Howl's Moving Castle
Ratings675
Average rating4.2
Read this with my kiddo and, like a lot of older fiction, there was some things that we needed to discuss and clarify. But, overall, it was delightful and he really enjoyed it.
My first contact with Howl's Moving Castle was through Miyazaki's movie, which is my favorite from him.
I have been delaying reading the book because I didn't want to be disappointed with either versions, and was kind of waiting to read it with my kids, which I did not.
Diana Wynne Jones book is wonderful, albeit different from the movie, it definitely gave me a new appreciation for it. Sophie is gentle and kind, and keeps unwillingly, and unintentionally, messing with Howl's life.
Howl's is, at surface, a spoiled brat and a womanizer, too powerful for his own good. Sophie obviously sees his gentle and benign ways, and it is through her that we fall for him too.
I loved both the movie and the book!
My heart leans more towards the movie regarding the love story bit. While Howl's and Sophie's love is quite abrupt in the book, the movie makes a wonderful job showing them falling in love and my heart always aches when he gives her the flowers field. I can see Miyazaki interpreted Howl as every girl wanted and I appreciate this very, very much.
On everything else, I think I prefer the magic of the book. I rewatched the movie yesterday and some things are much more clear now (e.g: Sophie being a witch and how she gives life to things, which makes her the only person able to break their curse without killing Calcifer). I don't know how I was interpreting this before... I should have rewatched before and after reading the book
A lovely treat!
I cannot think of a purer love than this. Very very funny, I laughed a lot. Very easy to read too. The plot twist of Howl knowing about her curse from the very start, linked so perfectly that it was very satisfying to read. Every character is so charming. The ending was just so...perfect, how they just go into a world of their own even while everyone is bugging them because after all Sophie is an elder sibling and they cannot have a single moment of just their own. They truly are soulmates. I cannot think of anymore adjectives to describe this book. Any elder sibling would love this story.
This was delightful. Absolutely adored the writing style, the characters, the conversations, everything.
I don't know really, some parts were well written but sometimes I got completely lost, also the romance was much better executed in the movie. I liked how characters had more depth to them, making Howl truly childish was nice, Calcifer being this evil spirit instead of cuddly ball.
You know it was a good book when, as the last page turns, you are smiling.
Obligatory Movie Tangent: I had watched the Studio Ghibli animated film a very long time ago, so I couldn't really remember it while I was reading. So, reading the book was like a new experience. I then watched the movie again afterwards to compare the two. One thing that really struck me at the end was how different the book is from the movie. I will say, if you are reading one or watching the other, you do not have to worry about spoiling the experience. They're almost like two different interpretations of the same concepts...I actually really enjoy when a book and movie are different like that. I think it's a bit boring to adapt the book exactly as-is when making a movie, and I respect when a director takes liberties to try and give the movie an identity of its own.
Onto the book:
The book is wonderfully whimsical and refreshingly original. The characters are so fun to read about; the dialogue is witty and humorous, and each of the characters has their own quirks about them that make them very engaging. It doesn't take long to endear to each of the characters in their own special way. Sophie, as an old woman, is cantankerous without being too mean and quite clever. Howl was a great surprise; I actually much prefer him in the book versus the movie. He is the perfect match of coolness and childishness. He feels so human in this way, dressing up in beautiful suits while complaining about Sophie trying to clean his room. This was a book where I greatly enjoyed the whole cast of characters, including Michael and Calcifer.
I admit I can be cautious when I read older fantasy books. As much as I love fantasy, there's no denying that you can see the same trope throughout countless books and things don't age well. It was a pleasant surprise to see how original this book was. I didn't run into the same character tropes or predictable plot developments. This is not a story where you could easily slap the outline onto something else; the premise, the characters, and the execution were delightfully one-of-a-kind. For example, I completely expected Calcifer to have a plot twist of secretly being an evil demon while maintaining a falsehood of being friendly. I mean, isn't that one of the oldest tricks in the book? The obviously “evil” character in the cast (in this case, the fire demon) secretly pretending to be an ally until during the book's climax, revealing himself to be the villain. Jones completely subverted my expectations!
This book just has delight written all over it. There's no grimdark fantasy here or any heavy quest. It's about a group of magical people in a quirky world, dealing with problems both mundane and magical. I find those to be some of the best books of all. We don't need an epic 1000 page quest to get some merit out of fantasy literature. The characters are fun to read about, the world is fun to read about, and it's hard not to smile as you turn the pages.
Honestly, my only complaint is the ending part of the book. The pacing seemed to crank up by 1000x speed in the last two chapters and things were resolved so quickly, it was quite jarring after such a long and gradual journey of build-up. The climax of the book, the falling action, and the resolution really happen all in the last two chapters...but the ending does not dictate the journey, and it didn't dampen my enjoyment of everything leading up to it.
All in all, a wonderful and delightful book. I haven't read something that cheered me up this much in a while. If you are a jaded adult reader that is struggling to find wonder in books like you used to as a child, take heart from someone similar - it is still possible to be charmed.
Audibook Review: I listened to this book via audiobook. The audiobook was narrated by Jenny Sterlin, and was excellent. Sterlin is a great narrator, putting emotion into her words without it being overly exaggerated and comical. It really did give the feeling of having the story told to you by a master storyteller. Her voice is very soothing, smooth, easy to listen to and perfectly fitting for the atmosphere of the story. My only complaint is that her voice for Calcifer could be a little grating (but still fitting for his character, considering he's a fire demon) and her accent for Howl seemed to occasionally be off from time to time. These are minor complaints all-in-all, and listening to the audiobook was a fantastic experience.
Howl's Moving Castle is my favorite Studio Ghibli movie, so when I found out it was based on a book I was very excited to read it. I bought it, started reading it, and only put it down because I had to work.
The book is very different from the movie, telling its own story that the movie branches off from in many ways. While I think the movie is wonderful, the book was even better. Not only is the book magical, fun, and full of humor brought on by the very flawed characters, but it strings you along in a way by presenting the mystery of the contract between Howl and Calcifer, and several other bits of story that we get pieces of here and there. Since I'd seen the movie so many times, I didn't think anything would really surprise me but I was wrong! So much was explained throughout the book that made everything make much more sense. And, it's explained in a way that keeps you wondering. I guess the best way to describe it would be the author leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!
Bueno, no era lo que esperaba, para nada, no está mal el libro pero amé la peli y pues difiere mucho la historia de Ghibli a la historia del libro.
Me quedo con la película y sus frases. Esto es un middle grade muy confuso y raro para mi gusto. ☹️
A good friend of mine has suggested both the film and the BBC 4 radio adaptations to me also multiple times, I finally I got round to it. I got so round to it that I listened to the radio play – not on BBC Sounds any more but can still be found on YouTube – and downloaded the audiobook so I could switch between that and the kindle edition. I still haven't seen the movie, but I'm sure it won't be long!
I'm sure since I am very late to the party with this one that everyone already knows what it's about, but just in case anyone else also lives under a rock, the story is set in the world of Ingary. Our main character is Sophie, who is the eldest daughter and being very genre-savvy has resigned herself to a fate where nothing much of note ever happens to her, as she is the eldest, and if she goes out to make her fortune she will fail first and fail the worst. However, one day she gets cursed by a wicked witch and transformed into an elderly woman. Deciding that she can't continue to live her life like this, she immediately sets off to make her way in the world and ends up on the doorstep of Howl's literally moving about the landscape castle, where she's hoping the curse can be broken.
I fell headfirst in love with this story. It very much reminds me of the magical feeling of being drawn into and entranced by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and filled me with the sense of whimsy and magic which that book also does, which probably accounts for how much I love it. The brilliant cast of characters certainly helps, the gentle inherent humour that suffuses the entire narrative, the charm and quirkiness. It was a delight. I found myself wanting to go get my kids to read it to them (currently they aren't interested as it's not Minecraft, but I will make them come to the light) just because I wanted to share my delight in it with them.
The way that Sophie completely embraced being an elderly woman was very endearing. Howl could easily have been annoying considering how vain and spoilt he is, but he doesn't come across that way at all. There is a great sense of found-family affection between the residents of the moving castle that is just a pleasure. I loved how the curse, while ostensibly a bad thing, freed Sophie from what she felt was her role in life and enabled her to become more her than she had ever been.
2nd time reading this.
Just as good as the first time.
This book is brilliant and if you love the movie and haven't read the book, I beg you to read the book. Also fantasy lovers? You need to read this classic.
this story holds a special place in my heart. if you ever get the chance, watch the anime adaptation by ghibli. ♡
This was so lovely!
I was enchanted the whole time!
Beautiful world, with interesting characters and surprisingly intriguing story.
I think I liked it better reading the second time. I remember having difficulty keeping the Ghibli film off my mind when I read it the first time and Howl seemed so much of a disappointment. This time around though, I found that there's more character to Howl than I'd presumed before... Sophie as well is quite interesting and I enjoyed the banter between them. I still think the ending was a bit rushed after the whole build up which is why I wouldn't rate this book a 5 but loved it just the same.
I set out to read - and hopefully love - this because it came with high praise by most of my GoodReads friends and my daughter (who loves the film, though).Thus prepared, I set out on this literary journey and quickly got confused: Sophie gets cursed by the Witch from the Waste? Whatever for? And she just gets up, moves out without thinking and stumbles upon the eponymous [b:Howl's Moving Castle 6294 Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle, #1) Diana Wynne Jones https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1630502935l/6294.SX50.jpg 2001]? Huh?She accepts any crap coming her way because »Sophie was a failure anyway. It came of being the eldest.«?Sorry, what? Every ridiculous and absurd situation that goes on to arise can be summarised as Howl does near the very end of this book:»“I'm the eldest!” Sophie shrieked. “I'm a failure!”“Garbage!” Howl shouted. “You just never stop to think!”«Some of you might think me too old for this - but for one thing, I still love the Moomins for example. Plus: I can tell you right here and now that as a child I would have despised this even more strongly.The entire story is just too wild and fantastic for my taste. It's a glorified fairy tale, akin to other wild rides without much substance.Still, it's not entirely bad and, thus, it's still getting three stars out of five from me.Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam
I admitted that i was having a hard time getting into the story in the first quarter of the book. But then, the interaction between Howl and Sophie escalated and baamm just like that i was hooked. Howl was such a drama queen and Sophie was just like, are you done yet. I love them!
There were lot of funny times and moments i found very endearing that made me felt in love with the characters.
One of my favourite books. Such a cosy and wholesome book. I love the characters and their interactions with each other as well as the world they live in.
This is probably one of my favorite books now. I watched the anime after and didn't like it as much, the characters were too sickeningly, unrealistically sweet and boring. This had me laughing left and right, plus I was really attached to all of the characters. It felt like reading an old fairy tale.