317 pages
English language
Published Oct. 1, 1998 by Berkley.
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that went wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally endured that fate: As children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their darkened house and their love concoctions and their crowd of black cats. All Gillian and Sally wanted to do was escape. One would do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they shared brought them back to each other, and to the magic they couldn’t escape. A delicious novel about witches and real love, family life and everyday spells. A literary incantation.
This book ends strong but the first 3/4 is quite slow and muddling. In general, the tale is okay; but, I doubt I'll invest time in future novels.
With a dash of obsession thrown in.
This book must've came to me at the right time and place because I fell in love with it. It's probably just a hex put on me by the author. I'm okay with that.
This was a nearly perfect book. I have loved the film a long time (ever since before it was released, thanks to the old Victoria Magazine's photo shoot of that yummy magical kitchen). And have watched it multiple times.
Since my friends warned that the book was not the same, I sort of avoided reading the book. But finally got around to it, and I am so glad.
No, it's not the same as the film, more subtle. But oh -- the writing is pitch perfect and glorious. Magic weaves in and out of every paragraph, and the characters are so much more fully defined.
I LOVED everything about it. Really might be one of my favorite books in years. Thank you, Alice Hoffman!
