In today’s review, we’re getting a castle—that moves! Ok, that was terrible. In any case, Obscurists, we’re talking about “Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones.
***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***
What I love about this book:
I can’t remember if I first really got into science fiction or fantasy as a kid, but I suppose it doesn’t matter—both were formative to me. I bring this up because “Howl’s Moving Castle” struck me several times as being an excellent first fantasy book for a young reader. The stakes are real—from beginning to end—but it feels more whimsical than threatening. The challenges the characters face in this book never seem unsurmountable as long as they all work together.
Our main character, Sophie, is a wonderful protagonist because of her relatability, she’s a good person, but she has her flaws. Her biggest of which is that she’s nosey. If ever she’s told not to go somewhere or ask a certain question, she can’t help herself and does it anyway. This extends to really all of Jones’s characters. They’re all likable but have distinct character flaws—Howl’s vanity, Calcifer’s grumpiness, and Michael’s insecurity. What I like about these characters is that despite their flaws, they all still have the opportunity to grow and transcend their character flaws without radically altering their identities. It’s very tactful character work because, in my experience, many characters feel like different people at the ends of novels than who they were in the beginning.
It’s a slow-burn romance between Sophie and Wizard Howl, and the outcome is never certain throughout the book. We know what Sophie thinks about everything, but it’s difficult to pin down Howl because he hates giving a straight answer to anything.
What I don’t love about this book:
The middle of this novel meanders to the point of sedateness. Part of this is because of the particular curse Sophie is under—she’s a young woman cursed into being an elderly lady, but there doesn’t feel like a lot of direction from the other characters, either.
Since most of our time is spent hanging out in the moving castle with Sophie, cleaning, making the other character’s lives more interesting, there isn’t much world-building involving the different locations the moving castle is attached to. There is, in theory, people certainly talk about the other places. But it’s precious few times that Sophie actually gets out of the castle in a way that involves us seeing what’s going on in the wider world. This might just be my perception because when I think about this book, it’s about the long, intricate passages of Sophie cleaning the castle, like Cinderella if she were a crone.
So it’d be weird if I didn’t bring up that there is a Miyazaki film based on this novel that I’d wager people are more familiar with than the book. I was certainly in that camp. In the movie, the Witch of the Waste is a far more complex character that transcends the descriptor of a mere antagonist. In the book, however, if she had a mustache, she’d be twirling it constantly. There’s no rhyme or reason why she’s a jerk that I can see. She just is a jerk.
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***The Spoiler part of this review***
***Ye be warned to turn back now***
The quick and dirty synopsis:
Sophie Hatter, daughter to a deceased Hatter and eldest sister of three girls, lives in a magical kingdom but doesn’t suppose her life will ever amount to much. This is just a known and accepted fact about the eldest sisters in this world. Sophie tries to content herself running her father’s old hat shop alongside her stepmother—who, as a nice change of pace, isn’t evil or even malicious.
