The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman is another example of a storyteller working her craft in her prime. I love Alice Hoffman books and I came to this party late. The first Hoffman book I read was The Dovekeepers and to this day it is still one of my favorites.
The Owens family cannot love, it is a curse that fell upon them in 1620 when Maria Owens was charged with witchcraft. Her only true crime was loving the wrong man.
In the 1960s, New York City, with the world changing around them, Susanna Owens knows her children are different. Just as she knows that there is little she can do to protect them from their future. Headstrong Franny, with pale skin and red hair; her shy and beautiful sister Jet who can read the thoughts of others and their brother Vincent, whose beauty draws trouble to him.
Like any mother, Susanna has rules for her children. But hers are different. No red shoes. No walking in the moonlight. No wearing black. No cats. No books about magic. But above all else, never fall in love. Those rules have kept the children safe until one summer they visit their Aunt Isabelle in the small Massachusetts town where the curse of the Owens’ family began. Where they learn who they are and of their past. Where they learn how to do magic.
Returning to New York and their parents, the children cannot help but break every rule. Most of all the one that shouldn’t be broken. For the Owens, love comes at a heavy cost, especially to the one who loves them.
It is difficult to begin with this book. It is sweeping. It is sad. It is endearing. It will literally pull you into its world and have you caring so deeply for its characters that each loss will feel like a physical blow. It is also triumphant. It is the long ago sage, that love does conquer all. That it is worth all the cost and worth the risk involved for everyone.
Each of the kids, as they grow into adults will face the curse on their own. In their own ways. They will in turn be brave and be incredibly reckless with the feelings and lives of other people. This book is so much more about the human side of this family than it ever will be about the magic in them.
Frannie, the elder sister, lives her life caring for her siblings and feeling responsible for their welfare. Even though she finds love, she denies herself the emotion for fear of what it will do. Jet, unfortunately, finds love early on and soon finds out just how powerful the curse really is. Vincent finds solace in fleeing from the curse and his family. All of them love and all of them try very hard to keep that love from showing.
Tragic, yes, but still very powerful. There is a hope in this book that love is stronger than any curse and that the old ways of living and believing can change. There is a strong sense of redemption in this book that runs thick through it. Not only for the Owens family but for all those who love them and hate them. In the end, it is still about family. Witches or not.
Books and Lesser Evils 