Rules of Magic by Alice HoffmanIf you haven’t read Alice Hoffman’s best known book Practical Magic, then don’t do it now. Read Rules of Magic first. It’s a prequel and after reading them back to back it’s one big great, wonderful story. Such a fun time spent reading!
In Rules of Magic Susanna Owens has taken her three
children, Franny, Jet and Vincent, to live in New York where she hopes they can
live a normal life and not be blamed for every darned thing that goes wrong in
the small Massachusetts town the family came from, like everyone in her family
has since the 1600’s. But normal isn’t
normal if you can’t wear red shoes or own a cat or light a candle or walk in the moonlight or deny the ‘gifts’ you
inherently have or, heaven forbid, you fall in love. For them all, the hard part is the falling in
love part. There is a family curse that
is all too real for these three who just want a normal life.
Franny and Jet are the elderly aunts whose names aren’t even
mentioned in Practical Magic until the very end. In Rules of Magic , a prequel, we get
to watch them grow up and into themselves, and what a treat! Franny, Jet and
Vincent try, but they have been so protected and forbidden from places it’s
getting harder and harder to deny the gifts that they just can’t explain. Franny can call birds to her bidding. Jet can see things and Vincent is the one of
the three who believes they have special magical talents. Vincent’s fate proves
the word devotion, it’s surprising and integral to the story’s future.
We have a great view of the lives of three people who are
determined to be true to themselves no matter how hard it is, and believe me,
it is. If upon finishing Rules of Magic you immediately pick up Practical Magic
you will have one very rich and transforming reading experience. I can only hope you don’t deny it to
yourself.
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