--- title: Howl’s Moving Castle: 100 Best Fantasy Books description: Find out why Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is on TIME's list of the best fantasy books of all time canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898460/howls-moving-castle/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-10-14T21:16:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:43:31.405Z og:title: 'Howl’s Moving Castle' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898460/howls-moving-castle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt317b98d83045fc18/698a132586f68e85c36ef4ad/Howls-Moving-Castle-Diana-Wynne-Jones-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Howl’s Moving Castle' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Howl’s Moving Castle' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt317b98d83045fc18/698a132586f68e85c36ef4ad/Howls-Moving-Castle-Diana-Wynne-Jones-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 14, 2020 # Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Mysterious curses, duelling magicians, an empowered young female lead: _Howl’s Moving Castle_ by Diana Wynne Jones, first published in the U.S. in 1986, has all the elements of a classic young adult fantasy novel. Yet the British author, who has been credited with inspiring more recent entries into the fantasy canon like Neil Gaiman’s 1991 comic book mini-series, _The Books of Magic_, imbued her humorous story of a young witch’s journey of self-discovery with wildly original details and deeply flawed characters that elevate it beyond a simple coming-of-age tale. Rather than fight the curse that gives her the appearance (and the aches and pains) of an old woman, 18-year-old Sophie chooses to protect her sisters from the predations of a notorious lady-killing wizard by becoming his housekeeper. But not all is as it seems in the wizard Howl’s castle. Doors open into parallel worlds, the hearth fire has an attitude and Howl spends several hours a day primping in the bathroom, letting his apprentice do all the work. Meanwhile, the castle maintains a peripatetic existence, running from curses as much as from Howl’s cast-off lovers. Adapted into an Academy-Award nominated animated feature by Japanese director [Hayao Miyazaki](https://time.com/3836545/hayao-miyazaki-studio-ghibli-easter-eggs/) in 2004, _Howl’s Moving Castle_ enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, earning the 2006 Phoenix Award from the Children’s Literature Association, which recognizes overlooked gems from the past. —_Aryn Baker_ **Buy Now:** _Howl’s Moving Castle_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780061478789) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/33PtFUZ) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898460/howls-moving-castle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898460/howls-moving-castle/"},"headline":"'Howl’s Moving Castle' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books","datePublished":"2020-10-14T21:16:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:43:31.405Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898460/howls-moving-castle/","keywords":["Books","list"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt317b98d83045fc18/698a132586f68e85c36ef4ad/Howls-Moving-Castle-Diana-Wynne-Jones-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt317b98d83045fc18/698a132586f68e85c36ef4ad/Howls-Moving-Castle-Diana-Wynne-Jones-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898460/howls-moving-castle/","name":"'Howl’s Moving Castle' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books"}}]}] ```