Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A very fun, relatively quick read for me! I think it'll be impossible for me to avoid comparison with the Studio Ghibli adaptation, so I'm not even going to try.
Prior to reading this book, I was already a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki's animated rendition of Howl's Moving Castle. The music and world alone made it one of my favorite films from that studio, and I find myself regularly revisiting that movie time and time again just to immerse myself in it. I'm so happy to say that this book took all that escapism that I enjoy from the movie and cranked it up to 11, added characters with greater depth, and fleshed out the story further.
I think that the movie and the book are quite different from each other, but I can confidently say that movie enjoyers will adore the book. I'm tempted to say that I enjoyed the book more than the movie, but they really are so different from each other that it's like comparing apples and oranges for me. They both deliver on a cozy fantasy with lovable characters and a great found family, but they take the story in very different -- but equally enjoyable -- directions.
For movie lovers: check this out. If you haven't heard of Studio Ghibli and you're just interested in the premise: check this out. It's a really fun book.
Follow me on Goodreads!