The Gilded Margin

Favorites Friday| The Gilded Margin

If you walked out of Practical Magic 2 and thought:

“Okay…I need to know more about these witches.”

Start with the book.

Practical Magic 2 is based on Alice Hoffman’s The Book of Magic, published in 2021. (Practical Magic)

And that title is important because The Book of Magic isn’t some random tie-in novel created for the movie.

It’s actually the fourth book in Hoffman’s Practical Magic series.

The story follows three generations of Owens women—and one long-lost brother—as the family attempts to break the curse that has followed them through generations.

The journey stretches from Paris to London and the English countryside, eventually reaching back toward the family’s earliest history and Maria Owens. (Alice Hoffman)

And Kylie Owens becomes particularly important as she begins uncovering the truth about herself and her own powers.

So if the movie makes you curious about the Owens family tree…

The novel gives you considerably more history to explore.

The Practical Magic bookshelf

Here’s the complete series:

Practical Magic

The original.

Sally and Gillian Owens. The sisters. The curse. The family history that started everything.

The Rules of Magic

A prequel that takes us back to the Owens siblings who came before Sally and Gillian.

Magic Lessons

Go even further back.

This is where we meet Maria Owens and discover the origins of the curse that eventually becomes part of the family’s history. (Alice Hoffman)

The Book of Magic

The fourth book—and the one that inspired Practical Magic 2.

It’s the culmination of the Owens family story. (Alice Hoffman)

And that’s what makes this adaptation especially interesting.

The movie franchise started with a book.

Then the author expanded the family’s history through three more novels.

And now that expanded literary world has made its way back onto the screen.

Movie → book → expanded universe → sequel.

That’s my kind of rabbit hole.

And if you’re anything like me, this is exactly how a casual movie night turns into a four-book autumn reading project.