Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Riney

Diana Wynne Jone's novel (which was recently made into a film), is a fun and humor-filled, and somewhat mysterious story that is quite different from your average fantasty story.

The story starts out in a small town, Market Chipping, where we are introduced to Sophie, the oldest daughter of a middle class family. Resigned to living her life as a hat maker, Sophie is surprised to meet a witch who curses her and turns her into an eighty year old woman! And in the meantime, there are rumors about a heart-eating wizard in a moving castle who might be able to turn Sophie back to normal! And so Sophie goes off to take the spell off of her only to make a bargain with a fire demon, to become a housekeeper, and to take care of a semi-spoiled vain wizard!

This book was very fun and very enjoyable! It is quite confusing at times and it sometimes requires two or three times of reading to comprehend. Nevertheless, it's a fun fantasy book that you should definetly re-read to get all the hints that the fire demon speaks about!

Although this novel was made into a movie, I suggest reading this book first! The movie was quite different from the novel, and I felt that the book was way better at explaining things!