Negative Positive
Title: Couldn't finish it.
Review: I read one of Hoffman's other books, Illumination Night, and liked it well enough, though it seemed at time as if she were trying to imitate Anne Tyler with soem magical realism thrown in. Practical Magic started with some potential, but after about a third of the way into the book I had to stop reading. Her characers, and the way she staged their interactions, did not ring true and come to life. Rather, the book seemed mired in the emotional and imaginative level of a second-rate TV movie. All of which was especially disappointing, since Hoffman's original setup had some real potential- she just never realized it by pulling out all the stops and letting her tale set its own internal logic. Instead, she settled for cheap melodrama.
Is the review positive or negative? 