Anyone who knows me knows that I am an anime junkie. From Miyazaki films to Vampire Knight, I
devour anything I can find with a good storyline that will keep me intrigued from
beginning to end.
Then it’s no surprise that, when I found out one of my
all-time FAVORITE Miyazaki films, Howl’s
Moving Castle, was an actual book, I had to order it immediately!
Howl’s Moving Castle
revolves completely around magic and finding yourself and where you truly
belong. Our main character’s name is
Sophie and she is the middle child in a family who finds themselves having to
work hard and earn whatever money they can to keep themselves and their hat
shop, afloat. You soon find that Sophie
has a rather keen knack of making rather fashionable hats for the shop, but her
sisters are more than disinterested in the family trade. Once it is realized that a higher education
is not in the works for any of them, both sisters are sent away to try and
better themselves and find themselves good husbands, while Sophie remains at
the shop.
Now we must bring in the Witch of the Waste, who for a
better part of the story, is the main source of evil. In fact, upon meeting Sophie in the hat shop,
she places a curse on her to turn her into an old woman. She also makes sure that the curse will keep
her from saying anything about how she’s been cursed to anyone. Sophie, finding that she can no longer stay
at the shop looking the way she does, sets off on an adventure that will change
her life forever.
Add in Howl, a wizard who is rumored to kidnap young women
so that he can eat their hearts; Michael, an apprentice to the great and
powerful Howl; and Calcifer, a fire demon caught by Howl and who now powers a
rather large castle that is able to move from place to place within separate lands,
and you’ve got yourself a cast of rather imaginative fantasy characters.
I won’t tell you if Sophie’s curse is ever removed, and I
won’t tell you what the secret is behind Calcifer and Howl. What I will tell you is, this book is pretty
much word for word the anime and while I thoroughly LOVE the anime, I was
expecting a little more from the book.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful experience to see all of my
favorite characters and some of my favorite lines from the anime, written and
described in print, but for some reason this book left me bereft for more
detail and more to the story. I gave Howl’s Moving Castle a 4 out of 5 stars
on GoodReads.
If you enjoyed Howl’s
Moving Castle (the anime), I would definitely pick this up if only for the
experience of having the novel and revisiting old friends within it. If you’ve not had the experience of, in my
opinion, one of the best Miyazaki films to date, I highly suggest you read the
book and THEN watch the anime.
Also, Howl can be seen in two other novels by Diana Wynne
Jones, Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways. If you’ve read any or all of this series,
please let me know what you thought in the comments below!
Thanks for taking time to read my review and, as always, “Spread
the joy of reading! Lives can change
with the turn of a page!”
Until next time…! J
No comments:
Post a Comment