The Rules of Magic

I enjoyed The Rules of Magic much more than Practical Magic. At least part of that is that I didn't bring a bunch of preconceived notions and expectations to my reading. There's no movie version of The Rules of Magic that I've watched more times than I can count. But a bigger part is that The Rules of Magic did the things I was expecting Practical Magic to do. It almost seems to have more in common with the movie than the book it was actually based on.

In Practical Magic the movie, the girls have different opinions about love, but they embrace magic. They make wishes and cast spells and brew potions. In Practical Magic the book, Sally and Gillian both reject magic, and with it their family. In The Rules of Magic, the aunts and their brother embrace magic, against the counsel of their mother. They defy their fates to varying degrees of success, suffering victories and defeats throughout their lives. But they all learn that it ultimately does no good to deny who you are - it just leads to more pain and missed opportunities.

These lessons almost make me dislike Practical Magic the book even more. After all Jet and Franny go through, how could they neglect the care and education of their nieces so extremely.  How could they be so hands-off about it all, instead of trying to instill in them some pride of self and heritage.

At the end of the day, I got the book about magic and love that I wanted, and for that I'm grateful. It was beautiful and magical, and I absolutely loved the journeys that these three characters went on. And I'll always have the movie - which I now desperately want to watch again. I wonder if it's streaming somewhere.

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