Howls Moving Castle Review

I will be reviewing Howl's Moving Castle a fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones.

HEAVY SPOILERS!

The main characters of the story are Sophie and Howl, Sophie is beyond her years and apathetic about life. In the world she inhabits being the eldest is a bad thing and means you are doomed to failure, Sophie has come to terms with the "fact" she will never amount to anything. When her father dies her sisters are sent to promising placements, Martha the youngest is sent to study magic and Lettie the second eldest and the prettiest daughter is sent to apprentice at a bakery while Sophie is left at the hat shop where she grew up to become a milliner. She becomes bored of the hat shop and decides one day to visit her sister Lettie. On the way to see Lettie she gets accosted by Howl. 

Howl is a pretty boy who loves to accost women, once they fall for him he loses interest and moves on to the next girl. The first impression you get of howl is that his is selfish, cowardly, vain and a drama queen. But howl is actually under a curse by the Witch of the Wastes who is a powerful and beautiful witch whom Howl had once foolishly accosted her. The Witch of the Wastes feel in love with Howl but after awhile Howl came to realise she was beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside and left her. The Witch of the Wastes in anger put a curse on Howl that means if he ever fell in love his heart would belong to her. Which explains Howls behaviour when it comes to women.

The Witch of the Wastes hears about Lettie and how beautiful she is and she gets jealous she unknowingly puts a curse on Sophie whom she mistook for Lettie. The curse put on Sophie turns her into a 90 year old woman and she is unable to tell anyone about the curse unless someone knows about it.

She leaves the hat shop an stumbles across Howls Moving Castle. The relationship between Howl and Sophie was very well written and started out as Sophie becoming Howls cleaning lady and her antics infuriate Howl but he lets her stay in the castle with him and his apprentice Michel. Durning the course of the book we her about Howls escapades, Sophie starts to slowly develop feeling for Howl while at the same time finding him immature, petty and shallow. Howl starts to accost Martha who has switched places with Lettie, but it is revealed later on by this point Howl has figured out Sophie is under a curse and is trying to get to know more about her and trying to find away to break the curse. It is also revealed that from the moment he found out Sophie was under a curse he hoped she was the girl he had tried to accost but failed because she was on her way to the bakery to see her sister (Sophie pre-curse). The book on drops subtle hints that Howl is falling for Sophie until the end where he fights The Witch of the Waste because she has kidnapped Sophie to lure Howl so she can claim his heart.

The best parts of the book is when Howl is being a drama queen. At one point Howl gets ill and complains that he is drying of neglect as he crawls on his hands and knee's up the stairs. Sophie just rolls her eyes and keeps cleaning.

The book is geared towards children and teens but I think the book is a great read for anyone who is into fantasy.