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A review by snukes
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
4.0
I watched the movie first. I picked up the book immediately afterward, because I got to the end of the movie and said "huh?" and hoped the book would clear some things up. The book had the same kind of whirlwind pace that the movie did, but it did deliver a more complete story with more satisfactory conclusions.
The funny thing about this story is that I found both Sophie and Howl rather infuriating the whole way through the story. Sophie is cranky and vindictive almost without letting up, until all the sudden at the end we are simply TOLD it's because (just in case that was a spoiler). And why in the world should that be? Howl acts like a bad-tempered teenage boy all the way through. He is everything he claims to be - cowardly, vain, selfish and kind of irrational. So why would anyone fall for him?
This really bothered me until I read the interview with the author at the end. One of the comments from her addressed the fact that apparently every teenage girl in the world is in love with Howl. One girl stood up at a Q&A session and asked if she could marry Howl, to which Jones replied that she'd have to get to the back of a line stretching all the way around the world.
Why?! Why is a guy who is cowardly, vain, selfish and irrational SO appealing to teenage girls?
And then it suddenly clicked. ALL teenage boys are this way. It is what teenage girls know. What Howl has going for him that real teenage boys don't is that underneath all his horrible personality traits, he is secretly noble, large-hearted, and very very clever. In order to get around his cowardliness, he has to hide these traits even from himself, but they are definitely there. And every teenage girl in the world wants to believe that the boys they have crushes on anyway - the dopey, ill-mannered, vain and irrational teenage boys - are secretly as noble and good as Howl.
Ha! While I prefer my men a little less secretive about their redeeming qualities, at least the story's device makes more sense to me with this perspective.
Right. Anyway. It was a fun story. I really enjoyed it, and I'll go look for the next two soon. I want to know more about wizards wandering between worlds.
The funny thing about this story is that I found both Sophie and Howl rather infuriating the whole way through the story. Sophie is cranky and vindictive almost without letting up, until all the sudden at the end we are simply TOLD it's because
Spoiler
she's fallen in love with HowlThis really bothered me until I read the interview with the author at the end. One of the comments from her addressed the fact that apparently every teenage girl in the world is in love with Howl. One girl stood up at a Q&A session and asked if she could marry Howl, to which Jones replied that she'd have to get to the back of a line stretching all the way around the world.
Why?! Why is a guy who is cowardly, vain, selfish and irrational SO appealing to teenage girls?
And then it suddenly clicked. ALL teenage boys are this way. It is what teenage girls know. What Howl has going for him that real teenage boys don't is that underneath all his horrible personality traits, he is secretly noble, large-hearted, and very very clever. In order to get around his cowardliness, he has to hide these traits even from himself, but they are definitely there. And every teenage girl in the world wants to believe that the boys they have crushes on anyway - the dopey, ill-mannered, vain and irrational teenage boys - are secretly as noble and good as Howl.
Ha! While I prefer my men a little less secretive about their redeeming qualities, at least the story's device makes more sense to me with this perspective.
Right. Anyway. It was a fun story. I really enjoyed it, and I'll go look for the next two soon. I want to know more about wizards wandering between worlds.