Sophie Hatter lives in a world where magic is real. Unfortunately, she has read enough fairy tales to realize that, as the oldest of three daughters, she's the least likely to have any great luck or grand adventures. When her father dies, she resigns herself to running their hat shop and turning into a timid spinster while her sisters have more exciting futures. Her life changes in an instant when the Witch of the Waste casts a spell to make her an old woman and she realizes that she cannot stay with her family any longer. Sophie decides that her only hope is to seek out the Wizard Howl (the evil wizard who eats the souls of young girls and lives in a moving castle). What she finds, of course, is entirely different from her expectations and suddenly Sophie is in the middle of an adventure of her own.
This is definitely an interesting story with well-written characters and a unique plot. It has a rather odd blend of 'real world' versus 'magical world;' it comes across fairly well since the two are linked in several ways, although I have to admit that there didn't seem to be much reason for it. Other than that, I enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to fantasy readers - particularly those looking for something out of the the ordinary.
As a side note, I happened to see the movie first and I have to say that while it's cute, the book makes far more sense; I was confused by several points in the movie (most of which aren't in the book and the rest of which are clarified in the text). The movie is a nice bit of fluffy fantasy anime, but reading the book helps a lot.
- If this book sounds interesting, consider these: Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Now You See It, or Cecilia and Kate
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