Sally’s girls have grown up, and she’s successfully kept them away from magic. Despite their own innate powers, the girls believe that magic is nothing more than fairy tales, and they don’t live in constant fear of the curse. Ignorance is bliss, until it isn’t. Kylie has fallen in love, and the curse doesn’t care that she doesn’t know about it. Now her love is lying in a coma, and she’s halfway around the world looking for answers wherever she can find them, even if it’s down the wrong path. Can the Owens family finally break the curse that’s haunted them for three hundred years, or will it claim another victim? Find out in Practical Magic 2, originally published as The Book of Magic, the Practical Magic series finale by Alice Hoffman.
[Warning: My review of Practical Magic 2 a.k.a. The Book of Magic contains some spoilers!]
The series comes full circle as we again join Sally trying to save her family
As far as Sally is concerned, magic has only brought her heartache, so she’s raised her daughters in a mundane world. As far as they know, witches are the stuff of fairy tales and Halloween. Sally knows she has to tell them about the curse eventually, but she’ll do it when they’re older; there’s still time.
But time passes differently when you’re a parent, and Sally’s little girls aren’t so little anymore. Antonia is having a baby, and Kylie has fallen in love, not that she’s told anyone, not even herself. After all, her mom has always been weird about love, so she wants to keep this secret for a while. But the curse isn’t as easy to fool as her mom, and within hours of telling Gideon that she loves him, he’s in a coma with no clear promise of recovery.
Kylie is beside herself, and then she hears about the curse. Could it possibly be true? Has their mother hidden something so important from her and her sister their whole lives? More importantly, can the curse be broken? Kylie only knows enough to be dangerous to herself and others, but she takes off to break the curse and save her love. Her choices drag the rest of her family into action, including her long-lost grandfather that even her mother didn’t know about. Can the whole Owens clan finally find a way to break Maria’s curse? Or will the price be too steep?
When emotions get involved, logic goes out the window
All of the Owens’ problems come from them being too emotional! When they get emotional, they throw logic right out the window and act impulsively. Sure, their intentions are good, but their choices are usually the most dangerous and least helpful ones they could possibly make. Starting with Maria following John all the way to Salem because she thinks she loves him. She should have stayed on that island where she had a community to help her raise her daughter, and to hell with the father. But she didn’t. Then there’s the curse that she called down on her family (technically the men who dared to love her family, but her family still gets hurt in the process) because she’s angry. Later she regrets it, but it’s too late; she can’t undo her own magic.
So the curse haunts the family for centuries. Each generation tries to deal with it. Some embrace their magic and try to actively break the curse; others shun their mystic sides and try to hide it from their own children. That never goes well. So heartbreak, whether romantic or familial, hounds the Owens family. Their family story is a real tragedy when you stand back and look at it. It’s a cycle of “never hide who you are” leading to “never talk about the family secrets” that leads to “never hide who you are” over and over again. They just keep playing out the same pattern as each generation resents the way the generation before them dealt with the curse.
That pattern comes to a head in Practical Magic 2 when Kylie finds out everything that’s been hidden from her and gets her hands on a book that promises to hold the answer to the family curse, if she can find the way. But because she no longer trusts her family, she looks for help elsewhere and ends up on a really dark path. Her family desperately tries to save her, but only Kylie can save herself. As for the curse, she learns that a steep sacrifice must be made to end it. It may finally be time for the Owens family curse to be broken, but only if they can figure out all the clues in time.
Were they cursed or were they human?
For three hundred years, the Owens family has struggled to find happiness. Part of that struggle was the curse, but much of it was because of how they perceived it. We all have bad things happen to us. We all lose love; we all suffer tragedy. But we don’t all have a curse to blame it on; we accept it as life and continue to look for happiness in spite of the pain. But because the Owens family is so preoccupied with the curse hanging over their heads, they often forget to just live. They focus on the bad and forget to look at the wonder and joy of life and love. That is their true tragedy. Maria came to realize that the answer to the curse was to love more, not less. The rest of her family either never figured that out, or realized it too late.
In my opinion, the Owens family wasn’t cursed. Or we’re all cursed. We all experience pain and loss because that makes love and happiness that much sweeter. That’s the secret the Owens family never discovered; if they had, they could have “broken” the curse generations ago. But then we wouldn’t have these wonderful stories to read, so I’m kinda glad they didn’t figure it out.
Rating: 8/10
Practical Magic 2 by Alice Hoffman is available now!
Learn more about the book at the official website for the title.
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