Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Howl’s Moving Castle #2 starts with carpet seller Abdullah acquiring a magic carpet in the bazaar of Zanzib. The adventure takes him ultimately to Ingary to rescue the princesses. The colorful characters he meets along the way are not who they seem. Lots of fun secrets to be discovered in this story and a little bit more to learn about this universe.
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reread. A young carpet merchant obtains a magic carpet and, through this, an agreement to elope with the princess of his country. Unfortunatly, she is kidnapped by a monster right in front of his eyes. This both does and doesn't go where you would expect it to from there: notably, there is more than one princess involved and they have unionised. The premise of "young princess who has been completly isolated all her life falls in love with the first man she meets" has a lot of pitfalls, which this book does carefully avoid (there is a scene, fairly early on, where the protagonist looks a her and realises that 1) she's incredibly clever and 2) he respects her immensly). Also, more romance books sequels should have the protagonists of the first book be extremely important but completely irecognisable for most of it. This is an excellent way to make characters studies as well .
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Spoiler
I enjoyed the story of Abdullah, even if it felt like a retelling of Disney’s version of Aladdin meets other vague themes of 1001 Nights… in other words, it felt like a white woman wrote an “Arabic” character. But, it was still a fun story. Here are thoughts on various characters:I knew there must be some overlap between the worlds of Howl and Abdullah, and I was honestly slightly let down by it. Did anyone else feel like they didn’t recognize Sophie outside of her old lady disguise? And not because she was a cat. I just felt like she was… there for the sake of being there, not to mention my confusion at her having a baby while she was a cat and everyone being very surprisingly chill that she has her first child and also doesn’t know how to take care of it as a human. No one, including Howl, seems surprised or shocked that the baby is here, just, “Oh this is Morgan? Cool”. I would love a book in which at least one strong female protagonist who finds love does not immediately become a mom (nothing against motherhood, but can we get some representation for women who don’t want to birth kids? I’m pretty sure these literal witches and wizards could figure something out), especially because Sophie frankly doesn’t seem to want it, being the oldest of three and certainly having experience with children.
I liked Howl as the genie and I think that made sense. Still have no idea where Abdullah knew him from before that though, and I feel like this author’s books are better as a reread or a physical copy rather than a Kindle because they reference things in the beginning that were evidently very important without ever actually telling you what they were. I felt this about the curse in the last book, and saw it here with Howl and Abdullah’s standoff.
I was trying for the longest time to figure the soldier out because it was written as though he had some magic but I guess… he was just adroit at fighting and running? I also don’t really understand his weird obsession with cats, since it apparently wasn’t Prince Justin related.
I liked Calcifer. Again, not sure how I feel about the “these characters have been here the whole time, you just didn’t realize!!” component, but Calcifer was probably my favorite of them. He’s sassy and fun and would like to be flattered. I think of the original characters, he felt the most authentic.
The djinn was the most compelling character to me, oddly enough. He’s really the only one who I felt was unique and who I didn’t know what to expect from. I hope he found a nice new world to have some fun in.
I’m honestly, very disappointed overall with the strong female protagonists who suddenly are happy with marrying random men against their will, like Princess Beatrice and the twins. I was waiting for there to be a catch, for Flower to have a plan so that they weren’t actually auctioning each other off. But no, apparently all the women in the book just want a man, literally regardless of whether of not he’s kind of an ass. And what does Lettie see in Wizard Sulliman?
Overall, the plot was fine. I thought the moving castle being the castle in the sky was fine. I was confused by the war to take over the other kingdoms. I found the overlap to not be super compelling, but the story was still fun.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The longer I sit on this book, the less I could recommend it. It's not only a bad book (which, as a problem of its own is easily solved by moving on and forgetting the regrettable experience), it is a book that taints the previous book by its existence.
I loved Howl's Moving Castle. I deeply regret having read Castle in the Air.
The former played with trope and introduced truly loveable characters. It kept mystery and suspense going. It was a beautiful exercise in whimsy.
This next book seems to be trying to imitate the success of the first without having understood why it worked. The repetition of the same exact mysteries is now tiring. The whimsy falls flat since DWJ relies on just the laziest chareacature of Arabia to base it off of. As can be expected, the orientalism is tiring. More shocking though is the implicitly encouraged misogyny and fatphobia.The book ends with the main character trafficking his (oh, so, so fat) cousins to an evil djinn so that he might not be lonely in his exile and the entire cast implicitly signing off on this.
If you're not sure whether to continue to the second book--heed my warning: Howl's Moving Castle is best treated as a stand alone.
I loved Howl's Moving Castle. I deeply regret having read Castle in the Air.
The former played with trope and introduced truly loveable characters. It kept mystery and suspense going. It was a beautiful exercise in whimsy.
This next book seems to be trying to imitate the success of the first without having understood why it worked. The repetition of the same exact mysteries is now tiring. The whimsy falls flat since DWJ relies on just the laziest chareacature of Arabia to base it off of. As can be expected, the orientalism is tiring. More shocking though is the implicitly encouraged misogyny and fatphobia.
If you're not sure whether to continue to the second book--heed my warning: Howl's Moving Castle is best treated as a stand alone.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes