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Title: should have been better...
Review: I have always liked the movie with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock and I was expecting a very satisfying read. Unfortunately, Practical Magic proved to be a disappointment with its bland characters, loose plot and childish, simplistic tone. Gillian and Sally are one dimensional and mostly just pathetic. Although Sally's daughters are better portrayed than the grown up characters, teenage depression is simply not enough to save a lagging story. Jimmy and his angry ghost, the aunts, the conservative little town the girls grew up and Sally's love interest have very little place in the book and this does not help either.The only real success of the novel is Alice Hoffman's ability to "feed" magical realism into an impossible place such as the lower middle class American suburbia. Still, this does not compensate for a story that has no charm within itself.
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