The Rules of Magic is my first book by Alice Hoffman. This is the prequel to Practical Magic. Practical Magic has been on my to-read list for a while but I think that it worked out that I read this first. This way I’ll have all the back-knowledge when I read the “first” book.

I really enjoyed this book! I was busy so I had to read it across a couple of weeks but I was able to get right back into it.

The Rule of Magic is the story of 3 siblings (2 witches) and a wizard growing up in the early 60’s; their trials and tribulations growing up in a family that has had a love curse on it since the 1600’s and magic is forbidden by their parents

I won’t say more about the plot for fear of spoiling the surprises throughout the book, but if you enjoy funny quirky stories this is the book for you!

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Franny, Jet, and Vincent are the three Owens "witches" living in NYC. While I never read Practical Magic, I've seen the movie. So my association with Franny and Jet were the actresses who played them on the big screen. Throughout the book I found myself drawn more to Jet, but her character wasn't developed nearly as well as Franny's. I wanted more for Jet than what she was given. Vincent's character would've been so much better had he not turned out to be gay. It just seemed so cliche and trite. I really thought something big - huge - was going to happen with his character and being gay just wasn't big or huge in my opinion.

If you're a fan of Practical Magic, you're obviously going to read The Rules of Magic.

THE RULES OF MAGIC (October 2017)
Alice Hoffman
Simon and Shuster, 384 pages
★★★★ ½

When it comes to cultural repetition, sequels get most of the bad press though, truth be told, prequels are far more likely to be awful. Do you know anyone who prefers any of the awful Star Wars prequels to the original? Did you ever hear anyone say they liked Go Set a Watchman more than To Kill a Mockingbird? Have you even met anyone who has read Scarlet or Before Green Gables? One of the many things that makes Alice Hoffman's The Rules of Magic a joyful read is that the prequel to her beloved Practical Magic is by far the superior novel. That's no dig at the original; Hoffman was a good writer back in 1995, but she's even better now.

The Rules of Magic takes the Owens family back two generations—to the childhood and young adulthood of Frances (Franny") and Bridgett ("Jet"), the eccentric aunts who will later raise Sally and Gillian in Practical Magic. In many ways, the two novels are the same story, though Franny and Jet grow up in New York City, not in a Massachusetts town a stone's throw from Salem. Fear not, they will make their way to that crooked Gothic house on Magnolia Street with its garden of herbal delights. There is no escaping the legacy of witchcraft surrounding Owens girls. Or, in this case, Owens children, as Susanna Owens and her husband, psychologist James Burke-Owens, also have a son, Vincent. Try as they will, these children cannot be what their peers consider normal. Franny is taller than most children, has blood red hair, loves Emily Dickinson poems, and possesses animal attraction in both senses of the word. She is the serious and pragmatic counter to her beautiful, reticent, kind, raven-haired, thought-reading sister Jet, and their reckless, lazy, musically gifted, conjuring younger brother Vincent. (For me, Vincent evokes a young Jim Morrison.) Susanna desperately wants a conventional life for her children and lays down the book's namesake rules: "No walking in the moonlight, no Ouija boards, no candles, no red shoes, no wearing black, no going shoeless, no amulets, no night-blooming flowers, no reading novels about magic, no cats, no crows, and no venturing below Fourteenth Street." And there's another: Don't fall in love. Affection bonds are doomed because of a 17th century family curse and an eventual brush with Salem witchcraft inquisitor John Hathorne*—the only judge from 1692 who never expressed regret for the trials.

It gives away nothing to say that Susanna's brood will break the rules. After all, if they don't, we'd have a paragraph, not a novel. The book opens in 1960, the cusp of when bending rules is about to become the new norm. There is also the matter of the heart desiring what the heart desires, plus let's not forget that Susanna has a sister living in Massachusetts who is equal parts witch, social worker, and cranky crone. Aunt Isabelle plies her nieces and nephew with "tipsy chocolate cake" whenever they visit, and she knows full well that Susanna's desire to suppress her children's essential nature can only come to a bad end. Her rules of magic are simpler: "Do as you will, but harm no one."

If you've already read Practical Magic, you will find tremendous similarity between it and its prequel: animus toward differences, lingering historical fears, curses, spite, white magic, difficult personalities, and the precariousness of all relationships between the enchanted and non-gifted. But Hoffman spreads literary fairy dust to keep us spellbound in the details of how the dramas unfold. Her characters have depth, her prose is graceful, and intersecting stories are well crafted. Fans of Practical Magic will revel in new details about the Owens family, but the best thing about a well-done prequel is that you need not have read (or remembered) it to appreciate The Rules of Magic. The only downfall of reading Rules first is that you might find Practical Magic tepid by comparison. It's pretty clear that Ms. Hoffman has perfected more tricks in the past 22 years.

Rob Weir

Postscript: This novel is not slated to release until October, but orders are being taken now. I read a pre-release copy courtesy of Netgalley.

*Those who have read The Scarlet Letter will know that John Hathorne bore a curse of his own. Nathaniel Hawthorne changed the spelling of his surname to disavow his ties to his ancestor.

#alicehoffman
#simonshuster

"Know that the only remedy for love is to love more."

This book managed to kick me out of my book slump. Cried several times even when reading the happy parts.

4.5 stars - highly recommended 👍🏼

I devoured The Rules of Magic. I was hooked from the very first page. The characters are complex and fully developed, and I loved being able to step into the world of magic and being born a witch. This is the first book I've read by Ms. Hoffman, and I am eager to read many more.

A beautiful historical fiction story about love, loss, family, and magic. The stories of the three siblings were each well developed and nicely balanced against each other so it always felt like one larger story instead of separate plots. It stands as a strong prequel to Practical Magic, but could easily be read on its own without prior knowledge of the other book.

A magical book full of memorable characters. This prequel to Practical Magic is a wonderful standalone novel. Fall in love with the Owens family all over again.

Thank you to netgalley for the copy of THE RULES OF MAGIC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I gave it a four star, although I think it was at about 3.5 for me. Let me start by saying I have not read her first book, and I know this was a prequel. It read fine as a standalone, but I can imagine it would be fun to read it after already connecting with many of the characters. It was extremely descriptive, and at times I thought too much, but I really enjoyed the story and how it unfolded. It covered a large span of time, but moved quite seamlessly through. It may not have been my favorite story, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Worth the read.

Alice Hoffman's novels read like modern day fairy tales. The prose is lyrical, beautiful. The characters are unique and the storylines infused with magical elements.

The Rules of Magic follows Franny and Jet Owens - the great aunts to Sally and Gillian Owens in Practical Magic, Hoffman's earlier work which was turned into a movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman - and their younger brother Vincent from their teen years through adulthood. The Owens siblings grow up through the 1960s against the background of social justice reform and rebellion while dealing with burgeoning sexuality, coming of age in a changing world, exploring their magical abilities, and dealing with the curse Maria Owens set upon her descendants: that anyone who loved an Owens would come to ruin.

The Rules of Magic is the prequel to Practical Magic, but functions beautifully as a standalone novel.

A beautiful book about love, loss, family, and growing up with unique attributes. Lush descriptions of scenery in NYC, Paris, Boston are enjoyed while reading this story filled with emotions and symbolism. Thank you Alice Hoffman for another gorgeous story!

I'll tell you about the magic, and it'll free your soul
But it's like trying to tell a stranger 'bout rock and roll

If you believe in magic, come along with me
We'll dance until morning 'til there's just you and me
And maybe, if the music is right
I'll meet you tomorrow, sort of late at night
And we'll go dancing, baby, then you'll see
How the magic's in the music and the music's in me

Yeah, do you believe in magic

Yeah, believe in the magic of a young girl's soul
Believe in the magic of rock and roll
Believe in the magic that can set you free
Ohh, talking 'bout magic

- Lyrics by John Sebastian

”There is no remedy for love but to love more. –Henry David Thoreau

”The Rules of Magic” is a prequel to Alice Hoffman’s “Practical Magic” , which I have not read, so I can’t compare the two, but this was just magical, and I still feel a bit under its spell, wishing for more.

Cursed. For the Owens family, love has been something to avoid, a curse harkening back to 1620, when loving the wrong man sealed the fate of an entire family.

More than three hundred years later, over six hundred solstices later, the Owens family is still avoided, eyed suspiciously by all who live there, where some members of the family still lived in Massachusetts.

When she was younger, Susannah had left it all behind, gone to Paris and returned to live in New York City, where she sits on this morning June, 1960 opening an invitation for her eldest daughter, Franny, to visit her Aunt Isabelle. A tradition, once they’ve turned seventeen. Their father objects, but tradition wins, on the condition that her younger siblings, sister Jet, and brother Vincent, accompany Franny. Their lives are about to change, even as the country is poised on the cusp of a change most are unprepared for.

They’ve known from the start that they are different from others, but their mother had kept them from exploring their abilities by establishing rules. Rules only go so far, especially for these exceptional children about to be immersed in a magical setting, filled with flourishing gardens and magical herbs and familiars. Still, there is one rule they all know, whatever you do, do not fall in love. Love is perilous.

Family is everything, and the theme of family is at the heart of this novel about a family and the weight and heartache of secrets and loss, and the power of love to overcome, the inescapable feeling that they will never fit in, no matter how hard they try.

The Stonewall Riots, Vietnam, The Summer of Love, the inaugural Monterey Pop Festival … these are in the past, but the events of that era infuse this story, grounding you solidly in a time that is felt and seen, if only through the eyes of the past.

The characters are wonderful, charmingly quirky, sometimes peculiar, but never boring. The writing is wonderfully descriptive, occasionally humorous, and filled with the magic of love, in all its many forms. This reads as though it were conjured by magic, the words flowing freely, an enchanted labor of love.

Recommended

Pub Date: 10 Oct 2017


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Simon & Schuster

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I wasn't sure if it would be my thing or not, but I found it to be well-written and an intriguing plot line. I did not read Practical Magic (or see the movie) but that did not seem to matter in reading this one. There were a few places where I was a little confused, and I felt like the book jumped around a bit at times, and maybe if I had read PM first I might not have felt that way, but generally it works as a stand-alone. Hoffman has an easy writing style that I just works for me. The characters were fabulously developed and she was able to weave the magic and fantasy in without going over the top, so that you felt like witches and magic just might be a real possibility. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to picking up Practical Magic as one of my upcoming reads.

4.5/5 I really enjoyed this- and this is coming from someone who hasn't read Practical Magic or seen the movie (although I definitely will now). I'd recommend this to anyone who likes Sarah Addison Allen's books- especially the Waverley books. The Owens family has a similar sort of magic- not the all out magic like in the Harry Potter books, but a more subtle magic that has a romantic sort of feel. A star-crossed lovers, creatures respond to you sort of magic.

An absolutely beautiful story of family, love, destiny and heartbreak. I loved every page of this delightful book - even the ones that made me cry. Without a doubt, one of the most satisfying novels I've read this year.

Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
First let me start by saying, I am a big fan of Alice Hoffman, having read four of her previous novels, (The Dovekeepers, The Marriage of Opposites, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, Faithful) so in spite of the fact that I don't believe in magic and witchcraft I was looking forward to reading this book.
The Owens family has had a curse on them since the 1600's when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man. Fast forward to the 1960's where the current Owens family, siblings Franny, Jet, Vincent, their parents and their Aunt Isabelle are still dealing with the "curse".
America in the late 1960's, the Summer of Love in San Francisco, the Vietnam War, draft evaders, homosexuality, its all beautifully described here as it takes the reader through the years from New York to Massachusetts, to California to Paris. I am always awed by the research that goes into Alice Hoffman's novels and the wonderful story telling she does.
With all this said, I struggled with this book, because I just couldn't identify with the Owens family's obsession with the curse and their beliefs that anything bad that happens was a direct result of that curse. I found it unbelievable that in 20th century America, people would believe in having the "sight" , seeing into other people's minds, looking into the future, herbal remedies for everything, etc.
So if I could rate this book for research and storytelling (5 stars) and the value for me as a reader (3 stars) I would do so. But since it's only one rating I will give it a generous 4 stars.
Thanks NetGalley, Simon and Schuster and Alice Hoffman for the advanced copy.

When I received this galley, it included a note from the publisher portraying this book as holding a power to change its reader. At least, that's what I took away from the note. I thought that it was a bit of a dramatic note.
Nonetheless, it was completely spot on. It has changed a part of me. I can remember things I had forgotten. Makes sense since the story of the characters has much to do with forgetting and reconciling who they are, the bloodline they claim, how they will live their lives.
Just like that I realized that this was a family saga- a genre that usually causes me to run away. AH is a rare storyteller in that she blends the story and settings in a natural, clean manner. Her 3 main characters are equally important in the story, although there is a central figure, the plot gives significant time to each of their stories.
This is a prequel to AH's book Practical Magic. As the publisher's note indicated, you do not need to have read that book to appreciate this one. I haven't read Practical Magic, a status that I'm going to change asap! The Rules of Magic truly stole my heart and it will do to you, too. Well, there I go sounding like the publisher's note. ;-)

A magical read. This prelude to 'Practical Magic' allows Hoffman to develop the characters' formative years. This is an energetic narrative of teenagers trying to make sense of a world where their particular talents are feared and reviled.

This is my fourth Hoffman title read, and what is apparent with her writing is that she is a magnificent storyteller. Her books have a comfortable flow to them, even when they are dealing with tragic circumstances as in At Risk. She fleshes out her characters in a way that makes the reader feel like they have known them for years. They are stories that make me a little sad when I sit down to read and I realize I have finished the previous Hoffman title I was reading. I always want more.

This book is the prequel to Practical Magic, and it was dark and brooding and, well... magical. As usual with Hoffnan's novels there are sociopolitical undertones and psychological elements, but they move within the storyline like shadows, gently giving the reader insight without taking over the narrative. If you want be caught up in a story and carried away by the words, this book is what you are looking for.

Before Gillian and Sally there was Franny, Jet and Vincent. Those are the souls we need be concerned with in The Rules of Magic. The mantra for the Owens children is: no walking in the moonlight; no red shoes; never wear black; do no harm and never fall in love. Easy words that become difficult if not impossible tasks to accomplish. All they want is love, to be loved and to be able to love. The price to be paid is extreme and devastating.

Written with the greatest perception of growing up different in the difficult era of the late 1950s when conformity ruled, the Owens children are beautiful, moody, bright, talented, oddly buoyant and outsiders. Simply put they are not like anyone else. Franny’s seventeenth birthday brings an invitation to visit Aunt Isabelle on Magnolia Street in Massachusetts. The game is now afoot, magic is in the air and the story becomes a tale of Courage or Caution through the decades traveling from New York, to Massachusetts, to France and California.

I finished this book several days ago and have been thinking about why I am having the greatest difficulty trying to express my enjoyment and appreciation of Ms. Hoffman’s considerable talents. She has mastered the artistry of words. Her ability to grasp an emotion and wring it for everything it is worth is extraordinary. And the tale continues and it makes sense and you want more. There was so many memorable sentences to tuck away for future reference. “What is meant to be is bound to happen, whether or not you approve.”

It has been over a decade since I have read Practical Magic but I am headed to the library to check out a copy to reread and continue the journey of the Owens family.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC.