Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
In the 1600s, a baby is abounded in a snowy field in rural England. Found and raised by Hannah Owens, Maria Owens learns about the “Nameless Art.” Hannah, a learned witch, recognizes the gift Maria was born with, a gift she carries in her bloodline, and teaches the girl all she knows. It is here she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back. When Maria is betrayed by love, she follows him to Salem, in the midst of a time of fear and suspicion. Here, she invokes the curse that haunts her family for generations. But she will also learn one of the most important rules of magic: Love is the only thing that matters.
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Once again, Alice Hoffman has ruined me. This book was amazing and I was captivated page by page. Practical Magic mentions Maria Owens in passing but you don’t get much of her life except for small little tidbits and in The Rules of Magic, we get even less of her history. But Hoffman expertly weaved those pieces from the other stories into this prequel to perfectly tell Maria’s story and why, exactly, her legacy lives on so strongly even in Sally and Gillian’s day. We also get the full history of the curse and why it was enacted. And although I expected most of these things, Maria’s history was full of twists and turns that kept me hooked. We also get to learn about Faith Owens who plays a much larger role in who Maria Owens became than we ever learnt in any of the other books and I greatly enjoyed her story as well.
This book follows most of Maria’s early life. From when she was found and adopted by Hannah Owens, to her teenage years in Curaçao, to her early life as a mother in Massachusetts, and eventually, to the fateful day when she finally builds that big Owens house that will stand for generations, a place an Owens woman can always call home and seek refuge. It wasn’t all pain and heartbreak like I expected. As we all know from the other books, Maria’s first love was the man who leads the witch hunts later on so all you expect when getting into this book is darkness and pain but there was so much more than that, including a second chance at happiness. Did I mention there are also pirates? Like not the evil stinking kind but reminiscent of the Jack Sparrow variety? Yes. It’s worth the read.
There was a huge focus on personal growth in this book (a familiar theme for Alice Hoffman books) but I felt like the author really delves much deeper in this book to what personal growth actually means. The things you swear and promise yourself as a child don’t exactly work out in the adult world once you’ve had more experience and a less biased view of things. Maria grew in maturity throughout, and she grew in love. But Faith was the one who went through the most change. She learned what it means to let go and that there are consequences for everything. I really liked seeing Faith’s story and how her mindset changed throughout the book.
Of course, being largely based during the witch trials of Salem, feminism was a large focus in the story. Maria was immediately under suspicion just because of the fact that she could read. In that world, especially one largely dominated by Puritan men, a learned woman was a dangerous one (maybe because they’d have enough of a brain to run away?). The men in Salem were all middle-aged with young wives and countless children. The men did the important work and the women weren’t even allowed to leave the house without permission and even then, only for the smallest of errands. Is it any wonder the women sought Maria out for help? Why they were jealous of her freedom? Why the men in the town had reason to hate her and want her punished? No matter how dire the situation, Maria always ALWAYS fought for the rights of herself and her fellow women. And in her strength, others began to stand up as well and the society began to evolve.
As always with the Owen’s women, love is the main focus of the story. Spurned love, hateful love, unhealthy love, and then a love powerful enough to withstand the curse. But this book didn’t just focus on romantic love, the main plot point was the love of a mother for her daughter. Faith Owens is the reason Maria’s life shaped out the way it did, including her move to Salem and everything that followed after. It was a really beautiful story about devotion and perseverance and how in the end, love really does conquer all. Each character displayed this, no matter how unimportant, every character reflected the different ways that love (or lack of love) can affect a life and change it irrevocably. Samuel Dias was one character that stood out the most to me in this book. Hoffman bulldozed the typical toxic masculinity of the time period and made Samuel, the dashing pirate, the most sensitive, honest, and loving person of the entire book. He had no shame in showing tears, no shame in feeling and showing heartache, and no shame in his love and devotion to the woman he loved. He was like a fairytale prince without all the horrible cliches.
All in all this book was fantastic, I don’t have a fault with it, I enjoyed the entire experience. I liked this one better than Practical Magic, it just felt like we got to know the characters and the stories more in-depth and the reason behind a lot of the strange things that happen around Owens women. It was also the most witchy book of all three in the series. The other two books focus a lot on “the strange and unusual” and small herbal remedies and love spells but this book had Maria and others practising actual magic, with grimoire’s and the whole nine yards making us understand that the Owens family doesn’t just have an inclination towards magic, but they’re literally born with it in their blood. It was perfect. 5 stars.
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Some of my favourite quotes from the book:
" A woman alone who could read and write was suspect. Words were magic. Books were not to be trusted. What men could not understand, they wished to burn."
"Always and everywhere, love was the answer."
"This is how you begin in this world. These are the lessons to be learned. Drink chamomile tea to calm the spirit. Feed a cold and starve a fever. Read as many books as you can. Always choose courage. Never watch another woman burn. Know that love is the only answer."