Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is junior fiction, so there are elements that are definitely for a younger audience and do remind me, in a way, of the style of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series (even though Riordan’s works were written about twenty years after Jones’). However, there are elements that are grown-up enough that I think it can still appeal to those who are simply young at heart. I enjoy how Jones walked the line between her fantasy world and the real nation of Wales, and am curious if Jones was inspired by the wardrobe of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when she came up with the idea for the door to many places. Overall, I think this was a lovely book and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in a light – though maybe lengthy for some at 429 pages – fictional fantasy read. I do also think that this could be an appropriate book to read aloud, or with, children. I will warn of some magic towards the end of the book consisting of beheading and piecing an “ideal person” from parts of others. However, this is a very short section and close to the (happy) conclusion of the book.

Some of you may have seen Hayao Miyazaki’s film based on this story. I admit that I watched the film before I heard of the book and, while I was intrigued, I did not actually decide that it was going to make it on my reading list until a YouTuber I enjoy (Jimmy, of the channel The Welsh Viking) was explaining his intro song, “Sospan Fach.” While this may seem utterly and completely unrelated, one interesting fact he gave is that the song is actually mentioned quite a few times in Howl’s Moving Castle yet never appears in the film. My curiosity got the better of me, so when I found the book at one of the bookshops near my apartment I decided it would be my first book of the year.

It turns out that is not where the differences between book and movie end, but I will leave those for you to discover, along with the riddle in my title. I will simply tell you that both the book and the movie are lovely experiences and I think – if you so choose – you would find them very enjoyable.