A review by erika_winters
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

First off, I want to start out by saying that I didn’t hate this book; I just didn’t love it as much I hoped I would. Sophie and Howl remain the same from book to movie as far as their flaws are concerned, and I liked how Studio Ghibli interpreted the text into something of their own. It’s been years since I’ve seen the movie, so it didn’t shape my thoughts around the reading experience, but it was in this reading experience that I found difficulty in liking the book in it’s entirety. Wynne Jones would lose me at times, and I would have to reread certain passages many times over to comprehend what the meaning is. Sometimes this was because of the book’s use of British vernacular (not usually a huge issue for me) or by simply mentioning something that was told to the reader in passing on page 39, for example. I appreciate an author circling back to make sense of what was previously stated, but this can be confusing to remember, and takes away from the text as a whole. Some symbols, like the skull, were obviously going to come up again since they were mentioned so often, but this is when Wynne Jones excelled and made me go, “Aha! That’s where ____ connects into the plot!” Overall, the magic was fun, the characters made me laugh because of their many flaws and quirks, but ultimately was not my favorite fantasy novel of all time.