Have any of you read Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones? I was going through a bit of a reading slump for a few weeks, but this book helped to pull me out. It’s a hilarious story that manages to be a fairy tale while breaking all the traditions of fairy tales. I love the protagonist, Sophie, who is the eldest of three sisters and is resigned to working at a hat shop because, as the first page says, “it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.” As the book goes on, she is challenged to go find her own adventure and becomes confident in herself as those fairy tale ‘rules’ are proven to be breakable. There are two other books in this series (though they can be read alone), Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways, that y’all should check out if you have read this book.
(I’m now realizing that my book analyses and recommendations all sound like English papers…..I wish I could make them sound more exciting, but it’s a hard habit to break )
im sure they actually came up with really clever spells but it would be hilarious if howl and suliman just outsourced first aid kits from our world. like all the orders they got from the king to equip their soldiers with healing spells they were just like ‘cool give us a few days’ and went and bought bulk orders of stuff from a pharmacy in wales
