I don’t know how to write a book review of this without talking about the movie since it is one of my favorite films, so if I bring up the film more than I should, Fair Reader, then I apologize.
If you haven’t seen the movie, this book follows the Owens sisters Sally and Gillian as they traverse love, loss, relationships, and raising Sally’s children. Their aunts, mostly and lovingly referred to as “the aunts” in both the book and the movie, are two old witches who live in a big old house in what is assumed to be Salem. When Gillian, long estranged from Sally, finds herself the victim of an abusive boyfriend who suddenly ends up dead, she enlists Sally’s help. Gillian’s sudden reappearance has ramifications for everyone.
I firmly believe that the film is a perfect witchy rom com. There isn’t a single thing I would change. Since the film has spent over two decades in the pop culture zeitgeist of my life, I find how different it is from the book to be both disconcerting and intriguing. While the film speaks directly about curses on the Owens women when it comes to love, the book never mentions it. Hints are dropped about fate, but never is the word curse dropped. The film sees the aunts interfering with Sally’s love life without her knowledge knowing the man in question would die of the curse. This is only mentioned in passing that the aunts interfere with Sally and Gillian’s love lives near the end of the book, but neither woman seems to mind. In the movie Sally casts a spell as a girl so that she won’t ever fall in love and end up with a broken heart. The man she asks for can’t possibly exist, but he does and he finds her later as an adult. This never happens in the book, or at least Gary Hallet finds her of his own accord as an officer but not under the befuddlement of a spell. While the movie takes place at the seaside home with the aunts, the book does not for the most part. The biggest and most jarring difference, though, are Sally’s daughters, Kylie and Antonia. In the movie, they are around 9 and 11 ish. In the book, they are 17 and 13 and are nothing like their movie counterparts. One of my favorite themes of the movie is how misunderstood the Owens women are in the town who learns to love them in the end. This theme is nonexistent in the book since most of it takes place elsewhere.
The curse being front and center in the movie makes for a stronger arc when Sally and Gillian finally break the curse. Their sisterly relationship is something truly special in both the film and book, but the film version shows them always having a strong connection. In the book, Gillian just disappears for 18 years with only letters to let Sally know she is well. And changing Jimmy’s death to something that both sisters were present for in the film (Sally never met Jimmy in the book) really brings them together in ways that the book does not.
As far as the book goes, what Alice Hoffman has created here is truly a special, magical place for her characters to live in. The characters jump off the page. She seamlessly tells a multigenerational story that moves along quickly but is also so detailed and peppered with funny, sad moments that it is hard to put down. Part of me wishes I had read this before the movie for all I kept thinking was all the ways the movie improved upon the story when the story in the book is perfectly fine by itself.
Anyhoo, if you love family sagas about witchcraft and love, then give Alice Hoffman’s book a read. I picked it up because the sequel to the film will be out next year and I wanted the books as extra context. I am both glad I read this and left wondering how the new film will differ from the next book. Perhaps I’ll read it before the film comes out this time. Wink wink.
4 out of 5 stars.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
I don’t know how to write a book review of this without talking about the movie since it is one of my favorite films, so if I bring up the film more than I should, Fair Reader, then I apologize.
If you haven’t seen the movie, this book follows the Owens sisters Sally and Gillian as they traverse love, loss, relationships, and raising Sally’s children. Their aunts, mostly and lovingly referred to as “the aunts” in both the book and the movie, are two old witches who live in a big old house in what is assumed to be Salem. When Gillian, long estranged from Sally, finds herself the victim of an abusive boyfriend who suddenly ends up dead, she enlists Sally’s help. Gillian’s sudden reappearance has ramifications for everyone.
I firmly believe that the film is a perfect witchy rom com. There isn’t a single thing I would change. Since the film has spent over two decades in the pop culture zeitgeist of my life, I find how different it is from the book to be both disconcerting and intriguing. While the film speaks directly about curses on the Owens women when it comes to love, the book never mentions it. Hints are dropped about fate, but never is the word curse dropped. The film sees the aunts interfering with Sally’s love life without her knowledge knowing the man in question would die of the curse. This is only mentioned in passing that the aunts interfere with Sally and Gillian’s love lives near the end of the book, but neither woman seems to mind. In the movie Sally casts a spell as a girl so that she won’t ever fall in love and end up with a broken heart. The man she asks for can’t possibly exist, but he does and he finds her later as an adult. This never happens in the book, or at least Gary Hallet finds her of his own accord as an officer but not under the befuddlement of a spell. While the movie takes place at the seaside home with the aunts, the book does not for the most part. The biggest and most jarring difference, though, are Sally’s daughters, Kylie and Antonia. In the movie, they are around 9 and 11 ish. In the book, they are 17 and 13 and are nothing like their movie counterparts. One of my favorite themes of the movie is how misunderstood the Owens women are in the town who learns to love them in the end. This theme is nonexistent in the book since most of it takes place elsewhere.
The curse being front and center in the movie makes for a stronger arc when Sally and Gillian finally break the curse. Their sisterly relationship is something truly special in both the film and book, but the film version shows them always having a strong connection. In the book, Gillian just disappears for 18 years with only letters to let Sally know she is well. And changing Jimmy’s death to something that both sisters were present for in the film (Sally never met Jimmy in the book) really brings them together in ways that the book does not.
As far as the book goes, what Alice Hoffman has created here is truly a special, magical place for her characters to live in. The characters jump off the page. She seamlessly tells a multigenerational story that moves along quickly but is also so detailed and peppered with funny, sad moments that it is hard to put down. Part of me wishes I had read this before the movie for all I kept thinking was all the ways the movie improved upon the story when the story in the book is perfectly fine by itself.
Anyhoo, if you love family sagas about witchcraft and love, then give Alice Hoffman’s book a read. I picked it up because the sequel to the film will be out next year and I wanted the books as extra context. I am both glad I read this and left wondering how the new film will differ from the next book. Perhaps I’ll read it before the film comes out this time. Wink wink.
4 out of 5 stars.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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