Carnivore Dreams – Practical Magic

I just finished reading Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman–I was studying commercial fantasy style (and I like watching/reading Halloween type stuff this time of year).  Boy, the screen writers really improved this book when they made the movie.  Now, granted, she did some interesting things with description I liked, some interesting objective correlative–always a fan.

But why she would have Sally move out of the cool old haunted Victorian house and into some subdivision, I don’t get.  Good the writers didn’t do that. Not enough plot to account for Officer Hallet, no spells on him — though she seems to imply all the Owens women manage to cast spells over all men–it seems to lack some plot motivation.  Most fantasy novels are light on character development and long on plot.  In this case, it seemed reversed.  Jimmy doesn’t really seem to haunt them.  Only the young daughter  seems to see him.

I would have appreciated more subtlety possibly in the book than them bringing him back from the dead, but something was missing in the book.

She develops the young daughters more which seems to lessen the development of Sally and Gillian and the aunts–something I was not a fan of, either.

It seemed to just end out of nowhere–abruptly.  Strange there.

Still, it was good research and still an enjoyable read.  I am going to read more of her work.

Oh, the house was just an architectural shell–though it really appears they built so much of it that it was a shame to tear it down.  Barbara Streisand wanted it, I hear.  It definitely was perfect.

Happy Wednesday.  Dad has doctor appointments today.