Reviews

Il castello in aria by Diana Wynne Jones

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debitoni's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

littlefoot10's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I honestly don't even know what to say about this book.

The only redeeming qualities of this book was having Sophie, Howl and others from the previous book within these pages.

I couldn't stand Abdullah. He is just freaking swarmy. He comes off as a sleezeball because of all the positive affirmations he gives to everyone knowing he's being facetious about it the entire time.

The body shaming within this book was on another level. It was utterly ridiculous. The nieces, were brought in TWICE to be made fun of for their size. There are absolutely other ways to say you aren't attracted to someone. But to say that these two are gobbling with fat shaking is not it at all.

I tried to stay in the mind set that this book was written in the early 90's when beauty standards were ALL about being as thin and model like as possible. For a woman writer to be so callous towards these characters seems irresponsible towards young readers.

More body shaming towards the bartender where Abdullah finds the soldier. I just don't understand how every female character from this book is looked down upon if she is not thin and beautiful.

And then the writer moves on to discussing drowning cats because they are evil. I just don't understand. You and write about ANYTHING. This is a fantasy story so you could even say that in this specific culture the citizens believe cats are consorts with witches or djinn or even just see as bad luck. But to literally say it's okay to kick them and drown them if you even lay eyes on a cat is fucking insane to me. No accountability towards the readers that could be young reading these works.

Can you believe that the magic carpet wouldn't take Lettie along with Sophie and Abdullah because she's 'fat' and pregnant. Like it's a fucking magic carpet....

So in this fantasy world, even growing a baby doesn't give you any grace with this author because you have gained weight to grow this person inside of you... so because you're large for whatever reason you're not 'valued as a woman' because you've gained weight. It's fucking mind-blowing.

The only reason this book has two stars is because of the characters from Howls Moving Castle. Otherwise this novel is trash. Not sorry.

Content Warnings

muddysarah's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

nicononicotine's review against another edition

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3.0

I ended up just cross reading quite a few pages in the middle of it because it couldn't keep my attention, but the main character is kinda sweet and it wasn't as Aladdin-esque as I feared it was going to be so that was a plus.