Practical Magic (novel)

Practical Magic is a 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman.^[1] The book was adapted into the 1998 film of the same name by Warner Bros. Hoffman has since published two prequel novels – The Rules of Magic (2017) and Magic Lessons (2020), as well as one sequel – The Book of Magic (2021).

Practical Magic

First edition
Author	Alice Hoffman
Cover artist	Honi Werner
Language	English
Genre	Fiction
Publication date	1995
Publication place	United States
Pages	286
ISBN	9780425190371

Plot summary

Gillian and Sally Owens were two happy, normal girls – until their parents die in what appears to be a tragic accidental fire. Orphaned and deeply saddened, the girls move in with their two eccentric aunts, Frances and Bridget, in a small town in Massachusetts – the town their mother left so many years before. The aunts raise the girls without discipline or rules, allowing them to drink soda for breakfast and eat candy for dinner.

As the girls began their new lives with their aunts, they found themselves ostracized by the suspicious and superstitious townsfolk, who viewed them as descendants of a long line of powerful witches. The aunts openly practiced their craft, relying on their aptitude for selling love potions, charms, and herbal remedies as their main source of income, despite the townsfolk's hypocritical reliance on their services. Initially, the girls refused to believe in their magical heritage. However, after witnessing a powerful love spell backfire, resulting in the terrifying, destructive obsession of the recipient, the sisters decided to forego and avoid magic and love entirely, believing both brought inevitable pain.

Following high school graduation, Gillian ran away to California with a boy, seeking escape and distance. Meanwhile, Sally desperately yearned for true love but feared meeting the same fate as her parents, who had died in a fire—too in love to save themselves. Sally soon met the charming Michael. They quickly married and had two daughters, Antonia and Kylie, living happily for three years until Michael suddenly died. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt, Sally became convinced that her family's centuries-old curse surrounding the Owens women had caused his death. She packed up her daughters and moved away to start over, determined to sever ties with the magical world for good.

Years later, trouble followed Gillian back to Sally’s doorstep when she arrived with the dead body of her abusive ex-boyfriend, Jimmy, in the passenger seat of her car. As the sisters reconnected while scrambling to cover up the incident, Sally's daughters began to come into their own womanhood. Kylie, in particular, developed the "Sight," which allowed her to view Jimmy's lingering ghost, growing closer over time, affiliated with a mysterious and threatening patch of flowers that seemed to bloom overnight in their backyard.