Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

I had become curious about this book when the movie came out but had kept putting other books in front of it on the TBR pile. Then I kept hearing an author (Charlie Holmberg) go on and on about the story. Having done some major reorganizing of my reading priorities, I threw this higher up on the need-to-reads. I had just put off reading this novel for far too long.

I got a copy through the library and dug in. Man, had I been missing out. This is an excellent fantasy novel. Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three daughters. As everyone knows, the eldest is destined to fail. Or so she has consistently told herself. She allows herself to be shuffled to running her recently deceased father's hat business while her stepmother and sisters seek their fortunes in exciting ways. Not to be outwitted Fate places Sophie on the bad side of the Witch of the Wastes.

Why did I love this novel so much? The lesson. Sophie boxes herself into a certain lifestyle. No one else does it to her. Until she is forced to deal with a fire demon and heart-stealer. What Sophie learns about herself and expectations is the very essence of every good coming-of-age story. And it is incredibly well written in Howl's Moving Castle. There is even a mystery element that just keeps the pages flipping.

I want to call it a kids book because the pacing and whimsy felt so much like a good, old-fashioned kids story, but the majority of the protagonists are late teens, early twenty-somethings. They are dealing with leaving the nest and finding their own fortune. But there is just something so innocent about the story compared to a modern YA novel. After reading this and re-reading "The Prydain Chronicles," I think we may have made a wrong turn with the YA genre.