Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

Children's books about wizards and magic have been around long before the inferior Harry Potter series was a glimmer on the horizon. Wynne Jones' Howl series was begun in 1986 and inspired many contemporary fantasy writers such as Neil Gaiman. I was recommended the first book many times over the years and was happy to find it just as good as promised. The story is about Sophie Hatter, the eldest of three sisters who works in a hat shop in the town of Market Chipping. After unintentionally angering the Witch of the Waste, she is transformed into an old woman. Ashamed of her new appearance, she leaves town and is taken in by the wizard Howl, who resides in a walking castle. Howl is a vain, fickle wizard who spends most of his time luxuriating in the bathroom and wooing women. He is trapped in a binding contract with a fire demon called Calcifer, who sits in an iron grate and operates the movement of the castle. Whilst trying to undo the contract that binds wizard and demon, Sophie also seeks to remove her own spell.

What appealed most to me about the story was the mundane, everyday domesticity of the world which takes centre stage over magic duels and epic hero fulfilment. There are times when things get a bit too silly and slapstick for my liking, but overall I found the humorous tone to be well balanced. It's refreshing to read a fantasy story that manages to not take itself too seriously, whilst grounding itself in a relatively sensible set of rules. Wizard Howl subverts stereotypes by being cowardly and lazy, Sophie is unglamorous as heroines go, indeed, an old crone, and magic spells often seem to be more trouble than they're worth. The plot suffers a bit from magical confusion, I was frequently lost as to who was whom, especially when characters swap bodies or are only fleetingly introduced. There are also supposed to be several important hints dropped along the way regarding how Howl can break his curse, but these were lost on me, I'm sure sharp-eyed younger readers would have no problem sussing out the books' frantic comings and goings. The Ghibli film version is quite a bit different, focusing on a war which isn't present in the novel.

Rating: 4/5