Practical Magic (novel)

Practical Magic is a 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman. The book was adapted into the 1998 film of the same name. Hoffman has since published two prequel novels – The Rules of Magic (2017) and Magic Lessons (2020), as well as one sequel – The Book of Magic (2021).

Plot summary
Gillian and Sally Owens were two happy, normal girls - until their parents die in what appears to be a tragic accidental fire. Orphaned and deeply saddened, the girls move in with their two eccentric aunts, Frances and Janet, in the beautiful small town of Salt Lake, Washington - the town their mother left so many years before. The aunts raise the girls without discipline or rules, allowing them to drink soda for breakfast and candy for dinner. After the girls stumble upon a spell book in the attic, the aunts explain to the girls that they are all descended from a long and powerful line of witches. Initially, the girls refuse to believe their aunts, until they begin teaching them how to unlock their magical powers.

After Gillian’s high school graduation, she runs away to California with a boy named Jimmy Angelo, who becomes her first husband. Meanwhile in college, Sally yearns to find true love, but is afraid that she'll end up like her mother and father - too in love to save themselves from the fire that killed them. After Sally meets the charmingly handsome Michael, they are quickly married and later have two children, Antonia and Kylie. For three years, Michael and Sally live beautiful happy lives together, until Michael inexplicably drops dead of a heart attack. Overwhelmed with guilt and sadness, Sally believes Michael’s death was caused by her family’s centuries-old curse that surrounds the Owens women. Later, Gillian, whom trouble seems to follow, comes to visit Sally with a surprise in her car, trouble up her sleeve, and a detective following not far behind.