Book Review: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
March 31, 2025
I have had this book on my list for a long time, and it finally came available to me at the library, and I was overjoyed!
We follow the story of a young woman named Sophie, living in a magical land, not so very different than our own. She is the eldest of three girls, and in this world, that means that is destined to fail. Her step mother, her youngest sisters mother, sets up apprenticeships for all of the girls; her sister Lettie gets to go to a bakery because she is so lovely she is bound to find a husband right away, her sister Martha is set to go live with a witch who will teach her how to be an excellent witch herself, and Sophie is set to stay at home, in the very hat shop she grew up in, and work there forever. Martha and Lettie both feel so bad for their oldest sister, and that she is getting taken advantage of, but Sophie thinks that is is what is best for all of them. Little to Sophies knowledge, her sisters switch places because Lettie is brilliant and longs to learn and help people, and Martha longs for nothing more than to be a wife and mother. Upon visiting, who she thinks to be Lettie on the day of a festival, Sophie discovers her sister’s secret and that they both feel terribly that she is stuck taking case of the business so that her step mom can be social and spend the money Sophie is making. Feeling confused and disheartened, Sophie goes back to the shop and a lovely woman follows her in, and because she does not have any hats to her high standards, she curses Sophie. Sophie, realizing she has been turned into an old woman, runs away. She figures, the evil wizard Howl is interested in young and beautiful women, not in old and plain ones, so she hasn’t a fear about whether he will eat her heart. Along the way, she learns about herself, learns about the love she has for her sisters, and about betrayal of the deepest kind.
While some of this book was taken scene for scene by Ghibli for the movie, parts of this book were completely overlooked by Miyazaki. I loved both the book and the movie equally, and neither ruined the other for me ( which I feel like is usually how I feel about book v. movie adaptations - they always leave me wanting ) but rather, made me appreciate each individually. Now that I finished the book, I want to watch the movie again to see what things I missed that were little easter eggs in the movie. Overall, I highly reccoemnd. Diana made a world that did not feel so far from our own, and therefore didn’t take a lot of catching up with her world building. I really enjoyed her writing and I look forward to reading more of her books.
