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  • Practical Magic

  • The Practical Magic Series, Book 1
  • By: Alice Hoffman
  • Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
  • Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (52 ratings)

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Practical Magic cover art

Practical Magic

By: Alice Hoffman
Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
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Publisher's Summary

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

What listeners say about Practical Magic

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Magical !

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.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Hoffman Classic

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.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

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".

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Awful and not what I expected

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.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

The worse of the lot

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

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Skipping words!

The story is great. The performance is fine but for some reason every twenty seconds or so it skips two to three words. Which pulled me out of the story while I worked out what was missed in case it affected the meaning. It completely ruined the experience. I tried deleting and downloading again but no joy.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

It’s not like the movie

This book is written by a teenager. Every character is acting like a 16-year-old regardless of their actual age. I wanted to listen to this book because I loved the movie, maybe learning more about how their magic works or any additional info that the movie missed but the only thing that the movie writers rightfully cut out is the hours on end whinging and witching about their life and each other. I kid you not. Even when action means to happen (aka getting rid of the bad guy), the writer goes on a tantrum again about a random life happening or one of the characters' annoying personality traits. LIKE WHAT. If I could I would give zero stars. This is a bad book. Great narration though which is a shame.

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