Howl’s Moving Castle

“I hope your bacon burns.”

So What’s It About?

18 year old Sophie Hatter’s quiet, boring life in the family hat shop is upended when the Witch of the Waste curses her, turning her into an ancient crone. What’s an enchanted girl to do other than run away from home and find work as a cleaning lady for the notorious wizard Howl in his magical moving castle? In her new life, Sophie will find that navigating the Witch’s curse is the least of her worries – she has a filthy castle to clean, endless mysteries to unravel and (perhaps most demanding of all) an irascible and petulant wizard to deal with.

What I Thought

Simply put, this is an endlessly charming, rollicking and hilarious adventure of a book. It’s going to be a difficult task to identify the individual elements that contribute to the book’s overall sense of joy and delight because every page is positively suffused with these elements. Certainly, some of my enjoyment was derived from the book’s plot itself, which is something of a creative and wonderfully messy tangle. Howl’s Moving Castle features one of those supremely gratifying endings where the various plot threads finally entwine in a meaningful way and you can suddenly see the forest for the trees. While I can acknowledge that the plot is quite clever, I’m also self-actualized enough as a person to admit to you that I was occasionally annoyed and confused by it, especially when I was trying to keep Sophie’s sisters straight.

I think that most of the book’s charm is attributable to its characters, who are by and large a collection of enjoyably prickly oddballs. Sophie is a revelation of a protagonist- practical, clever and gratifyingly no-nonsense given the level of absurdity she is confronted with. Howl too is a delightful mess, with his constant melodrama, self-pity and generally himbo-ish nature. The constant antagonism and back-and-forth between the two of them could easily have become grating, but Jones is funny enough to make it work. The episode of Howl’s illness is a good example of this, because it highlights the hilarious depths of his mournful dramatism and Sophie’s exasperation with him:

“I’m delirious. Spots are crawling before my eyes.”
“Those are spiders.”

Nearly every other character has a moment to shine, from demon Calcifer to the Witch of the Waste herself. I can’t believe that I missed out on reading this book as a kid, because I would absolutely have been ALL ABOUT IT. Sophie does spend almost the entirety of the book cleaning up after Howl’s messes, literally and metaphorically. He’s definitely something of a self-absorbed manchild and Sophie spends a great deal of time nagging him and otherwise trying to get him to take responsibility for his actions.

However, I would argue that this part of the book is greatly redeemed during the ending, when it is revealed that Howl has actually much more competent and effective than is immediately apparent and is in fact working hard to unravel Ingary’s conflicts in his own inscrutable way. Also repudiated is the myth that he’s something of a predator who steals women’s hearts – although the reader spends a great deal of the book thinking that Howl is relentlessly pursuing various women, it’s ultimately revealed that he is using this motivation as a cover in order to investigate Sophie’s curse and the Witch of the Waste’s ominous activities. As with everything else in this book, it’s quite a delightful inversion of expectations.

Finally, I really enjoyed the way that Sophie’s curse allows her to find a kind of liberation and self-expression that she did not feel she could experience within the constraints of her experience as a young woman:

“As a girl, Sophie would have shriveled with embarrassment at the way she was behaving. As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said. She found that a great relief.”

Ahhhh, the wizard Howl... I mean THE WIZARD HOWL.. Drama Queen of drama queens.



This is such a delightful, entertaining, original and imaginative story. I have never read it as a kid, but I just loved it as an adult. I also happened to love Diana Wynne Jones's writing style: simple, powerful & competent, without fuss and there is definitely magic there, even though it not obvious at first sight (just like her heroine, Sophie).

“In the land of Ingary where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.”

Sophie Hatter, the heroine of this book, happens to be the eldest of three girls so she does not expect much out of life. She is working with her stepmother in the family hat shop and has no idea of the powerful magic that she possesses, namely, to talk inanimate objects into life or to give them strong magical attributes at least.

One day, the Witch of the Waste enters her shop and lays a powerful curse on her turning her into a crone. An extra downside is that she cannot tell anyone about it. Sophie, instead of getting desperate, decides to leave her family behind and finally ends up in the infamous wizard Howl's moving castle as the housekeeper-cum-cleaning-lady despite her misgivings about Howl's character.

Once in the castle (the door of which is a portal to 4 different places), she makes a deal with Howl's fire demon, Calcifer: he lifts the curse off her in case she manages to break the magical contract between him and the wizard...


I think that Sophie is one of my favourite heroines. She is such a wonderful character: nice, competent and calm, yet she is amazingly strong-minded and courageous. The fact that from a young woman she gets turned into an old woman, does not seem to faze her, on the contrary! The disguise seems to set free the inhibitions she have had and it is wonderful and hilarious to see, how she mercilessly bosses around Howl, his apprentice Michael and even the fire demon. So in a way Howl is right when he says to her:
"You're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You're victimizing us all.”

And there is -of course- Howl himself. He is the character who would probably drive you mad in real life, but delights your heart & soul in print (or on screen).
He is Sophie's opposite: showy, fussy, an unparalleled drama queen who spends hours in the bathroom every day to groom himself for his numerous courtships and shirks his responsibilities (he makes Michael to spread the vicious rumour that he sucks young girls' souls to avoid work & and so that he can go about courting his ever-changing paramours).
And when he gets a cold.... :)

“I feel ill,” he announced. “I’m going to bed, where I may die.” He tottered piteously to the stairs. “Bury me beside Mrs. Pentstemmon,” he croaked as he went up then to bed.”

And just when you think his character cannot get any worse, you realise that behind all those shows and tantrums he cares deeply for Sophie all the time He cures her old-age ailments, also tries to lift off her curse in secret, calls her "Sophie dear" and knows her inside out.

Their relationship is a bit like that of Beatrice and Benedict from Much Ado About Nothing. The get on each other's nerves, but they keep challenging each other all the time and they seem to enjoy all this immensely.

“I think we ought to live happily ever after," and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more hair-raising than any storybook made it sound, though she was determined to try. "It should be hair-raising," added Howl.
"And you'll exploit me," Sophie said.
"And then you'll cut up all my suits to teach me.”

There is, of course, a wonderful anime about this book, with the same title. But as is true of many, many books and movies, I found the experience of reading to be very different from that of viewing.

In my opinion, any movie based on a book is really a movie about one reader's reaction and interpretation of a book. In this case, it's an enjoyable one, but I felt that it missed many of the nuances of the story that made it such a great read.

I've yet to read a book by Diana Wynne Jones that did not enchant me. But among her books, this one is special to me. Every character is engaging. The world and situation is unique. There is a thoughtful thread that runs through the story about how we see ourselves and how we see others. Appearances can be deceiving, and not just to people outside ourselves.

There are magics here that are both gentle and profound. Definitely a book that can be enjoyed more than once.

n  n    “i think we ought to live happily ever after.”n  n

howl’s moving castle is easily one of my favorite books of all time.

it is so inherently whimsical, charming, and lovely that it’s nestled itself in my heart over the years, and always manages to fill me with hope and love. it’s sweet without getting syrupy, and it’s fairy tale-esque without ever sacrificing its wittiness and quick-fire dialogue.

it’s about things not always being what they seem to be, and how nobody is truly perfect -- whether they are lazy heart-eating wizards or angry elderly ladies. you can be perfectly flawed and still very much deserving of the life you wish for, as well as having people around you who make you happy.

so go out and find your own family -- especially if they include grumpy fire demons.

i’ve read this book so many times i’ve lost count. the tea-stained, crumpled, well-loved paperback has been a constant companion during study breaks, commutes, and boring lectures. it’s survived me growing up, and bears the scars to prove it. slipping into the world of ingary has always felt like coming home to me.

so when my partner got me the illustrated folio society edition for my birthday this year, i felt that a new and more in-depth review was long overdue.


© Marina Evlanova, 2019

enter sophie hatter, eldest daughter and certified hat-trimmer. she’s examined her lot in life and decided to accept it at face value despite it being utterly dull. the only amusement she has is talking to the hats she trims, which she does with her usual firmness and no-nonsense attitude to make something out of her life, at least.

being the eldest, she firmly believes she won’t amount to much, and should instead make way for her two younger sisters, lettie and martha. her stepmother fanny, however, tries to find good opportunities and apprenticeships for all of them, and is kind to all three of her daughters.

still, sophie does what the fairy tales demand and stays in her shop. but despite the people of ingary thinking that fairy tale tropes are unchangeable facts, life decides to go down an entirely different route. and nobody in the story ends up conforming to their classic fairy tale role in a fun and refreshing way.

because sophie’s innocent hat-talking turns out to be actual magic, and that draws the unwanted attention of a powerful witch who curses her into becoming a ninety-year-old lady. and that is the final push sophie needs to break free of her boring routine.

unmoored from the expectations surrounding being Unremarkable Sophie Hatter, Eldest Daughter, she ups and leaves her job and starts searching for a way to break her curse. knowing the evil, heart-hunting wizard howl is in the area, she figures he might be powerful enough to help her out.

little does she know that he’s actually a lazy, good-for-nothing slob, but that luckily enough gives her an excuse to pretend to hire herself as his cleaning lady, strike a deal with howl’s fire demon, and find a cure to her predicament.

the absolute best part of this book is its expansive cast of endearing, entertaining characters and the way they engage with each other through dialogue. i could swamp this review with dozens of quotes and i’d still feel like i haven’t done jones’ writing justice.

so i’ll start with the characters instead.


© Marie-Alice Harel, 2019

n  “yes, you are nosy. you're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. control yourself. you're victimizing us all.”n

we’ve already met sophie hatter, but she’s an absolute delight. though she initially appears meek and only a tad contrarian, once she discards the mantle of her old self while in the guise of an old woman, you’d better watch your step.

she’s one of those great heroines because she genuinely objects and takes action whenever things aren’t going the way she thinks they should go (regardless of whether she’s right, by the way). that includes, but is not limited to: impersonating a powerful witch while actually being one, trying to save innocent girls’ lives by destroying charming fashion, throwing weedkiller at people’s heads, and breaking an ancient curse.

her magic is quite literally based on her extreme willpower: if she tells a hat it will attract money, it actually will do so for its wearer without question. and once she realizes she can apply that willpower to her own life, she is finally able to get what she truly wants.

n  “well, he’s fickle, careless, selfish, and hysterical,” she said. “half of the time i think he doesn’t care what happens to anyone as long as he is alright -- but then i find out how awfully kind he’s been to someone.”n

and then there’s howl jenkins, who’s made exaggeration and drama into high art. often to the point of obfuscating his true intentions, as he does really seem to hide a kind heart under all those layers of commitment issues and fickle, childish behavior.

even so, the best part of howl is that he truly is a fool who plays with other people’s feelings and doesn’t take responsibility for either his own power or the powerful things he’s drawn towards.

he’s very much a cowardly mess, which you might not notice in the face of all his impressively-sewn suits, charming guitar playing, and dazzling dyed hair. he’s also one of the funniest, most relatable characters in the book.

howl never seems to realize what he truly wants until he meets sophie, who kind of rams into his life and business like a train at full speed and never stops. so he works to clean up his act some, though it still never truly matters to him whether people perceive him as a selfish brat or a kind wizard -- as long as he’s got sophie there to fling weed killer at his head.

she inspires him to live his life more courageously, and he in turn makes her realize she could actually start believing in herself.

he’s also actually a rugby-loving welsh guy from our world, and his entire family is 100% convinced he’s a failure. it’s never quite explained how a regular earth-bound guy came to be one of the most powerful wizards in ingary, but it does mean he gets to reference hamlet a lot.

n  “i suppose i can’t blame calcifer, since he’s an evil demon. but you, michael --!”
“i don’t think i’m evil,” calcifer protested.n

and then there’s calcifer, who is definitely not an evil demon but certainly a grumpy one. he’s the fire that lives in the hearth of the titular moving castle, and he’s also the one actually making it move. which is kind of a point of pride, and thus it annoys him to no end that everybody always thinks that howl is performing that particular feat.

he and sophie become reluctant allies at the start of the story: he promises he can help sophie lift her curse if she breaks the contract between him and howl. but unfortunately, the contract also dictates that calcifer can’t share any information about how to break it, so that leaves him awkwardly dropping hints and sophie not picking up on them while she cleans the castle.

their dynamic eventually turns into something quite adorable, where they’re these two bickering old biddies who hold a lot of fondness for each other, and bond over the fact they’re the only two keeping the castle running while howl is out chatting up young ladies.

“if i give you a hint and tell you it's a hint, it will be information.”


© Lulu Chen, 2019

so at one point i will have to admit to a weakness of this book, and that is the absolutely nonsensical plot. some of it goes into absurdist humor, reminiscent of douglas adam’s style and still entertaining to my personal tastes, but a lot of it is distracting at best.

the witch of the waste is sort of a main antagonist since she cursed sophie, but she never truly takes center stage to be fought against. there’s a lot of red herrings scattered throughout the story involving missing princes and enchanted dogs and creepy scarecrows, and even though it all ties together at the end, the culmination of those storylines is so needlessly complicated that all you can really do is accept it at face value and move on.

i’ll also say that despite loving howl’s apprentice michael, he could’ve gotten a bit more attention and development just like the other main characters. he’s present in the story quite often, tangled up in a subplot about being in love with one of sophie’s sisters, but doesn’t seem to be a lot beyond a 15-year-old in love.

so if you were to pick this up, i’d advise you to pick it up specifically for its wittiness and its endearing characters, and not necessarily for its plot or exquisite worldbuilding. read it because you’d like to read something charming, or perhaps because you identify with howl’s unhealthy coping styles and sense for drama (as i do, greatly).

i mean, getting blackout drunk right before an important event (while pretending you’re not interested at all in going to said event), and then tricking yourself into going to the event anyway while hungover sounds like a smart plan, doesn’t it?

n  “you’re drunk.”

“who, me?” said howl. “i assure you, my friends, i am cone sold stober.”

he got up and stalked upstairs, feeling for the wall as if he thought it might escape him unless he kept in touch with it. his bedroom door did escape him.

“what a lie that was!” howl remarked as he walked into the wall. “my shining dishonesty will be the salvation of me.”

he walked into the wall several times more, in several different places, before he discovered his bedroom door and crashed his way through it. sophie could hear him falling about, saying that his bed was dodging.n

the 2004 studio ghibli movie adaptation is also delightful and really captures the spirit of the book while still setting up its own story. it can easily be viewed as a slightly different take on the book version, and it even solved some of the problems i had with the convoluted plot.

the music that joe hisaishi composed for the film makes for an excellent companion to reading the book as well. it’s got everything -- from the grand, dramatic sweep of howl’s sleeves and sophie’s broom to the quiet, hidden affection of two people starting to realize that they’re each other’s found family.

this book will always hold a special place in my heart, and it might find a place on your shelves too if you’re in the mood for something magical and enchanting. it’s likely to be fun for both children and adults, and i think i can safely say i won’t ever stop reading it.

here’s to living happily ever after.



✎ 5.0 stars.

Howl said, “I think we ought to live happily ever after,” and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more eventful than any story made it sound, though she was determined to try.

How much I enjoyed reading this book! As someone who grew up watching the movie countless times, reading this book only reminded of good memories I had made as a child.
If like me you've seen the movie reading the book and you're scared you won't like it, don't worry about it one bit.

I was extremely surprised to see how both similar and different these two are. The core of the story is the same: Sophie Hatter gets turned into an old lady by the Witch of the Waste and goes on living in — are you read? — Howl's moving castle. But in the book, Sophie doesn't end up there by pure chance, but because she's trying to find a way to put an end to this curse.

The first half is very much like the movie, it's scarcely different, but the second part ... it was so different but not at all in a bad way! It was full of little details and explanations as to why why some of the things that happened did happen this way.
And if you take the time to rewatch the movie right after having finished the book, you'll see it with new eyes! It's truly fascinating.

I loved knowing more about Howl and all his life, he's such an interesting character! He's way more developed in the book, more fleshed out, I understand the way he thinks much better than I did before.
Even Sophie was interesting, though I do prefer the movie version of her a lot more! In the book, she uses the excuse of being an old woman to be a bully, to do whatever she wants and that's something I didn't appreciate at all.
But I did like all the other secondary characters, they added a lot to the story!

It's a book I definitely see myself rereading in the future, simply because I had an amazing experience and I think I could catch on even more details the second time!

4.25

Middle Grade March Buddy (Re)Read with Celeste and Eon
-----------------------------------

It's always a great pleasure to read middle grade fantasy. Howl's Moving Castle was no exception with it's whimsical fun and wonderfully flawed but lovable characters. I think I actually enjoyed this even more the 2nd time around. Howl was so delightfully hilarious with his theatrics that I enjoyed every moment when he appeared on the page.

PS: Immediately after I finished the book, I jumped straight into watching the movie for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was a great adaptation - though it was quite different for most part still managed to retain the essence of the story.

“Interesting things did seem to happen, but always to somebody else.”

Howl's Moving Castle was the first Ghibli movie i've ever watched, the one that introduced me to the most magical and entertaining story which made my 6 years old innocent self realize that she has a thing for hot emo wizards. I never really thought of reading the book despite it being my all time favorite film (it is the best, go argue with the wall) until my friend recommended to me (thank you Sayf) and i actually picked it up.

Listening to the audiobook, with the narrator being so into character, made me feel so nostalgic, it felt like a warm hug i adored every single second of it.

The story as we know it is simply magical, the worldbuilding is enchanting and so easy to visualize and get into.

The character were all messy, pure crackhead energy, everyone was so chaotic and that made them all SO LOVABLE i would die for any of them any day. The dynamic between Howl and Sophie was so different from what they had going in the movie and that was such a pleasant surprise. Howl was such a DRAMA QUEEN and Sophie was so fed up with him since day one which led to a lot of bickering and banter and just PURE ~love~ JUST read those quotes

“So you were going to rescue the Prince! Why did you pretend to run away? To deceive the Witch?"

"Not likely! I'm a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell myself I'm not doing it!”

They are married your honor.

“I think we ought to live happily ever after," and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more hair-raising than any storybook made it sound, though she was determined to try. "It should be hair-raising," added Howl.
"And you'll exploit me," Sophie said.
"And then you'll cut up all my suits to teach me.”

SO FUCKING SOFT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M GONNA CRY!!!!!! THEY MAKE ME WANT TO ACT UP !!!!


What i'm trying to say is, if you watches the film please pick up the book you would do yourself a favor, if you never watched the film before ask yourself this, "what am i contributing to society?" The answer is nothing so get your prettyself up watch the movie and then READ THE BOOK

Very much enjoyed this one. Just delightful.