The Rules of Magic

The Rules of Magic

Alice Hoffman

*This review is based on an advanced reading copy. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read the book in exchange for an honest review*

I never read Practical Magic, nor have a seen the movie so I'm not exactly sure how this relates or compares. The only experience I have with Hoffman is that I previously read an advanced copy of her book Faithful from Netgalley and absolutely loved it.

I see a trend in her writing (although I haven't read much from her). Both books I have were almost coming of age stories. With that being said, I've been into a lot of fantasy lately so I may just be expecting a bit too much, especially considering this book is about witches. I wish it was less character-driven and more about the magic, but it is what it is.

The book is about three siblings who happen to be witches: Franny, Jet, and Vincent. Their parents have enforced rules their entire lives in order to give them a normal life, but they know what they are. After getting an invitation to spend the summer at their Aunt's house, everything changes. They learn about their family's curse where no one is able to fall in love without a tragedy happening.

Hoffman is good at creating flawed characters. Jet was my absolute favorite and there was a chapter about her that had me depressed for a good few days just thinking about it. I didn't really care for Franny or Vincent, but they were still relatable.

The curse was interesting, but there wasn't a great story behind it, just a mysterious thing happening with their ancestor. There was also no resolution to this curse and I was confused when one of them loved and nothing happened. It was a bit open-ended and in that way it didn't make sense or wasn't clear what the rules of the curse were.

The magic was cool, but there wasn't enough of it. It was more like a story about people with magic thrown in as an after thought to get people to be interested in the story.

Overall, it was okay but I don't feel as much for it as I was hoping to.