Book Review: Howl’s Moving Castle
BOOK REVIEW: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE BY DIANA WYNNE JONES
One day, Sophie Hatter, eldest of three, is turned into an old lady by the powerful Witch of the Waste. To break the spell, Sophie must handle the heartless wizard Howl and break his fire demon’s curse. But there’s a lot more to Howl than meets the eye…
I’ve seen the Studio Ghibli movie about a hundred times. I absolutely love it. So when I saw many people on Instagram reading the book, I knew I had to follow suit. Boy, was I ever in for a pleasant surprise.
What I liked:
– How different the book is. For the longest time, I hadn’t known the movie was based on a book. They’re similar in some scenes, but vastly different in others, so it was like reading a whole new adventure containing the same characters I’ve come to love.
– The depth of the characters. Not that the movie’s characters didn’t have depth, but the book just had more of it. You get to see how much more stubborn Sophie is, or how much more overdramatic Howl is. We even get to learn more about Michael (the book’s much-older version of Markl).
– The banter. Forever a lover of banter, I laughed out loud on quite a few occasions, and I was giddy when I found out the movie took my favorite line from Calcifer straight from the book.
What I didn’t like:
– The confusing storyline. While reading, I had to shove my knowledge of the events from the movie aside, as the book was obviously different. However, I feel like the storyline was very confusing at times, and I sometimes wondered what the point was. Perhaps I’ll better understand by reading it a second time.
Overall:
– I absolutely loved how similar, yet how different it was to the movie, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the trilogy.
Have you read Howl’s Moving Castle? Do you plan on reading it?
Raine