The Book of Magic (Practical Magic, #2)

by Alice Hoffman

When I began writing, it was a great surprise for me to realize that The Book of Magic began with the Death Watch Beetle announcing the death of a major character. Jet’s death is the cause of everything that occurs in the novel, and I soon realized that even though a character is gone, they can continue to affect everyone else. Because Jet knows she has seven days to live, she gets to choose what is most important for her to do during the time she has left. In that way, the knowledge of her death is a gift. I think she uses those days quite well. She knows what matters most.

“Forgiveness is the most difficult undertaking.”

Once upon a time there were two sisters, as different from each other as night and day. In their family a sister was everything, your heart and soul, and here they were together on the last evening of Jet’s life, grateful to be so.

When a letter comes from a character who has been missing, and presumed dead by some, I had the chance to bring back my favorite character, Vincent Owens, Jet and Franny’s brother, the one male Owens with the power of magic. Vincent appeared in The Rules of Magic, and although authors aren’t supposed to have favorite characters, I fell in love with him and his journey. He and Franny are especially close, and when the postman delivers his letter, she has hope for the first time in a long time that not everything and everyone is lost. I wish I had written an entire novel about Vincent’s lost years – not so lost after all – but at least he has returned to the family.

Curse or not, nothing could happen if she watched over him.

I’ve always believed that the answers to most questions can be found in a library. Kylie finds a book Jet has left behind for someone in the family to discover, along with a warning. Do not use unless you are prepared to lose everything. Books can lead you to places you never imagined you might go, and in this case Kylie, who has been sheltered from knowing her family’s history, grows up in a matter of minutes after finding the book, and decides to try and break the family curse. But is she the one who was meant to find what Jet’s left behind? Not likely.

When Sally discovers that Jet has placed a family relic, The Book of the Raven, on the shelf in the library where she works, she realizes that it is a left-handed Grimoire, a book of black magic, not meant for the uninitiated or the fearful. Books have great power in The Book of Magic, whether they are the books you loved as a child, or books of magic that chart a family’s history.

In London Kylie discovers The Invisible Library, a place that is kept hidden but has existed for hundreds of years. It’s a repository of magical texts, the exact library I wish I had stumbled upon on summer day. I collect magic books and have my own magic library and so I could well imagine what this library might look like. It is set in the Bayswater section of London, the first place in London I visited when I was a beginning writer in graduate school. I spent several weeks in a small hotel in the middle of a heat wave thinking about a novel I would one day write. In a way, that neighborhood in London is my Invisible Library.

“Witchery is not a choice. This is not the Unnamed Art, which women have been practicing for hundreds of years, perhaps since the beginning of time, training themselves to use herbs and green magic. It’s a bloodline situation.” When she still looked blank, he added, “An inheritance.”

There was no law against believing in magic;

I didn’t expect Sally to fall in love, and neither did she. She’d had two marriages touched by the family curse, and had no interest in love, but there are some things no one can control. Ian Wright has always been interested in magic and his life’s work The History of Magic is an academic exploration of magic. But what he wants is real life magic. Raised by a mother who has practiced magic, books have also saved Ian’s life when he was on the wrong path. When I discovered that he was born and raised in the same town where Maria Owens, the matriarch of the family, grew up, I knew he was an important part of Sally’s story. He also lives on my favorite street in London, and I hope to see his shop appear there one day.

Antonia Owens is logical and practical, the sister who is always in charge, but she is swept away by love when she meets Ariel Hardy, a lawyer in a long line of Owens’ lawyers. Her dreams are trying to tell her the truth about her own life – she is drowning, even though it has always been said that witches can’t be drowned – but it’s not water she’s walking through, it’s desire. I was so happy for Antonia, that for once she could be free to do as she pleased rather than always taking care of everyone else’s needs.

Here is the story of the initiation of the curse and the tale of Hannah Owens, who followed what is called the Nameless Art. She is a witch, not by birth, but by choice. As always, the power women hold when they know medical and magical arts is threatening. This is the reason that Thomas Lockland, a descendant of a witch and a witch-hunter, takes the crooked path – a path of destruction and vengeance. As much as Kylie wants to be rid of magic, he yearns for it. Would I have trusted him if I met him in a small village? Would I have been moved by his stories of neglect during his childhood as Kylie is? Well, yes, probably. At least for a while.

Distance, he told himself. And yet he couldn’t heed his own advice and edged closer to her.

I loved writing the magical history of a village in Essex, England, which included the story of Ian’s mother, Margaret Wright. She practiced to be a cunning woman, as her mother and grandmother before her were. As it turned out, there were other witches in the area, including Cora Wilkie whose book, My Life as a Witch, I hope to write someday.

The Reverend is one of my favorite characters, mostly because he changes so radically from The Rules of Magic. He despises Jet because of her family history, but when they both share a loss, she shows him that their relationship can change. Now Antonia takes over Jet’s friendship with the Reverend, first out of duty, then out of caring. In this scene he tells her that when there is a lost daughter, an apple pie must be made. And it’s true, Kylie senses that the pie is made with love, and for reasons even she doesn’t understand, she phones her sister and begins to break the spell she’s under.

There were those in the Owens family who were finders and she was one, rescuing scores of missing daughters.

disappear. Kylie understood the shade’s meaning even though it wasn’t spoken aloud.

She had the one thing she needed, the book that would end the Owenses’ curse.

I never expected Sally to lose her magical abilities, and I certainly never expected that she would care so much. She, who had only wanted to be normal, is suddenly bereft when she relinquishes her talent for magic. But it made sense for her to grieve. We often don’t know what we have until we lose it, and Sally is no different in not appreciating herself. But is it too late? If you are born with a skill, can it ever be lost forever? For me, Sally will always be the person she was meant to be, normal or not, she’ll always be magic.

This life was hers and hers alone.

What starts the book will end it. Jet’s message that whoever uses The Book of the Raven must be willing to lose everything echoes here when Kylie must be rescued. It has always seemed to be that Franny is the strongest member of the family, the one willing to do anything for those she loves. When she hears the Death Watch Beetle it is not a surprise, nor is it that the person she must say goodbye to is her beloved brother, Vincent. Live a lot, she writes to him, a message they have conveyed to each other all through their lives.

When a year has passed, the family that might have lost everything if not for Franny, finds that love is now possible. It’s a shock to all, to finally be able to love, and nothing is written in stone, but Sally is ready to take a chance. Yes, there is Tipsy Cake, the Owens favorite recipe, and a wedding is central, but in the end the two people who have been most dedicated to one another return to a girlhood haunt. You carry your history with you, even when a curse is broken, and Sally and Gillian are far from done with what the future will bring. This may be the last book about certain members of the family, but the Owens will live on, in one way or another.