This week we are discussing Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, pg. 117-189.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman.
Trigger/Content Warning!!! This book has scenes and discussion of such themes as: sexual assault, domestic abuse, and animal death.
Discussion:
Jacilyn: Hello friends and welcome to our second discussion of Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. This section was a bit smaller than the first one, but boy oh boy did we have a lot of character development. Jimmy’s presence becomes increasingly palpable, and his energy is far from benevolent. The nastiness that existed in him while he lived almost seemed to intensify after death, impacting not only the Owens women but others in the area as well. It seems to me that the nastiness was targeted at Sally and Gillian, specifically to drive a wedge between them when what they need more than anything is each other.
Michaela: With how nasty Jimmy is in death, I can’t imagine what he was really like alive. We get to learn a little more about his behavior in this section from Gillian. I feel for Gillian so much, and I’m not surprised she needed to give him sleeping herbs. Not only was he physically abusive but he was clearly sexually abusive too. Gillian was completely taken aback by Ben’s sexual presence compared to Jimmy’s, it was truly sad to read how torn she was. I’m happy she feels so much joy now, I don’t know that she’s ever felt that way with any man before Ben. This section of the book makes me wonder if magic is trying to get the Owens women to experience the right kinds of love. Ever since Maria the Owens women have fallen for and been mistreated by bad men, what if magic is trying to push them to truly love each other, themselves, and the right partner.
I’m so glad that Kylie finally told Sally and Gillian that she was seeing Jimmy in the backyard. So much was going wrong for them, I understand that they’re trying to ignore magic but like come on. There was so much going wrong that it was making their lives ridiculous.
Jacilyn: The insight into Gillian and her past, especially the extra details on her relationship with Jimmy, was illuminating to say the least. Not only was he physically abusive, he was sexually abusive as well. The way Gillian remembers sex with him, there was never any enthusiastic consent. It was only ever to protect herself from his rages, and even then the rage still came out during the rape. He made her cry, for his own pleasure. The way that Gillian has tried to save herself from the love she saw as a child has prevented her from ever finding a love that she actually deserves - and loving herself. I really enjoyed how Ben’s rabbit gave her a hand (or foot, should I say) in working through her past enough while Ben slept after that first night to let herself be loved in the way she deserved.
I think your theory on the magic trying to help the Owens women experience the right kind of love is spot on. Perhaps Sally, Gillian, Antonia, and Kylie will be the ones to end the cycle. All four of these women had these sky-high walls around their hearts, and I think we’re starting to see them come down a bit in this section. I don’t for one second believe that Jimmy’s spirit is gone for good (that frog spit up his ring, I’m sure of it), but leaning on each other and being vulnerable has already made a significant impact on his influence. I hope that Kylie begins to talk about the auras she sees and how they impact her - as someone who is an emotional sponge myself, I can’t imagine the impact of being *magically* in tune with everyone’s emotions, even strangers! It’s no wonder it’s debilitating.
Michaela: Jimmy is 100% still around, I just think he has to fight his way back to latch onto something. He was connected to the lilacs so when Sally cut them all down his connection was broken or perhaps he decided to pretend to be gone. We don’t know yet. But there’s no way he’s done messing with this family, he is incredibly evil spirited. The way he affects women in this whole neighborhood and bores into their subconscious, it’s just disgusting. So far I feel that Ben is good for Gillian, but Buddy the bunny was the true hero in this section. Pets allow us to feel things in the presence of another living breathing creature without any expectation, they’re just there to love and listen to you and you to love back. In a very short amount of time this bunny gave Gillian permission to finally work through her past on her own, he created this tiny safe space for her that she didn’t know she needed.
I really hope Kylie explains more of her empathic abilities to Sally and Gillian but most of all I want Sally and Gillian to be open to it. If they aren’t willing to even listen to the possibility of magic (because they are still denying its existence, though less and less recently) then they will not be supporting Kylie at all. I think her powers must be super intense right now because she just received them on her 13th birthday so she doesn’t know how to harness them yet. I’m curious to know if Antonia received a magical ability when she turned 13 as well, but it was something more subtle that she didn’t consider it magic.
Antonia seems to be fairly intuitive, especially with what happened to Kylie, however that could also just be a woman/sister ‘I've experienced a life of unwanted sexualization too’. The scene in the field was incredibly scary and I could not read it fast enough, I needed to know that Kylie was okay. Antonia really stepped up as a sister in that moment and I’m very proud of her character development. Taking care of anyone after something like that takes a lot of care, energy, and willingness to help that many people don’t possess but Antonia does.
Jacilyn: I think there’s more to Antonia that we see, thus far. All of these women are touched by it in some way, and the way the aunt’s garden came alive around Kylie and Antonia as children makes me think we’ll be seeing something more from her soon. She’s found Scott, who seems to be a good reminder that she *is* intelligent and talented, and that her looks aren’t all that make her worthy. It almost seems like her and Gillian needed similar reminders and support from these new men in their lives, and I’m hoping that they’ll bond through it in some way soon.
My favorite part about this section as a whole was the development of the sisterhoods. If Sally and Gillian hadn’t started speaking to each other again (even if it was just to fight, at first), I don’t think Sally would have taken care of the lilacs like she did, and Kylie would have retreated further into herself. Once the lilacs were gone, Gillian finally began to believe that she might deserve Ben, Antonia connected with Scott, and Kylie finally decided to reach out to Gideon. I thought Kylie walking across the field to get to Gideon’s place was strangely similar to Maria’s trek across the fields to see the awful man who didn’t return her love, and the horrible experience of being chased and almost assaulted by those men brought her to Antonia who honestly channeled Sally quite a bit there. Again, it goes back to what you said about the magic trying to help the Owens women come together and flourish.
At this point, it still feels like Sally isn’t quite where she deserves to be yet. Antonia and Kylie’s improving relationship caused her some serious distress, when it should have brought her joy. She almost went back to the way she was after her husband died, and, like before, it was Gillian who drew her out. We all know I’m a big sentimental softie, but the last paragraph of this section about how both sisters had always wished on the stars to finally be free of fear - I teared up. It was a truly beautiful moment that both of these women deserved to have, and I’m hopeful that we’ll start to see Sally flourishing soon too.
Michaela: All these women deserve to be happy and loved, especially by themselves. Magic is desperately trying to help them but they can’t do it without each other. They all have personality flaws and haunted pasts that are preventing them from moving forward but they’re just beginning to move past it all and they’re doing it together. I’m really excited to see what happens in the last section of the book, though I have to say, I still feel uneasy that Jimmy or some other bad energy is going to come back and challenge these women and try to knock them down. Excitement and uneasiness are leading me into the ending of this book! Until next time friends.
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