Reading Rush – Day 5

At last! I finished ‘Practical Magic’.

What can I say about ‘Practical Magic’ except that I seem to have accidentally read a Romance novel, not that there is anything wrong with ‘Romance’ per se, it’s just not my thing.

I think I fell into the ‘Book is better than the film’ trap. I loved the film so I could only imagine how great the book was. My expectations were high, I was disappointed.

In the film there is a strong siterly bond between Sally and Gillian, despite the distance, despite the years, despite any underlying jealousy, Sally and Gillian are sisters and they would move heaven and earth for each other. This doesn’t really come across in the book. Ok so Sally helps Gillian bury Jimmy, but beyond that the book is mostly them arguing, then not talking to each other. They do resolve their issues in the end, but I’m just not feeling the same intensity as I saw in the film.

The daughters are a bit older in the book, 13 and 16 if I remember rightly. This may assist somewhat with my previous point, as their relationship is explored with a lot more depth. There’s still the arguing, there’s still the petty jealousies and spitefulness, but again their issues are resolved in the end just with a bit more intensity than Sally and Gillians. Which means for the sake of the film, they probably made the daughters younger and focused ALL the sisterly issues of the book into just Sally and Gillian in the film.

This may be a bit of an unpopular opinion, and I do apologise, but as I said Romance isn’t really my thing. As a result of this, the resolution of Sally, Gillian, Antonia AND Kylie all finding love was a bit contrite.

As I write this though I think I’ve figured out my main issue with the book. Despite the title, there was hardly any Magic! There’s a little reference to the Aunts doing love spells for some of the local women, Gillian does the occasional tarot, Kylie can see Auras, and Antonia has a natural ‘allure’ (which she seems to lose when her sister turns 13, but then gets it back later with some comment about it all being a state of mind, so i’m not sure if that counts as ‘Magic’).

Basically everything I loved about the film is missing from this book; the strong sisterly bond, the natural gift of magic, the women that previously avoided the sisters actually helping them in the end, and the Aunts!! There is a sad lack of the Aunts in this, which could be why Alice Hoffman wrote ‘The Rules of Magic’.

All that being said though, it could just be my perception. If you have read the book before seeing the film, I’d love to know your thoughts.

So that was my day today, no Twitter sprints, no Instagram challenges, just pure reading! Which means I’ve now read over 1000 pages, so that’s that badge earned and I’ve started ‘How to Marry a Werewolf’ by Gail Carriger, which is the last book in my TBR pile for this challenge, so I may add another one just for good measure.

Stats for Day 5 are:
Pages read: 178
Time spent Reading: 5hrs 24mins
Books Finished: 1 (Practical Magic)

Challenge so far Stats:
Pages read: 1044
Time spent Reading: 20hrs 13mins
Books Finished: 3 (Gobbolino the Witches Cat, The Eyre Affair, Practical Magic)