Howl's Moving Castle

by Diana Wynne Jones
I didn't even know about this book until Hayao Miyazaki made a movie version. The film was quite good in its own right, but now that I have read the book, I realize that he made quite a few changes that I can't exactly explain. And as is almost always the case in books adapted to movies, the book is better.

Howl's Moving Castle follows the story of Sophie, a young woman who works in a hat shop. Her sisters have left and were leading exciting lives, but as the dutiful oldest daughter, Sophie felt trapped in her tedious world. All that changes when the Witch of the Waste comes to the shop and becomes angry with Sophie. The Witch curses Sophie, turning her into an old woman, and Sophie flees before her family can discover what happened to her. In desperation, she eventually takes up residence in the strange moving castle that roams around the town, said to be owned by the evil Wizard Howl. In the castle, Sophie meets Wizard Howl and many other colorful figures, and has plenty of adventures of her own.

A lot of the characters and subplots in Howl's Moving Castle are fairly confusing, but it all comes together in the end. I thought the book was extremely imaginative, and it has a very humorous tone; the characters are genuinely funny and vivid. I'd recommend this book to anyone, both young and old.