Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle #1)

Reader reviewed by swim freak

seven league boots, fire demons, hopping scorecrows? what cant happen. this breath-taking book gives you the insight on the misfortunes on being the oldest. jones leads you on the adventures that follows sophie, the oldest of the hatters family. when the witch of waste decides to turn her into an old lady; sophie was forced to go out and seek her own fortune. she ends up in howl's moving castle, a place that was feared by all, for it was rumored to have an evil wizard who sucks souls out of pretty young girls........ this is one of those books that you can't put down. you have got to read this beautifully spun out book.

Reader reviewed by mimagirl

Sophie is the eldest of three sisters, which everyone knows is terribly unlucky. When the Witch of the Waste turns up and transforms Sophie into an old woman, things go from bad to worse!

Sophie goes to seek help from the Wizard Howl and discovers that he is not what many believe him to be. Will she ever be able to gain help to break the spell?

Full of memorable characters and quirky situations, Howl's Moving Castle is a fully-fleshed fantasy enjoyable for readers 13 and up.

Reader reviewed by Lala

What would you do if a witch kept you from your family by turning you into an old women? The protagonist of this series has been turned old by the witch of the waste and goes to live with Howl in his enchanted castle to try to break the curse. The movie has been drastically changed to fit in with modern politics. I enjoyed the book much more.

Reader reviewed by Katya

You might have seen the recent anime film that was based on this book. I simply can't stress enough how much you should try and forget what happened in the film, and go and read this, straight away.

Sophie Hatter is, for no apparent reason, placed under a horrible curse by an evil witch. Sophie, being practical, realises that the only way to get rid of the curse is to go to the best wizard around - which, unfortunately, happens to be the wicked Howl, who eats young girls hearts.

While it's perhaps not Diana Wynne Jones' best book, it's still excellent. She has a real talent for making her characters real; Sophie is unbearably meek, whilst Howl is ridiculously selfish, yet you end up liking them both immensely. The plot is really good, and it'll make you want to laugh out loud at times. Definitely worth a look, and please, please, please - read the book before you see the film!

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!