Practical Magic: Book or Movie?

Practical Magic: Book or Movie?

**SPOILERS**

As my first book of 2018 I finally read Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. Even though the movie shares the same title they are nothing alike except for character names. It is refreshing yet somewhat of a bummer at the same time. They both however carry their own sense of charm. I've loved the movie for years and when I fell into my reading frenzy decided to buy it to read. I have sort of been really into fantasy and magic. Hell, now i'm reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. I'm getting ahead of myself here though.

The book is about sisters Sally and Gillian Owens who go down completely different paths. Sally the typical PTA mother and Gillian the serial wife who doesn't quite have a grasp on what it means to truly love and be loved. They find their way through a hard time as sisters while trying to cover up an accidental death of Gillian's ex lover. You may recognize this part from the film. This event bringing Gary Hallet into Sally's life and the magic that seems to strike them like Cupid's arrow.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The book is different because in the movie all of this happens in the Aunts's home where Sally's daughters are still relatively young. In the book however, Sally and her daughters have moved out of the Aunts's home to a different state where Antonia and Kylie are a young adult and teenager. They also have completely different personalities. Jimmy's havoc among the Owens sisters is somewhat changed from book to movie as well. In the movie where roses grow, they were replaced by Lilacs in the novel.

I kind of wonder why they made such big changes when they adapted the book into a screenplay to turn into a film. As in my review about Neil Gaiman's short novel "Stardust"which was also made into a motion picture, there are parts of the movie I fancied more than some events in the book and vice versa.

Nevertheless I find both the film and the novel magical and charming Alice is an exquisite writer in her ways of story telling and brought up realistic characters that are easy to relate to. Yet there are some instances where you remember you're reading a novel and not venturing into another world with it's magic spells and potions type essence it's still a good novel to be put on your "To Be Read" lists this year.