Maybe I'll Just Read Practical Magic. Again.

I just finished reading The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker and let's just get this out of the way right now: I sincerely wish that Alice Hoffman had written it. That's all, I might have really enjoyed it then. There was a feeling about this novel that the story and the characters should either have been weightier and rougher, or more magical and lyrical. I just couldn't grab hold of anything she'd written. The characters seemed distant in a way I can't explain. She did a good job of giving her main character some human flaws in with her strengths and she also had an interesting, sometimes beautiful turn of phrase. I can't personally complain about the way she fit together her sentences, but the story and the characters who populated it just didn't...stick. Err, I wish I had words for how slightly disappointing and mystifying the whole thing was when it was over. It was a pleasant read, I never considered giving up on it, but when I had finished, it was as if I internally frowned and blinked in surprise, thinking, "Really?". Here is the closest I can come to summing up the feeling: it is as if someone implanted a false memory in me of having read the story--in my mind all the facts are there, but it feels thin and unreal and I'm beginning to doubt it happened at all.