Title: Howl's Moving Castle
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Publisher: HarperTrophy
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 329
Rating: 5 out of 5
Cover Rating: 3.2 out of 5. It's not that great--I would have preferred something a little more dynamic than an old woman and a scarecrow, although the castle in the background is good; the green and yellow face (which is supposed to be Calcifer) is strange, since they never said he had teeth in the book . . .
Inside flap:
Sophie lived in the town of Market Chipping, which was in Ingary, a land in which anything could happen, and often did--especially when the Witch of the Waste got her dander up. Which was often.
As her younger sisters set out to seek their fortunes, Sophie stayed in her father's hat shop. Which proved most unadventurous, until the Witch of the Waste came in to buy a bonnet, but was no pleased. Which is why she turned Sophie into an old lady. Which was spiteful witchery.
Now Sophie must seek her own fortune. Which means striking a bargain with the lecherous Wizard Howl. Which means entering his ever-moving castle, taming a blue fire demon, and meeting the Witch of the Waste head on. Which was more than Sophie bargained for . . .
My expectations: High. I'd heard a lot of good things about this book (I seriously can't remember where, but oh well) and I enjoyed Castle In the Air, which is a loosely-tied sequel.
My expectations were exceeded.
About the book: First things first: I love this book. There's wonderful humor, (please see this post if you want to know my thoughts on humor), the characters are varied and Sophie was a great protagonist, and I enjoyed the setting. (I might mention that Sophie doesn't actually strike a bargain with Howl, as the blurb states; she makes the bargain with his fire-demon.)
I like Jones's writing style; it's wry throughout, and the dialogue is fun. There are a lot of adverbs (yes, those dreaded adverbs!) and she uses them with skill; despite a lot of the words ending in -ly or -ing, it felt natural. Nothing stuck out as being awkward or unnecessary.
It isn't full of quests, or love triangles, or desperate lunges to save the world, which was a nice relief from the usual. It moved fast (I read this book in a matter of hours) and there were nice twists and turns along the way.
I found Sophie to be one of my favorite female protagonists in a while. She's strong, and she has a level head, which is rare these days. Her attitude changes as she goes from the quiet, eldest-child to an older, snarkier old lady, and it was amusing to watch her "mouse" self become something more assertive and confident.
Howl is the wizard, of course; one of the interesting things about his character is that he knows he's a coward, and he's slapdash, and he's always going out on pointless missions to win the affections of the newest girl who's caught his fancy. The fact he was kind of a player irritated me, but at other times Howl was hilarious.
Calcifer was funny, and so was Michael, in his own way; both were good characters.
Fire demons, moving castles, running scarecrows, witches turning girls into old ladies . . . what more could you want? AKA this was a fantastic setting. It was detailed, and I could picture the surroundings well.
Other: It's clean. The only thing I might mention is the fact Howl's always going after the girls.
Do I recommend this book? Yes! Absolutely.
*****Movie Review*****
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
This was one of the best book-to-movie adaptations I've seen. I enjoyed the animation; part of the reason I watched this was because Kiki's Delivery Service is still a movie I like, and was directed by the same person.
One thing that I didn't like, though, is that Sophie is much more love-oriented than in the book. In the book, she's resistant to liking Howl and tries to avoid even thinking about the possibility she loves him; but in the movie, she says she does (to him, for that matter) much earlier, and is less of a strong character. That disappointed me.
In addition to Sophie's change of character, the movie seemed to be riding on the fact that the Magician Suliman, (who is a wizard, and a man, not a woman, in the book), the Witch of the Waste, Sophie, and Calcifer all have claims to Howl's heart. Which means, consequently, that there's a whole love aspect to the movie that is nonexistent in the book.
Another detail they changed is the fact there's a war going on in the movie, (there's no war in the book) and Howl's supposed to take part in it on the side of his country--but he refuses, and instead attacks and destroys many of the airships, and attempts to stop the bombs from falling on the towns/cities. He changes into a large, gray-blue bird while he's up in the air, and somehow his humanity begins to fade away the more often and the longer he changes.
Still, other details and elements were the same, and I loved the movie. There was still a lot of the light humor, and they made Calcifer much more amusing than he was in the book; it deviated, but it was effective for the movie.
Is this worth spending 119 minutes of your life on? Yes! In fact, this movie is online if you want to watch it, it's just the animation isn't in detail; I would recommend seeing the DVD instead (my library has it, which is why I got to see it yesterday . . .).
-----The Golden Eagle
