One fine wintery morning, I turned eighteen, and had the grand realisation, "oh shit, I haven't watched a single Studio Ghibli film in my life!" My way of rectifying that was, of course, to watch a bunch of those cute little Japanese movies, but also to read this book, because for some reason, in my head, Howl's Moving Castle (the book) and Studio Ghibli are some sort of tethered souls.

And I'll come clean here, I didn't like either the book or the film adaptation very much.

But maybe that's because I'm such a geriatric person at heart that I can quite literally die of ennui and cringe if I'm forced to read or watch anything that mostly caters to an audience that's at least two years younger than me. You can't believe how troubling that is for my library full of juvenile books that I'll probably never read again.

That's enough rambling for an intro, so let's cut to the chase: while I love Sophie, Michel, the fire demon, and Howl (especially Howl) with all my heart, I didn't really like how the author wrote this book. The storyline felt strangely convoluted and undercooked at the same time, I somehow had too much information to juggle with while having not the slightest idea about what was going on in the book. The wicked witch of the Waste was such an interesting character, but she too had barely any page presence. The author's writing is perfectly adequate, I wouldn't mind reading a couple hundred pages more if it meant that I'd get my answers. My brain isn't equipped with the capability of handling a load of unanswered questions. So much stuff was happening off the page, it's insane.

But the one redeeming factor of this book for me is Howl. Oh my sweet, melodramatic, whiny narcissist Howl...how I love you! He wasn't that much actively present throughout the book (off working on his PhD perhaps, poor chap) but he stole every scene he was in. Hands down one of the most unique male protagonists I've ever seen. We'll choose to not talk about whatever unresolved mommy or granny issues he might have (he falls in love with Sophie who's in the body of a 90-year-old throughout the book), because afterall, Sophie and Howl make a pretty cute pair together.


n  Random Pre-review Updaten

So it's like everything everywhere all at once, and nothing makes sense, but in an affectionate way. I'm charmed!

longer review to come.


n  Thoughts While Readingn

♠ Sophie could give Tori Spring a run for her money; the first thought she has after turning into a decrepit old lady is like my life is hell anyway, at least I'm healthy. lol.

♠ Sophie: Evil wizard Howl has all these jars with labels like "hair", "skin", and "eyes" on them!
Meanwhile, Howl: Those are my skincare products, Lady.

♠ God Howl's so melodramatic!

♠️ It's a good thing I watched the movie first because there's no way I'd be able to watch it knowing they absolutely erased the Welsh Rugby player and depressed PhD student aspect of Howl's character.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones opens in a picturesque little village, in a country and a world where magic—gifts and curses, fairies and witches—are not just real, but taken for granted. The people around them manage to have almost tediously normal lives.

Our protagonist, Sophie Hatter, is the eldest of three sisters, so she knows her youngest sister will have luck and adventure while she herself will have a dull and obscure existence, probably as an old maid tending her father’s hat shop. At nineteen, Sophie is clever but painfully shy.

On a festival day she dares to leave the hat shop and is pursued by a handsome youth she has never seen before. Irrationally frightened, Sophie flees the young man’s advances, only to irritate a mysterious old woman—and suddenly Sophie herself is transformed into an infirm old hag.

Unable to explain her metamorphosis and afraid to approach her family in this altered form, Sophie decides to leave town in pursuit of the one person who can help her: the great wizard Howl, whose moving castle recently appeared as an ominous blot on the horizon.

Why ominous?

Because Howl is said to kidnap beautiful girls and eat their hearts, or perhaps their souls.
No longer young and never (to herself, at least) beautiful, Sophie reasons she has nothing to fear.

Setting
Jones sets the stage early on, as much with her narration as with her description. The narrator is an arch observer in the tradition of Jane Austen and L.M. Montgomery, and the world she describes could be any rural town and surrounding countryside in the eighteenth or nineteenth century—with the small addition of magic.

Magic here is a respectable enough line of work, usually, but a powerful witch or wizard is still feared.

Propriety is of utmost concern in the land of Ingary. Out-of-towners are not trusted, and the wizard Howl, whom no one in the village of Market Chipping has ever (as far as they know) laid eyes on, is particularly suspicious due to his mode of travel and the scandalous rumors that run before him.

Howl’s Castle itself, where most of the book takes place, is a marvel of imagination, but I will say no more. It’s not a plot spoiler per se, but I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s delighted surprise at the thing’s operations and abilities.

Plot
Once installed as the moving Castle’s housekeeper, Sophie befriends Calcifer, the fire demon whose energy sustains the building. From Calcifer she gathers hints of a terrible secret about Howl. She spends most of the book trying to piece together the nature of her own curse, and the secret that Calcifer cannot fully reveal.

At first Howl, a handsome but rather foppish young man, appears to enjoy a carefree existence of fine clothes, using magic for fun, breaking the heart of every girl he meets, and shirking the responsibilities that come with his accomplished wizard status. He repeatedly clashes with this apparently random old lady who barged into his house demanding a job, but as he gets to know her, he begins to suspect she might not be so random at all…

Meanwhile, the King’s younger brother is missing, as is one of Howl’s high-ranking wizard colleagues, and a powerful being from Howl’s past is scheming to destroy him, but if I elaborate on any of this, it will ruin the fun.

Characters
If you were starting to think that all YA heroines are either brassy Amazon warrior princesses or sniveling Bella Swans, allow Sophie Hatter to break you out of your funk.

Sophie starts out as a painfully timid girl who wears only plain, grey dresses and rarely ventures outside the family hat shop. She is so convinced of her own plainness that when a handsome stranger approaches her on May Day, she assumes the young man is mocking her and runs away. I think a lot of us can relate to this.

As an old lady, Sophie takes about twenty levels in chutzpah. She is assertive, no-nonsense, and occasionally cantankerous, but never truly unkind. She becomes the only being in the universe who can make Howl Pendragon obey.

For Howl is a flighty, easily-frightened creature, who has built a fearsome reputation for himself in the hope of avoiding conflict. He is the most accomplished wizard in the land—since Suliman disappeared, at any rate—but he shirks the responsibilities that must inevitably come with that status. He craves love, but flits from one girl to the next with no intention of settling down anytime soon.

He is also vain, compulsively dying his hair, only wearing the finest (re: flashiest) clothes, and pitching epic tantrums when his beauty regimen is disturbed (although he might really be upset about something else entirely).

But don’t let the temperamental glam rock exterior fool you. Howl is one of the very cleverest—and kindest, and gentlest—men you will ever meet in YA, and a lot of his theatrics are cover for his dastardly, altruistic, foolhardy plans…if you want a book boyfriend, look no further!

Then there’s Calcifer—a snide, secretive little lump of talking flame in a fireplace, who has a hilariously close-but-vitriolic friendship with Howl. I can’t say much more about Calcifer without giving the whole thing away.

The other characters:
•tLettie, Sophie’s vivacious and magically-gifted sister
•tMartha, Sophie’s stepsister
•tFanny, Sophie’s kindly stepmother
•tA sentient Scarecrow who follows Sophie around
•tAn enchanted dog
•tMichael, Howl’s fifteen-year-old apprentice
•tThe King of Ingary
•tMrs. Pentstemmon, the great witch who trained Suliman and Howl
•tMegan, Howl’s disapproving sister (who lives in Wales. Howl comes from our world!)
•tNeil and Mari, Howl’s nephew and little niece
•tMiss Angorian, Neil’s pretty teacher on whom Howl has a crush
•tThe Witch of the Waste, a sinister and powerful being who makes her home on the edge of Ingary

All the supporting characters are engaging. One gets the impression that they are all fully formed characters, but we don’t see all the facets of their personalities because this isn’t their story.

Content Advisory
Violence here is mild and mostly symbolic. During the final battle with the Witch of the Waste, Howl’s heart is torn from his chest and Sophie, who can “talk life into things”, has to coax it back inside his body, thus bringing him back to life.

Howl makes a lot of “conquests” among the local girls, but it is never stated how far he has gotten, if you will, with any of these conquests. Given that Howl is really a nice young man, and that Ingarians are well-brought-up sort of people, he has probably not sullied anyone’s virtue or reputation.

Howl goes back to Wales to attend a rugby event, at which he so drunk that he is unable to properly climb into bed upon returning to the Castle.

Calcifer is called a fire demon—although nothing about him suggests the diabolical.

There is no harsh language.

The Movie
A lot of people only know about this book because of Hayao Miyazaki’s 2004 anime film adaptation, which was well-received by critics and audiences alike. Before I say anything more, I should note that this is the only anime I have ever watched all the way through. I know nothing about the conventions of the genre.

That said, I thought the movie was a beautiful piece of visual art, with stunning panoramic shots (we forget how gorgeous well-done 2-D animation can be), lovely music, and high-quality voice acting.

There’s only one problem: it has almost no connection to the book it’s supposedly based on.

Granted, there is a shy young hatter named Sophie who is cursed into the form of a crone. There is a dashing young wizard named Howl who lives in a castle that moves. There is a snarky fire demon named Calcifer who keeps the castle moving.

And that’s about it.

The movie’s characterizations—except Calcifer and Old!Sophie—are far off-base. Young!Sophie is sweet and mild-mannered. Howl has one or two memorable outbursts, but is far more subdued than the drama king of the novel. The Witch of the Waste turns out to be mostly harmless, and Suliman is an older woman—in the book he is a strapping fellow, only a few years older than Howl.

Also, movie!Sophie is brunette. She is drawn with long braids and a hat, so maybe they changed her red hair brown so she wouldn’t be mistaken for Anne Shirley, a hugely popular character in Japan. But then the movie keeps Howl’s accidental red hair tantrum, which is meaningless unless Sophie—the shy girl who fled his advances on May Day, and whom he strongly suspects by now is one and the same as his elderly housekeeper—is a redhead.

But these are minor quibbles. Miyazaki completely changed the emphasis and conflict of the story. Drawing on the Iraq War, the pacifist Miyazaki extracted a hint from the book (literally one sentence long) about a war between Ingary and a neighboring country and turned it into the main plot. The King wants Howl to fly a bomber or something, but Howl, now transformed from a vain and lazy guy into a noble conscientious objector, would rather turn himself into a man-sized black bird and attack both sides’ fighter planes. (The presence of airplanes in the first place is jarring). Then there’s a subplot about how it gets harder every time for him to turn back from bird to man.

I respect Miyazaki’s antiwar beliefs, and of course, as the director of the film, he has the right to take the story in whatever direction he wants. But I personally wish he had expressed them in a different film.

Howl’s Moving Castle isn’t about war any more than n  Mansfield Parkn is about slavery—another case of one sentence of the book devouring the plot of the movie. (The MP movie also had a lot of other problems, but that's a story for another review). War is awful, slavery is evil, and happy romances about shy girls in grey dresses and handsome young men (who may or may not be wizards) should be allowed to remain happy.

But that’s my opinion. Yours may be entirely different.

Conclusion
A treat for everybody ages 10 and up—and younger as a family read-aloud—Howl’s Moving Castle delivers adventure, magic, mystery, romance, and humor in a literate, subtly detailed style. It’s a timeless story that begs to be reread, and will surely join The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Dark is Rising series as classics of the genre.

There are two indirect sequels that feature Howl and Sophie, though they focus on new main characters and different settings. The first is Castle in the Air, an Arabian Nights-style adventure that might partly be a stealth parody of Disney’s Aladdin. The second is House of Many Ways, which read like a first draft (albeit an intriguing first draft from a deft and seasoned writer) to me, but a lot of other people enjoyed it.
Also recommended:

•tThe Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery—not a fantasy, but Anne and Sophie have much in common

•tThe Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis—a similar mix of fairytale tropes, space/time-bending adventures, and down-to-earth protagonists with a witty narrator

•tA Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket—also features a witty narrator, a mock nineteenth-century feel, and delightful poetry quoting and literary references

•tThe Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. Not superficially similar, but Howl and Eugenides are soul brothers. These books are violent and complicated. Teens and up.

•tThe Crown & Court duology by Sherwood Smith. Also features a courtly, long-haired hero, a redheaded spitfire of a heroine, a touch of earthy magic, and an industrial truckload of snark.

•tThe Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett. Similar fairytale parody with a spunky heroine and very English sense of humor. These books contain some off-color humor. Teens and up.

•tThe Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud. A much darker—although similarly humorous—look at a human and magical-being partnership like that of Howl and Calcifer. These books contain both violence and off-color humor, and are also extremely long. Teens and up.

•tThe Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale. The tone of these books is more serious than HMC, and the plots are more straightforward—but they share strong, feminine heroines and organic magic. These books can get dark. Teens and up.

•tThe Secret Country trilogy by Pamela Dean. Similar wit, character development, and inter-world travel element.

•tThe Safe-Keeper’s trilogy by Sharon Shinn. Similar faux-English feel and small-town courtships with a hint of deception and magic. Some mature issues including rape, murder, and various forms of child abuse are referenced, though never seen. Teens and up.

•tn  Ella Enchantedn by Gail Carson Levine. A Cinderella story of similarly blithe heart and subtle snark.

I 100% see why Studio Ghibli adapted this into a movie. Siri, play Merry-Go-Round of Life. I need that song injected into my veins.

♬ duh duh duh DUUHHHHH dum dum dum DUMMMMM ♬

Rating: 4 ⭐️

Howl's Moving Castle is so charming. Such whimsy. It's got fire demons who are actually falling stars, scarecrows who are actually men, dogs who are actually men, and old women who are actually young.

After reading, I can safely say I'm still obsessed with Howl.

DNF @ 30%

I'm very sad to say that this is NOT the book for me, despite — or, more likely, because of — the film being one of my favorite films of all time. I'd been told by so many people over the years that the book and film are very different stories, and that's true, but that's why this isn't working for me.

I think the biggest struggle I'm having is the fact that Howl/Sophie is one of my favorite OTPs ever, and I went into this book hoping for more of the instant chemistry between them that we see in the film; instead, they've barely interacted at this point and most of the character development surrounding Howl has just been discussions of how he constantly falls in and out of love with other women (which honestly makes it VERY difficult to imagine the two of them having any longevity in the end, given how he has a long streak of falling out of love as soon as the feelings are reciprocated).

If you're going into Howl's Moving Castle for the whimsy and fantasy, I'd give the book a try, but if you're like me and primarily love the film's romance, I'd avoid the source material. As much as it disappoints me to DNF this, I have mostly hated this book so far and can't foresee it redeeming itself enough to be worth how grumpy it's making me.

Sophie Hatter, la mayor de tres hermanas, sabe que al ser la mayor de la familia su destino es fracasar. Por ello, tras la muerte de su padre, no se molesta cuando se queda como aprendiza en la tienda de sombreros de la familia, mientras que sus dos hermanas van a diferentes lugares donde sobresalen. Tras llamar la atención de la Bruja del Páramo, Sophie se convierte en una anciana de 90 años, y por culpa de un hechizo, no podrá contárselo a nadie. Toda decidida, coge sus pertenencias y emprende su propio camino en busca de fortuna y una nueva vida, topándose con el Castillo ambulante del peligroso mago Howl.

La novela está narrada en tercera persona a través de un narrador omnisciente, presentando un lenguaje sencillo y ligero, donde cada capítulo nos cuenta una escena en la vida de Sophie. Cada capítulo además, tendrá un pequeño subtitulo que nos servirá como resumen de todo lo que va a ocurrir en el mismo. Es una novela muy naif, los hechos se cuentan como si no tuvieran importancia, y no conoceremos los sentimientos o pensamientos de los personajes. Me encanto además la naturalidad con la que se presenta la magia o los hechizos en el mundo de la novela.

Lo mejor de la novela son sus personajes, Sophie y el mago Howl se comen las hojas, aunque el carisma de Calcifer o la ternura que desprende Michael también son notables. Se tratan temas como el destino y la juventud, pero para mi lo mejor es como asume la historia de amor, desarrollada de una forma muy sutil y sin verse clara hasta la conclusión. Lo peor del libro para mi fue que ciertas veces lo que narraba estaba inconexo; y que el final de la historia me parece demasiado precipitado, si que cierra toda la historia, pero se desarrolla en apenas 5 páginas, sin clímax final.

Una historia repleta de fantasía, aventura, humor y romance de la que recomiendo su lectura a todo el mundo.

i liked the movie better i won’t lie… going to rewatch it now

It is an oft-repeated piece of 'wisdom' that "the book is always better than the film". Obviously, this is a crock of shite. 

I think most of us bookworms have gone through a small-minded phase of sneering at movie goers who didn't read the original novels, in the same way fifteen year old Maddy thought I Wasn't Like The Other Girls because I didn't like One Direction.*

(*Zayn was always fit though)

Yes, we all suffered from gibbering trauma after watching our childhoods be vomited over by the steaming dungpiles of the Percy Jackson, Eragon and Seventh Son movies. I personally will never recover from the Secret of Moonacre, which destroyed my all time favourite childhood novel. BUT. Well executed films are perfectly capable of being superior to their source material. And they do it, like, all the time. Take, for example, the smart, slick, and self aware Fifty Shades of Grey film. And, I would strongly argue, Mary Poppins, the Hunger Games...and even The Lord of the Rings.

Add to this list, please, Howl's Moving Castle. Haters come at me bro.

Now is probably not the time or the place for me to rave on about how incomparably magical, heart wrenching, and utterly transporting the Studio Ghibli adaptation of this book is, but I'm going to do it anway. Imo, Howl's Moving Castle should have won Hayao Miyazaki another Oscar, because it's even better than the wonderful Spirited Away.

This book, whilst sharing the whimsical, magical feel of the film, is shockingly messy. Sophie is a bystander to the plot and displays zero initiative towards getting involved with events, which explains why as a reader, most of the time you have no idea what the flying frickeroo is going on. Howl bursts in and out of the castle on incomprehensible errands, whilst Sophie does twenty seven chapter's worth of cleaning and cooking and leaves the castle only about three times in the entire novel.

I could also mention how the movie castle is also way freaking cooler than the one described in the book.

Wynne Jones doesn’t help things either, by making the story difficult to glean even if you’re paying close attention. Cleaning, cleaning, sewing, cleaning, oh bugger the witch is attacking! Why? Who cares, because we’re back to cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Oh wait now we’re just going to have a chapter long detail to visit Howl’s sister in late 1980s Wales. Why? Uh well there’s something about a spell, which may be important and may have got lost in Wales by accident. How did it get there? Who knows! Why is it important? Who cares! What does the spell actually mean? Ha, we’re not going to explain that. Because now we’re back to cleaning and sewing again.  But wait, now Sophie is going to run a flower shop for an extra 20 pages because maybe cleaning is getting a bit repetitive. And so on.

Random crap happens all the time with zero explanation. Take for example the enchanted hopping scarecrow thing, which in the movie is not only a comical asset to the cast, but is used as a device to help Sophie begin to embrace her magical potential and overcome her fears. In the book, the stick literally has no purpose to the plot, except to break the narrative monotony of Sophie’s constant cleaning by turning up and scaring the shite out of her. Additionally, in the book, a man who was turned into a dog turns up half way through, then spends the rest of the book trying to tell Sophie something important. Does she work to figure out what he’s saying, or to try and break his curse? Lol, of course not, because that would be effort. And so the dog just becomes yet another random object that hangs around, potential use to the plot entirely wasted.

Another entirely pointless occurrence is the fact that Sophie spends around half the book sewing Howl a suit of clothes, which despite some early magical potential turn out once again to be irrelevant to everything. Oh, and Howl entirely ignores this massive and exhausting feat of labour, except when he's yelling at Sophie for not sewing prettily enough.

Speaking of Sophie’s role as Howl’s housekeeper: it was really enraging to me that a female SFF icon like Wynne-Jones would fall into the centuries old fairy-tale trope of writing a female character who does nothing except clean up the hero's messes --- and I mean literally clean up, because Sophie actually become's Howl's housekeeper -- until she is eventually 'rewarded' with his Lurv as a prize for all her selfless, wifely loyalty. This is some ancient sexist bullshit and it drives me up the absolute freaking chimney.  

Good Girls, stay quiet, meek and work hard, then the Dream Boy will randomly realise You were the Pretty One All Along!! Meanwhile: Proud Girls, you're ungrateful bitches for saying no to a man, and you're going to be Taken Down A Peg until you accept the 'Nice Guy'!!

In the film, Sophie becomes instrumental in not only saving Howl's life, but in defeating the Witch of the Waste. She comes into her own powers, and grows in confidence, emerging as a brave, principled heroine -- and a seriously badarse old lady --- who is far removed from the meek, resigned girl introduced at the beginning of the movie. In fact, the entire point of the film's plot is that becoming an old woman actually frees Sophie from all her inhibitions and insecurities regarding Ladylike Behaviour and Being The Inferior Sister, and that Howl falls in love with her for the awesome person she is, wrinkles, walking stick and all. She takes the initiative to get involved, to break Howl’s curse, and to save the day.

Book Sophie shies away from doing even the most basic shit on behalf of the plot (such as going to talk to the King), and has no interest in finding out what the heck is going on around her. By the middle of the movie, Sophie and Howl are working together to help stop the witch, clearly firm friends. In the book, they never really team up, and there’s no suggestion that they even like eachother. Unlike Movie Sophie, who isn't afraid to call the spoilt Howl out on his BS, Book Sophie simply sucks it up. Like a good little loyal heroine, she hangs around the kitchen waiting to be noticed, silently moping over Book Howl's endless, boring philandering of approximately seven different women up to a decade below his age, including her younger sister. Please excuse me while I vomit. And of course, Sophie is apparently in love with him despite the fact that he constantly treats her like crap, and that she’s constantly telling herself how much she can’t stand him, showing no signs of soft feelings whatsoever. Because apparently, if a women’s sick to death of you, it means they actually love you. Oh sorry, I just vomited again.

As a result of his ridiculous and ungrateful behaviour, in comparison to Movie Howl, Book Howl is basically a dick. Yes, Howl is a tragic, Bad Boy hero in the film, who needs to be rescued by the Innocent Heroine to realise he should change his whiny ways and stick with a single girl. Yet in the movie, his constant distraction is caused not only by his curse, and his fear of the Witch, but the King's attempts to use him as a mercenary in a horrific semi-industrial war. He’s actually a conscientious objector, and wastes time with women (significantly fewer than in the book, it has to be said) to try and avoid getting called up. In the book, there is no war, and his distraction is caused mostly by the fact that he's a total waster. Despite supposedly being the second most powerful wizard in the country, does he spend any time helping people? No. Instead, he does absolutely everything he can to run away from the Witch (and the plot), although the King is desperate for help, and the Witch is only attacking the royal family because of Howl in the first place.

Book Howl is also pretty sexist over and above his womanising. Book and Movie Howl arguably share a general ignorance towards Sophie’s unpaid physical and emotional wife work. However, whereas Movie Howl is generally respectful and kind to housekeeper, Book Howl is demanding, ungrateful, faults her efforts, and generally treats Sophie as his inferior. Whilst the film begins with an eye-rolly scene during which Howl meets Sophie by chivalrously saving her from some rapey men, he is at least doing the right thing. In contrast, when Book Howl meets Sophie for the first time, he laughs at her for being a 'meek little mouse', which causes her to run away in shame. But that’s fine, because cruelty is how male strangers show they like you, right? Whereas movie Howl scared and deeply flawed, he's also kind, ultimately heroic and I really rooted for the romance. By contrast, at the end of the book, guess what – Howl was only a dick with women because he didn’t have a heart (literally)! Lmao!!

Or was that really the reason? It’s never fully made clear. As far as I’m concerned, not having a heart should actually make you cold and evil, not just a general low-level prat. Forgive me for thinking that if a character behaves like a douchebag, it is probably just a sign that they are, in fact, a common-or-garden douchebag. Howl’s single redeeming quality is his attempt in the last chapter to save Sophie’s life (even though she is only in danger because she was trying to save his life). Since this is obviously Proof of his Undying Lurv (which somehow I failed to notice earlier when he was shouting at her for not sewing well enough), the couple immediately get married.

Overall, this book was massively disappointing to me. Because all the characters and ideas which made the movie so enchanting did originally come from Wynne Jones’ imagination, I can’t rate it too badly. But still, I can’t be dealing with books which don’t engage properly with their own plots, and I have to knock off at least one star for how appallingly the romance is handled.

اتمام
۲۹/مـرداد/۰۰
۱۸:۵۰

انیمه قلعه متحرک هاول یکی از اینکه های مورد علاقه منه..

Honestly what made me want to read this book was the movie. *gasp* I know, I know shouldn't do that. The movie was good (I am a fan of Hayo Miyazaki's films) and I wasn't disappointed in the book. As always much of the book wasn't put into the movie, but it was understandable because I imagine it would be hard to piece together a movie with all the components this story has.

To really grasp and understand the book I would suggest that it be read twice I think. Since I did watch the movie I wasn't as shocked at things, but I was so impressed about how the author intertwined all the strands of the story together. If you have a chance definitely read the book first. The author did an impeccable job of piecing things together to get a wham-bam of an ending.

Ok quick summary: Our main character is Sophie. She is the oldest of three girls and works in a hat shop. Things change when the Witch of the Waste (evil bad women) puts a spell on her that makes her old. She meets the infamous wizard Howl (great character) and it takes off from there. Make sure to pay attention to ALL DETAILS to get the ending.

(Sorry if the review isn't that great. It's the first time I'm trying something like this, so I'll apologize now for all the confusion I may have caused, and the errors in the review.)

2024 update: this story holds up so well, years later

My all-time favourite movie had a book it was based off first?! :O :O :O

This newfound knowledge pleases me immensely.

n  

10 out of 10

n
Ревью в моем блоге/This review on my blog
Living A Thousand Lives (please use Chrome/Yandex browser or Android/IOS to see the page; otherwise, spoiler-tags I use to make my post compact may not work)

Short-Soundtrack:
Scott Thomas feat Jonathan Clay – Heart On Fire

Genre: high-fantasy, fairytale
Stuff: moving castle (duh), magic, curse
WOW: characters, humor
POV: 3rd-person, female
Love-Geometry: seeming

Quote-Core:

n  "You have an instinct, Sophie. Nothing is safe from you."n

Imagine the Beast being beautiful, lazy and fickle and the Beauty being ugly, kind and grumpy. Imagine the Beauty coming to the Beast on her own will and the Beast being terrified of her ways.

Imagine the Beast's castle being very mobile. Add a lot of creative details. And voila! You will have n  Howl's Moving Castlen.
n  n   
n    n      n        n          n        n      n    n   
n    n      n        (c) n        that_nerdygirln      n    n   
n  n
I don't know why I haven't read n  HMCn early. Maybe I was afraid I had found out about it too late? That I'm too old for stories like that? No matter what nonsense I used to delay my meet with n  Howl's Moving Castlen, I know I'd been silly. This tale knows no age-limits or culture-boundaries. It's funny, wise, a little bit creepy and rich. It reminds us about our childhood, but feels mature. You won't find here a passionate romance or gruesome deaths, but this book will mend your grown-up heart and put some believe in wonders, kindness and love in it.

Can't say the same about the cartoon which I've seen only today. It has very little to do with its original and feels super illogical. Sorry, the book is a million times better.

Okay, let's talk about the story...

We have a mysterious mage who, if you believe in rumors, eats the girls' hearts. He lives in a moving castle and is known to be really cruel. We also have a shy girl who decided that she always will be a loser. She works at a hat-shot and longs for something interesting to come. And it comes in a form of a wicked witch who curses our girl. Now the girl is an old woman and can;t say anyone what the witch did. She left her house and ends up in the mage's home. And it's only the start of her future adventures.
n  n   
n    n      n        n          n        n      n    n   
n    n      n        (c) n        Draakhn      n    n   
n  n
The mage's or rather the wizard's name or rather one of his names is Howl. He's 20 something, charming, careless and has a few secrets. He, also, is a womanizer who likes it dirty (and by 'it' I mean his room)). I thought he would be a brooding type with some evil intentions, but he turned out to be super fun, like a big baby: cute, whiny, demanding. That's unusual trope, 'cause authors always try to make their characters look their best, all their downsides are just the hard life's consequences and all. Here, we have a flawed man who won't change completely. And whose negative features aren't connected with an awful childhood and such.

Sophie is 17, I guess? She may be kind, understanding and calm, but she can be angry, nosy and jealous as well. Multilayered, she is and I like it. Oh, and she's obsessed with tidying up))

Calcifer is a little fire demon who literally runs Howl's home and warms it too. He's moody, but has a nice heart, literate heart. Yeah. Also he's a local joke-cracker. You'll fall for this creature without a doubt. But beware, he may ask you to make a bargain with him.

There are more characters: a young apprentice of Howl named Michael, Sophie's sisters and stepmother, Howl's family, friends and enemies, a creepy scarecrow, an unusual dog and so on. Each has his or her role in the plot and a chance to win your heart.

The plot, by the way, isn't that simple as it often is in fairytales. Nope, it's intricate and has unexpected turns. I also liked how the story is told. It doesn't try to sound silly, never force its moral on you and has no favorites to accent them through the events so you would favor them as well. The writing is light, smart and nice. I was laughing not once and not even ten times during this read. Many books make me cry, but not many make me laugh like that.

All in all, I highly recommend this book to those whose inner children are still alive and long for fairytales.

Howl's Moving Castle (Ходячий замок):

— Howl's Moving Castle (Ходячий замок) #1/3
— Castle in the Air (Воздушный замок) #2/3
— House of Many Ways (Дом с характером) #3/3

Baba Yaga, John Wick, Rainbow Randolph and Smoochy the Rhino sit watching the 2004 animated film Howl’s Moving Castle directed by Hayao Miyazaki and they discuss both the film and the book by Diana Lynne Jones.

Randolph: So what are you supposed to be?

Baba Yaga: I come from Slavic folklore originally but this manifestation specifically is from the 1979 Dungeon Master’s Guide. I live in an artifact, a magical hut with chicken legs.

John Wick: In my storyline, I am sent to kill Baba Yaga, the Boogeyman.

Baba Yaga: Yeah, I saw your movies, Shibumi wanna be, try any of that on me and you’ll be picking splinters out of your bullet proof underpants.

Smoochy: Randolph and I are both from Danny DeVito’s 2002 film Death to Smoochy. Me.

Randolph: Oh, get over yourself.

Wick: I like this movie.

Baba Yaga: Who doesn’t? Studio Ghibli did a great job.

Smoochy: Jones book was also fantastic and very entertaining, children of all ages love it.

Baba Yaga: Like my hut, Howl’s castle moves around on legs and is magic within magic.

Randolph: The concept of a fire demon living in a magic, walking castle and a room that is magically attached to sedentary buildings in different locations and by turning a knob setting the characters can teleport to the other place was really cool.

Wick: I’ve read some other of her works, all good, but this one hit a stride and was really good. A more purely fantastic world building suits Jones’ style.

Smoochy: This is for children, it’s a YA book, but there are understated themes that were for adults. Though minimized, these more mature themes made this work for me.

Baba Yaga: Agreed. Howl’s origins were also very good, kind of like the Narnia magic rules turned around on its head. We have a fantastic, multiverse kind of story with a subtle, nuanced urban fantasy mixed in.

Wick: But Jones also provides mysteries along the way to keep the pages turning.

Smoochy: Good enough even for an old curmudgeon like Randolph. You OK, brother, you’re not looking so good?

Randolph: Being around Baba Yaga and John Wick has spiked my anxiety into the red.

Wick: Are you OK, Randolph?

Randolph: I don't know. I'm kinda f***** up in general, so it's hard to gauge.