Howl’s Moving Castle #BookReview #BriFri

Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed the film I, Daniel Blake and shared my theme reveal (UK & Ireland) for the A to Z Challenge. Gaele reviewed three books, all with at least a bit of mystery: The Girl in the Photograph is the third of the Rosetti Mystery series, The Unforgotten is a debut novel by author Laura Powell, and the 1950s classic British mystery Coffin Scarcely Used. Jean re-read The Wonderful Garden by E. Nesbit. She also shared Craeft, a book by an archaeologist who attempts the old crafts, like roof-thatching, to see if he can do it and if they still have relevance today. Tina reviewed Seven Days of Us about a dysfunctional family at Christmas. Sim shared details and gossip about the upcoming BBC mini-series, Ordeal by Innocence. Becky reviewed a children’s book, with a delightful cover, called Old Hat.

Book: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Teen Fiction
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication date: 2012, originally published in 1986
Pages: 448

Source: Library e-book

A fantasy with wizards, witches, and hat makers

Summary: Sophie Hatter is the eldest sister. In her world being the eldest means that she will never amount to much. Her youngest sister stands the best chance at gaining her fortune, so Sophie grooms her for the job and resigns herself to something less. Her story gets even worse, as these stories tend to, when her father dies in debt. Sophie has an unfortunate encounter with a witch and things deteriorate, and get more interesting, from there.

Thoughts: Howl’s Moving Castle is, mostly, set in a fantasy landscape. The story begins in Market Chipping which feels like a pre-industrial prosperous British village, with a bit of magic. The magic includes the appearance of a castle that moves around the edge of town. I don’t want to spoil anything, but watch for a couple of cameo appearances from a more mundane British place.

Jean of Howling Frog Books has been participating in March Magics this month, an annual event to celebrate the works of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett. Since I’ve somehow managed to miss both authors, I wanted to read one this month.

Howl’s Moving Castle was a charming introduction to the work of Diana Wynne Jones. There are two more books set in this world for me to explore: Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways.

Has anyone seen the Japanese animated film that’s loosely based on Howl’s Moving Castle? Lauren Bacall provides one of the voices in the English-dubbed version.

Appeal: Howl’s Moving Castle has quirky, fun, flawed characters and a terrific fantasy world that feels like it might be one of the places where our stories live until someone is ready to tell them.

Challenges: Besides March Magics, this book counts as my third by a British author this year for the British Books Challenge.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Comments

Howl’s Moving Castle #BookReview #BriFri — 9 Comments

Tina on March 30, 2018 at 5:47 am said:

I haven’t heard of this author and I didn’t know about March Magic, wish I had! I like the magic of Harry Potter so I’d probably be on board with this book.

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gaele on March 30, 2018 at 9:08 am said:

I’ve heard of the book – not read it – so that’s one I’ll have to try. Last night was the first of 3 parts to And Then There Were None on PBS – I think (It’s been years since I sort of read it) it’s Ten Little Indians – the cast list from Charles Dance to Anna Maxwell Martin is special – and I was just captivated.

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Sim Carter on March 30, 2018 at 9:51 am said:

I’ve never read Howl’s Moving Castle but I understand it’s wonderful. As far as author Diana Wynne Jones goes, once upon a time —back in 2000 when there were only 4 Harry Potter books—I wrote an article for a family magazine : What to Read when You’ve Finished Harry Potter. Potter, as you know, boosted reading—especially among boys—and the article was meant to make the most of their new found passion. Wynne Jones came up again and again with the librarians I consulted for the piece. As you know, for kids who love magic and fantasy she’s a great resource. I think Harry Potter was good for her too, putting some of her out of print books back on the market. Good ol’ Harry Potter strikes again!

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Jean @ Howling Frog on March 30, 2018 at 5:14 pm said:

Sim, I worked in a public library during the Potter years and did indeed give a lot of HP fans Howl’s Moving Castle or other DWJ books! It’s a wonderful story.

This week I’ve got two DWJ novellas and medieval Oxfordshire.

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Deborah O'Carroll on March 30, 2018 at 6:11 pm said:

HMC is one of my favorite books! I’m so glad you got a chance to try it out and enjoyed it. 🙂 And I loved your thoughts on it! Diana Wynne Jones is the best. <3

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Kristen M. on March 31, 2018 at 1:44 pm said:

I am so very glad you squeezed in a Diana Wynne Jones read this month! Howl is such a wonderful book for anyone who loves Britain. Her inclusion of real places also helps bolster my hopes that magic really does exist somewhere. 😉
The two “sequels” are wonderful, with House of Many Ways being one of my absolute favorite DWJs for many reasons. I hope you do get to them eventually! And I like to say that the Howl film is its own separate entity from the book. If you compare them, one or the other suffers. But if you consider both on their own, they are both magical and fabulous. I definitely recommend it after that caveat.

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Tizzy Brown on March 31, 2018 at 1:59 pm said:

I haven’t read the book but I have seen the anime film and absolutely love it. I would really like to read the book and see what it’s like.

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Chelley Toy on April 8, 2018 at 12:04 pm said:

Thanks for linking up to the British Books Challenge x

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