Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle #1), by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I set out to read – and hopefully love – this because it came with high praise by most of my GoodReads friends and my daughter (who loves the film, though).

Thus prepared, I set out on this literary journey and quickly got confused: Sophie gets cursed by the Witch from the Waste? Whatever for? And she just gets up, moves out without thinking and stumbles upon the eponymous Howl’s Moving Castle? Huh?

She accepts any crap coming her way because »Sophie was a failure anyway. It came of being the eldest.«?

Sorry, what? Every ridiculous and absurd situation that goes on to arise can be summarised as Howl does near the very end of this book:

»“I’m the eldest!” Sophie shrieked. “I’m a failure!”
“Garbage!” Howl shouted. “You just never stop to think!”«

Some of you might think me too old for this – but for one thing, I still love the Moomins for example. Plus: I can tell you right here and now that as a child I would have despised this even more strongly.

The entire story is just too wild and fantastic for my taste. It’s a glorified fairy tale, akin to other wild rides without much substance.

Still, it’s not entirely bad and, thus, it’s still getting three stars out of five from me.




Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam




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