Book 1 of the Howl’s Castle series.
You may know Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki‘s adaptation of this novel. Though I adore the film, the book’s storyline is different – I’m not going to claim the book is better because I love them both equally. So without further ado, here’s my review of the book:
Sophie Hatter is a pretty strawberry blonde-haired girl who is 18 years old when her stepmother Fanny announces that she and her younger sisters will have to take apprenticeships to learn a profession. Her 17 year old sister Lettie is to be the apprentice at the pastry shop Cesari’s in Market Chipping. Lettie has dark hair and blue eyes and is considered the beauty of the family; this is why Fanny thinks that she will do well in the busy pastry shop. The youngest sister, Martha, who has fair hair and grey eyes, who is also very lovely and the most intelligent of the sisters (she is in fact Sophie and Lettie’s half-sister, but no-one in the family thinks in these terms, Fanny loves all her daughters equally) Martha will become the apprentice of a witch called Mrs Annabel Fairfax in Upper Folding. As Sophie is the eldest, she will inherit the hat shop and therefore she’s to apprentice in the shop. She’s not good with the customers, but she’s extremely talented at trimming hats which she inadvertently charms so people love them.
On May Day, Sophie goes into town to see Lettie at the pastry shop. She’s very afraid of the men who try to speak to her, for they could be the wizard Howl Pendragon who is said to eat the hearts of beautiful girls. She manages to get to Market Square unscathed and when she gets to Cesari’s, the young men of Market Chipping are crowding the shop and they all want to be served by her sister. Lettie takes her to the back of the shop and reveals that she’s Martha. As it turns out, Martha wants a normal life, whereas Lettie wants to be a witch.
One day, Sophie gets an unwelcome customer in the hat shop. The Witch of the Waste mistakes her for Lettie and curses her before she leaves. Sophie is extremely tired and sleeps soundly, but when she wakes up, she gets a nasty surprise; she has aged decades in her sleep. Sophie realises that she cannot stay at home now that she’s aged so much and she leaves Market Chipping behind and becomes the cleaning lady in Howl’s Moving Castle. She’s greeted by Howl’s apprentice Michael Fisher who likes to visit the pastry shop where Martha – who he knows as Lettie – works. The castle has its own resident fire demon Calcifer. The castle is a very interesting structure, there is a door that goes to four different places: three places in Ingary; the hills above Market Chipping, Kingsbury and Porthaven, and one to the unknown land of Wales, where Howl was born as Howel Jenkins.
When Howl was young, he gave Calcifer his heart in order for the fire demon to continue living because he felt sorry for him – this is implied to have sapped his humanity somewhat. When Sophie learns that Howl is in love with Lettie, she fears he will eat her sister’s heart. While she’s undercover as the cleaning lady, Sophie searches the castle for the hearts. In the process she messes with Howl’s potions which in turn makes him very angry.
There are quite a few things that are different in the book, like Howl and Michael’s love for Lettie is missing, the ending is a little different than the film. Some of the characters have different names in the film (i.e. Marcel instead of Michael). But OMG, Diana Wynne Jones does spin a fantastic tale mostly set in the fictional Kingdom of Inary. As I mentioned, there’s a setting on the door that leads to Wales where a part of the book takes place.
All the stars! This was my third re-read and I still love it as much as when I read it the first time. I think I am going to watch Miyazaki’s interpretation of the book tonight!
Read for the Read Between the Lines Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 24: A Book With the Same Title as a Film (but isn’t necessarily the same)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
