Nataliya's Reviews > Howl’s Moving Castle

The first time I read this book was on a tiny phone screen in the scattered quiet minutes of a night shifts week. I loved it so much - I thought maybe partially because of sleep deprivation brain fuzziness that can give a good book the shimmer of that happy giddy feeling. But now I reread it with brain well-rested — and the magic still holds.

Sophie, the eldest of three sisters and therefore *clearly* doomed to failure, is an old soul. Enough of the old soul that, after unwittingly upsetting the Witch of the Waste, she is perfectly fine unexpectedly finding herself turned into a crone. And then she makes her way to Howl’s Moving Castle, “far too tall for its height and not a very regular shape”, makes a questionable alliance with the trapped fire demon Calcifer ((view spoiler)[a fallen star (hide spoiler)]) who’s eager to be let out of its contract with Howl, and sensibly gets the place in the order it so desperately needed.

“Annoyed?” said Sophie. “Why should I be annoyed? Someone only filled the castle with rotten aspic, and deafened everyone in Porthaven, and scared Calcifer to a cinder, and broke a few hundred hearts. Why should that annoy me?”

Sophie is quite mistrustful of her new employer — the wizard Howl ((view spoiler)[also sometimes known as Howell Jenkins, PhD and supposed good-for-nothing disgrace for the family (hide spoiler)]), the rumored devourer of young girls’ hearts; fickle, vain and mercurial — and kind to those in need of assistance, and prone to overcharging the King for his magic spells while undercharging the commoners. He can be quite exasperating, yes he can.

“Well, he’s fickle, careless, selfish, and hysterical,” she said. “Half the time I think he doesn’t care what happens to anyone as long as he’s all right— but then I find out how awfully kind he’s been to someone. Then I think he’s kind just when it suits him—only then I find out he undercharges poor people. I don’t know, Your Majesty. He’s a mess.”

Or maybe it’s just that Sophie tends to judge too quickly sometimes.

Maybe there is more to the world than meets the eye. Maybe first impressions are misleading and really getting to know someone allows surprising things to shine through. Maybe there are fallen stars and stolen hearts and traveling scarecrows and cowards that are brave and slither-outers who are honest and seeming shallowness that has new startling depths, and annoyance that grows into affection.

Is it a children’s book? I don’t know. It’s simple and sweet and yet can be complex in unexpected ways. It sure spoke to this adult over here. Its humor is kind but at times also a bit quirky. It delightfully turns familiar tropes upside down and makes me happily smile again and again. It makes my inner cynic slink away in shame.

I love it.

5 (falling) stars.
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Oh yeah, and I must be that one person who never saw that Studio Ghibli film.