Practical Magic cover art

Practical Magic

The Practical Magic Series, Book 1

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Practical Magic

By: Alice Hoffman
Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
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About this listen

As children, sisters Gillian and Sally were forever outsiders in their small New England town, teased, taunted and shunned for the air of magic that seems to sparkle in the air around them.

All Gillian and Sally ever wanted was to get away. And eventually they do - one marries, the other runs as far from home as she can manage. Years later, however, tragedy will bring the sisters back together. And they'll find that no matter what else may happen, they'll always have each other.

Practical Magic is the much-loved novel that was the basis of the classic film starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock.

©2018 Alice Hoffman (P)2018 Oakhill Publishing Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Magic Magical Realism Paranormal Witchcraft
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I love the movie,so was excited to read the book. For the 1st time ever I prefer the movie to the book.

Sad that it was just ok.

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I read this about 20yrs ago & as a huge fan of the movie always meant to read it again. Was so happy finally available on audible. Laurence Bouvard does a beautiful job as narrator, she is perfect for this story. Alice Hoffman creates such a beautiful world you want to be a part of. For the Owens women witchcraft is just something they do, but also something they think & breathe with out intention. Like The Rules of Magic the story mostly focuses on the characters and how they deal with tragedy and trying to find love without any big climaxes. The first half seems to focus on Sally rebuilding her life with her girls and then shift focus's to Gillian trying to rebuild her life after losing her boyfriend, also what Kylie & Antonia Sally's daughters have to deal with growing up being different from other girls. Moves a long at a good pace. A great feel good read.

Magical !

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After the 2 prequels, I was disappointed with this book. There were huge sections of the book where nothing really happens & it was quite boring with lots of unnecessary personality analysis. Almost gave up on it half way through as it was so frustrating waiting for the story to progress. There were also some discrepancies in details also covered in the prequels. All in all, I wouldn't bother with this one.

Not as good as the prequels

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I loved the movie Practical Magic, but the book is on a whole other level. Alice Hoffman really dives deep into the characters' lives and their magical world and over a much longertimespan. It's like stepping into a fairy tale, but with a lot more heart and soul. The way she describes everything is so vivid, you can almost feel the magic in the air.

A deeper dive than the movie

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This is amazingly well written and thought out, i started reading because of the movie, now I like the book way better!

Amazing!

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Great reading of a classic book. The narrator made me smile with her character voices and her delivery of the story made me feel as though i was inside the aunts house the whole time.

Great Hoffman Classic

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An enjoyable easy going story. Not as good as the others in the series as this was the first published and the author's writing has certainly improved over time, hence why the other books are better. My only other criticism is that the storyline in this book has some inconsistencies with the other books. I also recommend starting with "Magic Lessons" or "The Rules of Magic".

Enjoyable

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I’ve watched the movie 100 times and I think the book is better, I loved all the characters and the story that wasn’t told in the movie

Narrator voice is so perfect for this story

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I realise books rarely resemble the movie but this is so far removed it is a completely different story and a terrible one. The other two books are wonderful and full of warmth and family and relationships as you would expect them to be in a family like the Owens. Although the first book written it just doesn't belong with the other two. I think the author has grown as a person and a writer since penning this book and would write it completely differently if she was to re do it today.
Did not enjoy at all, only got to the end because i fell asleep while it was playing.

Awful and not what I expected

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I found this was the worse book out of them all. It hardly touched base about the sisters using or knowing magic. The narrator was awful and they didn’t really emphasise the curse like all the other books

The worse of the lot

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