Alice Hoffman

How do I describe a book with which I have a dysfunctional relationship? It had so much potential and then it never delivered. The main characters are in need of a good ass-kicking for being stupid, selfish, and spineless people. And the ending? don't even get me started on that!

My biggest pet peeve with a book and its plot, is when an author throws in tiny side stories or mentions things that never get resolved or finished.

To put it simply, it's like watching a train-wreck and not being able to look away because it's THAT bad and you want to watch until they clear the scene.

In all honesty, the book had it's tiny moments of glory, but overall it was too cliché, and I felt like the narrator should be someone from Savannah, Georgia; what with all of the "Why, this blah blah" & "why, that blah blah"

I dont know...if you're desperate for something to read and aren't picky about it, then this is for you.… (més)

I'm losing the will to live: another three star bloater. Practical Magic is one of my favourite films, but the books are romance novels with literary pretensions. The author rhapsodises on the meaning of love so often that she sounds like the Love Is ... cartoons by Kim Casali from the 1960s. Why have a prequel about a strong woman like Maria Owens, the female ancestor who escapes hanging when the rope breaks, and make her a blithering idiot who falls for the first charmer she meets? Why make her story about men at all? Maria is the daughter of a witch who is raised by another woman also skilled in the 'Nameless Art', and her daughter Faith is even more powerful, yet half of the overblown and repetitive story is wasted on wall art philosophy like 'love someone who will love you back'. The author's only saving grace is her historical research and wry take on the hypocritical 'Puritans' of New England and the men - of course - who labelled as witches and then murdered women for not following the rules. So much for the New World!… (més)

I feel like Green Angel was a much stronger book as both a standalone book, and as a book 1 of 2. Green Witch isn't by any means terrible, but I prefer to think of it as more of an optional sequel than a must-read book 2 of 2. As a sequel, we start off with our main character Green doing a lot better than she was in the first book, and she's taken to making paper out of the various materials in her garden. Each chapter has her writing about a different character - a character thought to be a witch - by writing down their stories on paper made to represent that person. It also brings back a few plot points we only saw hints of in book 1, and brings back a few characters we only saw for a brief time in book 1 as well. Again, Green Angel worked best as a standalone book and a book 1 of 2 - and in trying to be book 2 of 2 and trying to bring that stuff back, you may end up feeling either satisfied with the duology's conclusion that Green Witch tries to provide, or you might just feel like it was nice, but that Green's story and the story of those around her never really needed an ending tied up with a neat little bow either.

It's definitely a take it or leave it kinda book, but I still have my copy anyway because it's far more whimsical than Green Angel - and the difference in tone and how deliberately more fantasy-like it presents itself as could make it just enough to justify reading Green Witch, or owning a copy yourself.… (més)