Howl’s Moving Castle (World of Howl, #1)

by Diana Wynne Jones

[nannah]

(4.5)

Ah, good ol’ Howl’s Moving Castle. To be honest, I haven’t read this for a long time, and I remember feeling lukewarm about it then, but I’m glad I had time for a re-read. Some stories age well.

Book content warnings:
- decapitation (not shown on page)

Representation:
-

Though adventure and destiny are for the youngest children, Sophie Hatter -- eldest of three -- gets thrown into an adventure involving the dreadful Witch of the Waste and the evil, heart-eating Wizard Howl.

After being cursed to become an old woman by the Witch, Sophie seeks Howl’s help, and discovers through his fire demon that Howl himself is cursed by the Witch and has a contract he needs to break. Sophie makes a deal: she’ll break his contract, and the fire demon, Calcifer, will break her curse. As Sophie stays on in the castle and prepares to face the Witch, she (unfortunately) finds that there’s more to Howl than she first thought and is perhaps growing fond of him.

Ah, Howl’s Moving Castle, you have nearly everything: brilliant and complex characters, romance, the element of time running out, the found family trope, and a wonderful setting. Okay, so it might be my love for the Ghibli movie talking as well, but the book does stand on its own (I really tried to read as objectively as possible). But it’s really hard to ignore the book’s charm; it reads like a fairytale almost, with a fun modern wit.

The one thing I’d mention is that right after the climax, the book ends. There’s no breathing room. I know it’s deliberate (Howl and Sophie unwilling to look away as the other characters scramble for their attention) , and it creates a very sort of satisfying finality, but I don’t get a chance to settle before it’s all over. I also wish there were more from Howl -- we get everything from Sophie’s PoV: when she fell in love with Howl, when she started seeing everyone in the castle as her family, etc., but you only get teeny tiny glimpses of what Howl’s feeling through other characters’ dialogue. The dialogue at the end could’ve been where things could clear up, but it went by so fast!

This is a very personal opinion though! Howl is a character of mystery anyway, so other people could love this about him (when he truly fell in love re: the tiny glimpses, etc.). Who knows?

As for true flaws I really can’t find much. It’s just a really well-written and well-constructed book. There’s a reason it’s such a loved classic. Now that I have a better appreciation for it, I’ll definitely be going back to read it again and again.