This website is dedicated to my own book, and it was a challenge to figure out what I could review. It didn’t seem like a review could fit on a site dedicated to my own book series. I wondered: should I review a place where I write? Or some of my characters? That seemed a bit redundant though, so my heart wasn’t quite set on it. A place where I write will probably be mentioned in my how-to guide later on. And I want to have some things to add for constructive criticism, so I can’t critique my own characters. The characters I do like are already in my listicle. And any characters I dislike, I delete or work on until I do like them. Plus, I wanted this experience to be something that I could learn from as well.
So, I decided to review a book that is in my own genre too. I chose Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Her book is largely based on fantasy, but there are some definite parts of romance to the book, as well. If you haven’t read the book or seen the anime movie based on it, I strongly suggest reading/viewing them; the story is quite amazing and the characters are easy to love. Howl’s Moving Castle is certainly one of my favorites.
I do not wish to spoil it, but I’ll explain it briefly just so you understand what I am talking about. Basically, there is a wizard who much prefers wooing women over fulfilling his duties to the king with fighting in the war. Rumors have spread that the young wizard, Howl, is quite charming but is not to be trusted; he eats pretty girls’ hearts. Sophie, however, is convinced she is not a pretty girl and ignores everyone’s warnings. On her way to visit her sister, she encounters the wizard. (Howl saves her from an overly flirty person in the movie, and in the book, Howl IS the overly flirty man.) The Witch of the Waste becomes aware of the encounter and does what any normal, jealous woman would do – curses Sophie to be an old woman. This all happens in the first one or two chapters. Then, Sophie meets a cursed scarecrow, a fire demon, and Howl’s apprentice not long after that. Finding out the rest is up to you.
Ok. Now onto the actual review part. Most of the chapter titles start the same way, with “In Which…” I find this rather clever in several ways. One is a bit obvious – “which” sounds like “witch”, and the Witch of the Waste is a key character. The phrase “in which” also addresses a bit of a fourth wall, saying this is the chapter where [whatever] happens. As a plus, this is always nice you ever lose your place. The titles also don’t particularly make much sense until after you read the chapter. For example, the first chapter is “In Which Sophie Talks to Hats,” which certainly doesn’t make much sense until after you read the chapter. Is she talking to herself? Is she being frustrated with the hats? Are the hats magical? Chapter 8’s title is one of my favorites: “In Which Sophie Leaves the Castle in Several Directions at Once.” This is especially confusing, since that doesn’t seem extremely possible. Besides, why IS she leaving? It makes the reader curious without spoiling the plot and keeps the reader’s place. In my book, I hadn’t realized I was doing confusing titles that hold the plot of the chapter until I read hers; I don’t start each chapter title with “In Which” though. Her chapter titles are also just simply enjoyable.
Jones has many characters, which makes dialogue a bit difficult. This is something I greatly struggle with and admire her for being able to do it so well. In her book, there are even a couple of scenes in the book where the majority of the characters talk to each other. She does a wonderful job of keeping the dialogue clear but enjoyable. In some books, it’s a bit difficult to see who spoke what – especially if most of them are one gender, as the same pronoun doesn’t particularly help the reader’s understanding. At the same time, repeating the name or a brief description can get tedious to read. However, Jones describes what a person is doing before they talk. So, the pronouns flow nicely, and she doesn’t have to identify the person, since she just described what they were doing.
She also does a good job with keeping the characters diverse as well. Obviously, in a country that’s predominantly one race, human description isn’t particularly of value. My book is similar in this way. Both of our books are diverse in the non-human characters. Describing different creatures like a falling star, a fire demon, and a scarecrow shows the book has more diversity. It is clear she put in quite a lot of thought in designing all her characters, which I think is very important. It makes the world come to life, which was pretty clear when there was even a movie based on it.
It’s not just a mess of characters though; they are webbed together in a neat order. For example, Jones made Sophie’s opinion of her sisters, stepmother, and herself quite obvious. She was the eldest and did what she was told, not expecting herself to be anything more than being the oldest. The sisters have to go to new jobs, but Sophie stays at the family’s hat shop. The two younger sisters end up switching places, and that’s how the reader meets even more characters. Another example is how the king started the war because his son was missing and he assumed his enemy took him. The reader finds out some secrets about the son and his fiancé. These two can eventually be tied back to the wizard, Howl. All the while, from their very first meeting, Howl thought Sophie was a very pretty young lady. It’s a very intricate web, and the author does a wonderful job of explaining every single character’s importance without making the reader feel like they’re learning or being bogged down with information.
In conclusion, Diana Wynne Jones has many good attributes in her book, Howl’s Moving Castle, and if you haven’t read it yet, you should read it immediately – in my expert opinion. The description is beautiful, dialogue is humorous and easy to understand, and the characters are very easy to fall in love with. Without me even realizing, her book is sort of acting as a role model for my own. Thank you for reading.
Works Cited
Jones, Diana Wynne. Howl’s Moving Castle. HaperCollins Publishers, 2008.
Crossed Paths 