from the movie though, I enjoyed the book more. By the end, I was rooting for the characters and wanting to see how it all turns out. I still just happen to think the movie writers wrote the story better. They chose Sally and told the story from her POV. It is just my preference, I think, that a story is told from one POV at a time and to have that POV be just one or two different characters. I will not read it again in this lifetime; however, I am glad I did read it. I am glad to know the story as it was originally told even if I prefer the Hollywood version of the story. I really enjoyed seeing the piece of writing here and there that was used in the movie or used for inspiration in the movie. I would love to read a book of the Hollywood version with the Hollywood characters and gain some more depth of the movie world, maybe I need to write that myself!

I did get the other two books in the series and reviews seem to like these better than Practical Magic so I'm looking forward to reading them. Perhaps Alice Hoffman's writing skills become more refined. The next one I'm reading is The Rules of Magic and is about the Aunts childhood, so I'm excited to read that. Then the third one is Magic Lesson's and is actually about Maria's life. So while they may be sequels, it seems like they get better each novel and I like the idea of reading backwards in time. 

In closing, if you like to read then I recommend reading the book if only to see how different it is yet still essentially the same as the movie. If you aren't a big fan of reading and you love the movie though, truly don't bother with the book. I wanted to read the book because I was hoping for more insight into Sally and Gillian from the movie. I got some insight into their minds but they aren't the same people from the movie, so it's not really what I was seeking. If you love the movie and you want to read the book though, I strongly suggest you bracket out the movie characters (to bracket out is to put aside, so do not take the movie characters with you into the book) and read the book with new eyes, with a clear mind and create new characters in your head because these characters are nothing like the movie characters.

In Joy!