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Genre: Fantasy Main characters: Gillian and Sally Owens; Antonia and Kylie Owens Time and place: the 90s (the book was published in 1996), somewhere in America First sentence: “For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town.” Summary: The Owens women have all been very beautiful. And have all been treated like witches too. Gillian and Sally Owens have been orphaned at a young age and went to live with their aunts. This is how they found out what being Owenses actually entails. Everyone in their small town fears and avoids the aunts, but when they have a love problem they never hesitate to knock on their door. Gillian and Sally grow up as outsiders, all other kids treating them as if they were freaks. Which probably explains why they both left the aunts at the first opportunity they got: Gillian eloped at 18, Sally waited up a bit more, but in the end both girls ended up in different cities than the aunts. Years go by and, while Gillian’s life is a mess, Sally is quite happy with the home she has managed to build for her two girls. But one night Gillian appears unannounced at Sally’s door, a dead body in her car. And, of course, Sally, the ever protective big sister, cannot turn her away. |
This is the kind of book with no black and white characters, only in shades of gray. Each of the Owens women we get to meet (including one of the ancestors) are trying to make the best out of their life they can, according to their resources and way of thinking. None of them is evil, of course, but none of them (except perhaps Sally) is particularly nice either. It’s just the way they are. And I did not dislike them, despite their flaws, and all. I did have my favorites, of course (Kylie, perhaps because I envied her gift of seeing people how they really are, and the aunts, because of their no-nonsense manner) and my least favorites (Sally, for the way she kept berating herself), but on the whole I have managed to connect with and care for all of them.
It is perhaps interesting to notice how their childhood drama (being treated bad by their peers) affected both sisters, albeit in very different ways. They both feel that they don’t deserve anything good, and this is very much reflected in their lives. Gillian, the beautiful, proud one, has chosen the path of male seduction. Perhaps looking for the love she missed as a child, she has a string of conquests, one after the other. She is usually the one ending all the relationships though, precisely because staying involved would be too much for her so fleeing is in her eyes by far the best option. Sally, the more responsible one, acts precisely the opposite: she shrinks away from love and the best thing she wants for life is building a home, a stable place for her two girls. I loved the way the author has imagined the inner workings of the girls’ minds (and, of course, how she has explained it to the reader).
What I liked most: The way Sally’s world lost color when someone she very much cared about passed away:
In time, Sally stopped believing in anything at all, and then the whole world went gray. She could not see orange or red, and certain shades of green—her favorite sweater and the leaves of new daffodils—were completely and utterly lost.
I am also quite fond of the title as I think it sums up the book very well. Practical magic, the kind of magic one would use (if possible of course) in order to make the day to day life better. Precisely what the women in the book are doing :)
What I liked least: At first I was a bit “meh” about the many pages with no dialogue. Sure, the story was interesting but after a while it felt like it was just droning on and on with no pause. Nevertheless after some more pages I have grown used to the style and actually started liking it :)
Recommend it to? Anyone who enjoys reading about a bit of romance and a bit of magic :)
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