Howl's Moving Castle

I like Anime. I'm particularly a fan of the works of Miyazaki (as I think most Americans who claim in interest in Anime are). The first Miyazaki film I ever saw was Howl's Moving Castle, and it wasn't until a couple months ago that I learned it was based on a book. Eventually I found a copy and decided to give it a read, and on the whole I found it to be pretty good. The plot is very close to the film at first, then it departs in a lot of crucial ways. It's close enough to still be enjoyable, and different enough to keep you guessing if you've seen the movie.
The  book, like the movie, is about a girl named Sophie who has a curse placed on her that turns her into an old woman. She then falls into the company of the wizard Howl, and his personal fire demon Calcifer. They have various adventures together battling witches and breaking spells, and it's all very mysterious and magical and exciting. I won't say  much more, because I don't want to venture into spoiler territory, and honestly there's just not much else to say.
The characters were pretty good. I really liked Calcifer, but I found both Howl and Sophie to be kind of annoying a lot of the time. I've heard a lot of people saying that by the time they finished the book they were absolutely in love with Howl, but I thought he was still pretty weird by the end. I guess that's just personal taste. The plot itself seemed to wander a bit before finding itself, and I felt the resolution happened to quickly and wasn't as satisfying as I would have liked.
Overall this book is decent, but by no means life-altering. It's a quick, fun read, and a worthy use of your time if you like fantasy novels, or if you're just a fan of the film and want to explore the source material. For anyone else this is a book that you can either take or leave, and it probably won't affect your life too much either way.
Score:7/10
Read this book if: You like the film, like fantasy novels, or are just looking for a fun and quick distraction.
Don't read this book if: You are on the prowl for some deep lit to brood over for a while.

P.S. I think the film is quite a bit better than the book.