Bookish Thoughts

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 ...

Like any good female millenial, I loved this movie in high school. I can't even count the number of times I tried to watch it with my friends. I even have a vague memory of trying to watch it while I was in labor, but things were honestly pretty blurry by then. I hadn't realized it was based on a book until a few months ago when I heard the prequel was coming out. But I was immediately anxious to read it and see all the things the movie left out. Here's the thing, though. The movie significantly changed the book. I barely even recognized it as the same story. Sure, Sally falls in love and her husband dies young, leaving her depressed and bitter. Sure, Gillian accidentally kills her abusive boyfriend and runs to her sister for help. But other than that, the similarities are merely superficial. In the book, the aunts border on neglectful, rather than fun. They never wanted kids, and they only keep Sally and Gillian around out of a sense of duty. But they do nothing at all...