Howl's Moving Castle

Written by Diana Wynne Jones and now made into a beautiful anime movie from Studio Ghibli, Howl’s Moving Castle is a lovely tale of magic, fantasy, adventure and romance. Hugely easy to read after One Thousand and One Nights, I found this book very engaging, though admittedly it is really an older children’s book and I had the scenes from the movie running constantly through my head as I read it. I loved it nonetheless. 

Sophie is the eldest of three daughters and, as such, is destined to be the failure of the family. But she never thought she could fail this badly: she quickly becomes the victim of the Witch of the Waste who turns her into a ninety year-old woman. Determined to make the most of things, Sophie travels from home, seeking help, and winds up on the doorstep of the moving castle that hovers on the hillside. Unfortunately, the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl whose appetite, they say, is only satisfied by the hearts of young girls. And, once inside the castle, Sophie is unknowingly roped into a magical mess beyond any of that she could ever have imagined. 

Although I’m usually a whole-hearted supporter of reading the book before I see the film, there are some occasions where that thinking becomes redundant. In the case of Howl’s Moving Castle, I only recently discovered that the movie was based on a book and I have to admit that if I hadn’t seen the anime movie first, I might not have bothered, but gone on my life, wistfully unaware that any such book exists. 

Written in the third person register, Howl’s Moving Castle is a wonderful story, but a book that provides no challenge or strong intrigue. The writing is really aimed for a younger group of readers and, as such, it seems insultingly easy and vague to a reader such as myself. Jones’ writing strongly imprints an image on the mind, forcing the reader to see and hear what she saw and heard when creating these characters and scenarios. There is little room for imagination to really flow, and I will admit that that is a fine line that authors need to tread, but Jones just leant over it towards controlled imagery, if ever so slightly. 

Filled with action, magic, fantasy, adventure, and romance, Howl’s Moving Castle is a good book, but it’s really a children’s book as the writing is very precise and sometimes a little jagged and blunt. Don’t get me wrong, the story itself is wonderful, a great fantasy ride but, for adult readers like myself, it leaves a bit to be desired.