So what is Howl's Moving Castle?

Pull up a stool by the fire and I'll tell you.

Deceptively complex and yet magically simple, Diana Wynne Jones' inimitable classic throws everything but the kitchen sink (well, probably that too) and gobs of green goo upon the concept of the fairy tale and dusts it with a generous helping of humor, horror, and heart. From making Sophie into an old woman, to making glowing faces in the fireplace, to Wales being a home as deep and dynamic as DiCaprio's own final destination was in Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception, Howl has it all. From fights (of the witchcraft variety) to food (of the breakfast variety) and fun (of every variety), Howl is impossible to dislike as a character and a book. In fact, the only flaw I see is that it has taken me 29 years to read it. And I profoundly thank Sveta for sharing with me one of her favorite books, as it is now one of my favorites, too.



Even "happy ever after" carries the truest ring of reality, in that we are all flawed specimens. Fantastically flawed and incredibly interesting, Howl speaks to that spark of genuine youness in that whoever you are, however you are, why ever you are, you are special, you are cherishable, you are magical. You are worthy to be loved just for who you are. Even if it's not what other people think, or what they see, or what has been said, it's what you know in your heart to be true. That there is someone out there who has stolen your heart as you have stolen theirs and it might be a wild and crazy adventure just to be together, but hey, who wants life to be boring, anyway?

Recommended for everyone, especially lovers of fairytales.

Now I must see the film!

Buddy read with the wonderful Sveta. :D

After a good initial start, this story never took off the way I anticipated (and hoped) it might. The writing style was difficult for me to get caught up in, and I kept waiting for something enchanting and thrilling to happen. Unfortunately, after chapter 3, nothing did. At all.

While I appreciated some aspects of Wynne Jones fantasy building (the castle and it's doorway portals in particular), I don't see where she executed these ideas in any kind of sustained imaginative way. Apart from Howl (who really needed medication throughout the majority of the book), the characters felt flat and one-dimensional. I found it difficult to relate to their plight.

To be fair, YA fantasy isn't one of my go-to genres, so my rating should be taken with a large grain of salt for aficionados of this style. It's hard to please me in this genre - only Juliet Marillier, George MacDonald and Marion Zimmer Bradley have been able to pull me into their fantasy realm and hold me captive.

یه داستان فانتزی جذاب و گیرا برای کسانی که این سبک‌های داستانی رو دوست دارن.
سوفی برام نماد تسلیم نشدن بود. نماد زندگی تو زمان حال به جای بغل گرفتن زانوی غم بود.
تغییرات شخصیتی سوفی در نتیجه تغییر سن و سالش برام خیلی جالب و بامزه بود.
به نظرم جونز خیلی عالی از پس شخصیت‌سازی‌ها براومده. داستان با وجود فانتزی و حتی گاه تخیلی بودنش، اونقدر خوب باورپذیر از آب دراومده که شما رو تو لذت ادامه دادن داستان با خودش می‌کشونه و همراه می‌کنه.
شخصیت هاول و دیوونه‌بازی‌هاش یه طنز خیلی بامزه داره که قادره حتی وسط یه ماجرای کاملا جدی شما رو بخندونه!
هیچ چیز در این داستان اتفاقی نیست، هیچ چیز بی‌دلیل رها نشده. حتی کوچک‌ترین اتفاق‌ها مبدأ و مقصد دارن. کل داستان مثل یک پازل هوشمندانه کنار هم جفت می‌شه. داستان در عین سادگی و پیچیده نبودن کشش منحصربه‌فردی داره.
خلاصه اینکه اگر سبک کتاب‌های فانتزی رو می‌پسندین، کتاب قلعه متحرک هاول رو از دست ندین.
توصیه اکید دارم کتاب رو قبل از انیمه‌ش ببینید. تو کارتونش علاوه بر اینکه داستان رو خیلی جاها از مسیر اصلی کتاب جدا کردن و به سبک متفاوتی پیش بردنش، فاقد ظرافت‌های کتاب هم هست. می‌شه گفت اصلا قابل مقایسه نیستن! دیدن کارتونش خالی از لطف نیست اما یادتون نره حتما بعد از کتاب، و نه قبلش.
این کتاب رو خیلی دوست داشتم و از خوندنش راضی‌ام.

Lo~ovin' you, is easy 'cause you're beautiful (Loving You – Minnie Riperton).

I’ll admit that a lot more decision making went into starting this book than most of the stuff I read. I was doing some serious research, watching the movie, a bunch of “behind-the-scenes” stuff on YouTube, and I even had the soundtrack on repeat for several days. Then I decided… yeah, I should probably read the book. It is the original after all. Though, it’s kind of scary, you know? Reading a book from so long ago. I mean, I’m aware that 1986 isn’t that long ago, but I’ve had bad experiences with reading older fiction before. Dated language, dated sentiments, the usual. But I know this version is rather beloved, so I figured I have to at least give it a fair chance. In fact, I went into this being so sure that something from above would smite me if I hated it, that I was seriously prepared to pretend to love it the same way I did with Lorde’s “Solar Power.” Well, color me surprised at how much I actually liked this. I was blindsided, really. The thing is, this book had an uphill battle from the jump simply because of how fully enticed I was by the movie. And it’s not just the bigger romantic focus and the powerful anti-war message, I think I’m just really easily moved by pretty animation and beautiful music. It’s a hard feeling to capture on a page. Thankfully, after a couple chapters getting used to it, I came to appreciate and really enjoy this book for what it is. It doesn't sound like it, but I swear I did! It was surprisingly easy to fall into step with the narrative and the characters were as charming as their movie counterparts (albeit with a few key differences)! It’s a little funny, because when I was watching the Studio Ghibli version, I found it so abstract that I kind of chalked it up to cultural differences, but after reading the source material it’s like… no, the story is just like that. It’s quirky! Is it obvious that I love, love, love Ghibli movies? Because I really do. I love Studio Ghibli movies! And not just for the aesthetic! Whenever things feel like they’re happening too much, every movie of theirs feels like an exaltation of a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Now that I’ve consumed all available Howl’s Moving Castle media (to the point where I’m probably Howl’s Moving Castle’d out), I think I can safely say that I slightly prefer the movie adaption. Big surprise, I know. I like both, but I think I just like Howl’s portrayal more in the animated adaption. He’s still vain and afraid, but he’s a bit more dashing, a bit more mature, and a bit… more. He doesn’t really undergo too much character development in this book and you could pretty much open it up to any page and he’d be doing the same shtick he’s been doing the entire story. Even after the big “I love you” reveal, he might as well have looked at the camera and said, “Don’t worry guys, I’m the same old Howl!” Sorry, but… maybe I don’t want the same old Howl! I want movie Howl! Ahhh, I know what it is. Book Howl is that one guy. The sitcom husband, the dude who you can tell doesn’t actually want a girlfriend or a partner, not really. At the end of the day, what they really want is a mommy. And while there’s no doubt that the book certainly has more world-building and goes more into the details of the “who-what-when-where and why,” I think that this tale is more than sufficiently told through the movie adaption. To the point where I’d argue that it’s sometimes improved upon. For example, through visual cues, we see how Sophie’s old woman curse seems fluid, constantly changing rapidly throughout the film, implying that it was more of a metaphor for her resignation in life, and we get to see the curse break every time she feels passion and love for Howl, showing that she had the power to break it within herself the whole time. Or how, on the flip-side, after falling in love with Sophie, Howl’s appearance loses its extravagant and flashy nature, showing that he’s more comfortable being “his true self” around Sophie, without all the glam and glamour. I'm more than happy with metaphors, I don't need literal, in-universe, explanations for the these things. Anyway, woah, lots of comparison talk, huh? I feel like I have to keep saying it... but don’t worry, like I said, I liked this book. Quite a bit actually, it's different but still good! Even if I’m more partial to the movie adaption, the book version managed to muster up more than enough magic and whimsy to keep me enraptured.

“Don’t you think I did any of me myself, then?” Howl asked. “Put in just a few touches of my own?”
“A few, and those not altogether to my liking.”

تا نصفه‌هاش خیلی خیلی خوب بود ولی بعد یه افت عجیبی پیدا کرد و تا حدی خسته‌کننده شد برام
با این حال، هر وقت دلتون برای یه دنیای جادویی تنگ شد می‌تونید سراغش بیاید
با انیمیشن هم تفاوت‌های خیلی زیادی داشت، چه توی داستان و چه بعضاً شخصیت‌پردازیش
رابطه سوفی و هاول توی انیمیشن در مقایسه با رابطه‌شون توی کتاب :))
n  n
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من چاپ اول تندیس رو داشتم و متأسفانه عدم ویراستاری کتاب رو به فاجعه تبدیل کرده بود و کیفیت ترجمه هم چنگی به دل نمی‌زد
ظاهراً توی چاپ جدید ویراستاری مجدد شده ولی بهرحال من رفتم توی طاقچه ترجمه خانم رحمانیان رو گرفتم که تر و تمیز و خوب بود

rare case of the movie being better than the book T__T

[October 28, 2019] Marking for reread. Delightful, charming, and Old Sophie is my Patronus.


[January 1, 2016]
I talk about this book in this video wrap-up.

This was my first read of 2016, and it was a lovely and enchanting way to start my reading year. Howl's Moving Castle is so much of what I love in books: whimsy, a vivid setting, bright characters and found families.

Wynne Jones' story is told in such a clean and straightforward way that it makes the fantastical elements and setting stand out all the more. In turn, the brightness of those elements really help to balance and at times highlight the darker elements of the story. Yes, this book is about a moving castle, a young girl turned old and a moody wizard, but it's set up against a war and curses and imprisonment, both physical and the kind that comes from the expectations of others.

I really loved Sophie as a main character and I loved the way she handles having this curse on her. She kind of just rolls with it, but also uses the costume to her advantage, freeing herself in a way she probably hadn't experience before when she was stuck in a life pre-planned for her. I love that she doesn't take Howl's crap. She cleans and mends and goes about doing what she thinks is right, regardless of his moods. I only ended up liking Howl because he becomes part of Sophie's family, or rather, Sophie becomes part of his. He softens a lot and I can at least appreciate that.

Definitely a recommended read for anyone who likes children's or middle grade fantasy. If you watched the movie and loved it, it would be interesting to read this as well because it is so much MORE. It's more plot, more of the characters and it just makes so much more sense when you have the full story.

Loved it.

Un libro catalogado como infantil o juvenil pero que gustará sin importar la edad del lector.

El castillo que crea la autora es increíble, con sus puertas que dan a lugares diferentes a tiempos diferentes e incluso a dimensiones diferentes. Así mismo, la maldición de Sophie es mucho más que una maldición. Es la forma que tiene la autora de mostrarnos cómo cambia la perspectiva de las cosas con la edad y cómo nos vamos volviendo más insensibles al qué dirán o a los juicios de las personas. Con cada año que cumplimos más nos resbalan comentarios sin sentido y más somos nosotros mismos.

La maldición le sirvió a Sophie como excusa para ser ella misma, para arriesgarse y aprender a vivir. Cuando vio drásticamente reducidos sus días fue cuando consiguió salir de su caparazón, cuando comenzó a vivir y a no dejar pasar los días. Siempre pensamos que tenemos mucho tiempo, que podremos hacer lo que verdaderamente nos gusta en algún momento en el futuro, dando por hecho que vamos a disponer de ese futuro cuando, lamentablemente, esto no siempre es así. Lo que podemos asegurar es que tenemos un presente y no vivirlo por vivir en el futuro hace que nunca vivamos realmente.

Ya en su momento me gustó mucho la película. De hecho, creo que es mi película de animación favorita. Y ese es exactamente el problema. ¡No sé si después de leer el libro me va a gustar igual! Siempre, o el 99% de las veces, el libro es mucho mejor que la película y en este caso es así. El libro tiene una profundidad que la película, que tiene que cuidar su extensión, no tiene.

Sabemos mucho más de la familia de Sophie y de Howl. En realidad, sabemos mucho más de todo y eso se nota. Además, el final del libro también me ha gustado más.

Me despido de Howl y su castillo, por ahora, porque es una lectura que sé que volveré a repetir en el futuro.

Quite different from the movie but no less fantastic.

Needless to say, I loved it.

Howl's Moving Castle, for whatever reason, totally failed to engage me the first time I read it several years ago, but it worked so much better the second time around. I really felt for Sophie, the main character, who feels so timid, trapped and hopeless that when she's (unfairly) hit with a curse that turns her from a young woman into an old crone, it actually frees her in more ways than one. She leaves her dead-end job in the village and, for lack of a better option, moves herself (without bothering to ask for permission) into the oddly mobile castle of the Wizard Howl, where magic and cobwebs fill the air. Obviously the young wizard needs a housekeeper, after all. The fire demon in the castle's fireplace mysteriously challenges Sophie to break "the contract" between himself and Howl, and she hopes that maybe Howl and the demon can help break the curse on her as well.

The nature and use of magic in this story were quite creative. As a former English major, I really enjoyed how John Donne's poem "Song" ("Go and catch a falling star") was worked into the story.

The plot was occasionally confusing, and I wished some things had been explained a little better. I also thought that the wrap-up at the end was a bit too hasty. But overall it was a charming and fun read, and it gets bonus points for an unusually high degree of originality.

Upping my rating from 3 stars to an enthusiastic 4.



Original review: On paper I should love this book, but it just didn't grab me when I tried to read it about 10 years ago,* and I ended up skimming half of it. I picked it up again at the library the other day and I'm going to give it one more shot.

*I was being kind-hearted when I gave it 3 stars, or was overly swayed by the book's reputation. I would be meaner if I were rating it now, but I'll wait to do that until I've re-read it.

Sencillamente mágico!