Why yes, I am about to boggle the world with a positive review!

Let’s be honest, though: Howl’s Moving Castle was a reread. I picked it up on recommendation of several people (Yati and Mem specifically, I believe) and was underwhelmed. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t love the hell out of the book the first time through. I couldn’t even find much to criticize—I was just confused. I had read the book, but I couldn’t keep the characters straight, the plot was the worst knot in your laces ever, and I wasn’t much crazy about Howl.

(I have always loved Calcifer, though, I’m not even going to lie. I want my own fire demon, uhhh without all the dangerous parts.)

I rarely feel nothing for a book like I did then, the yawning confusion of boredom and “So why is this so well-loved, again?” Perhaps I wasn’t in the right place, because I picked this up again looking for something light and fun, fantasy specifically so I could just stop wanting to tear my hair out at all the “ew, cooties!” talk realistic fiction has been serving me on a silver platter amid other rotting indignities foisted upon my gender with no apology (or hand-washing, so great, I probably have the literary version of H1NH now). This was absolutely the book to pick up, I think, because even as this book features Sophie in the role that it does, she’s still wonderful.

Sophie lives in the magical kingdom of Ingary, in the town of Market Chipping, working in the family hat shop. As the eldest of three sisters, she doesn’t believe she has much future in fortunes, so as her sisters, Lettie and Martha, are sent out into the world to make theirs, Sophie remains working in the shop with her hats and adornments. When she unknowingly insults the Witch of the Waste with the hats she is making, said witch curses her and sets it so she is unable to tell anyone of the ordeal.

So, cursed to live an old lady, Sophie must set out on her own, and stumbles upon Howl’s Moving Castle, the home of a terrifying wizard who consumes the hearts of young girls, where she must deal with a womanizing wizard and recalcitrant fire demon, a sometimes-surly teenage magician’s apprentice, sisterly concern and bemusement, and a filthy castle where she’s not allowed to kill spiders. On top of that, she enters into a bargain to help the fire demon, Calcifer, remove the curse he’s under so he’ll remove hers, even though they can’t talk about their curses at all, in the best magical, brain-bending back-scratching I’ve ever read.

My issue with this book the first time through is that the plot is sort of complicated and I went in going, “Oh, a romance!” Back in reality, I bought into the press fandom had provided about this book, where I foolishly assumed that it was Howl/Sophie sexy times, candlelight, etc., etc., and don’t get me wrong, romance plays a part in this book but it’s so much more. It’s an adventure, about courage and love and perhaps Fate, but I might be reaching for that. Sophie considers herself dull, but as the story progresses and she interacts with Michael and Howl and Calcifer, it’s quite clear that she is a delightful person but has convinced herself that by product of birth, she is lesser—the story gives her a venue to prove herself to herself, not just clean house and fall in love, but to interact in the world in a form that she feels befits her, whereas the Sophie-that-was was shy and afraid, Sophie-the-crone is outspoken and honest.

The writing is very straight-forward and full of humor. I’m a sucker for good dialogue, too, and this book has it in spades, but of course I have dorky humor, so I would crack up at lines like this:

“Have you heard of a land called Wales?” she asked.
“No,” said Sophie. “Is it under the sea?”

Shut up, guys! It’s funny! Don’t judge me! (alskdlajsdd HILARITY)

My only complaint with this book comes in the length, by which I mean, “Hey Jones, you’re missing about 100 pages!” and has to do with why the first time through I was downright irate with this book for being so damn confusing. Toward the end, the story skips from a nice, brisk pace to FULL SPEED AHEAD, adding new characters and throwing out resolutions to various plot threads at a rate that had my head spinning and this was my second time through, so I can imagine why I was less than impressed with the resolution the first. Concerning the missing wizard and royalty, a dog and characters who aren’t who they seem to be, the last bit of this book was chugging for the finish line in a way I found exhausting, so I generally hand-waved it away and focused on how awesome Sophie was, and how Howl eventually becomes the hero, even though he’s clearly not cut out for it at the beginning of the story. I could do much worse than find a book that hits all the high notes of wit and allusion, that mixes fantasy and reality together so well, and includes a romance that is rooted firmly in an understanding of faults, but grows regardless of them. That’s a good love story.

Therefore, I can forgive the end of this book for not spending as much time as I would have liked on the 5,000 plot threads, because most of the book is just plain fun and I recommend it for comfort reading. It definitely cheered me up and that’s high praise indeed considering how low I was feeling (very). I needed a book that wasn’t going to be all SRS BIZNESS and this delivered, which means I should reread every book I’ve ever felt nothing for and see if I am able to have, if not a better opinion, any opinion at all.

(Doomed.)

1. Becky’s Book Reviews