I hate doing this, but my actual grade here is 4.5 stars. Sorry.

Well, first of all, I love Diana Wynne Jones. I loved her already from her Chrestomanci books, which I read as a kid, and I love her now even more. Howl's Moving Castle is as fun and well written as I expected it to be, and the worldbuilding is simple and effective in a way that many authors can't manage to do nowadays. Jones's characters are very much alive, and I love how each is different from the others, how the story gets to develop their personalities without overexposing them. Also, uh, yes, I re-fell in love with Howl Jenkins. No, I couldn't help myself. Yeah, stop. Stop judging me.

Spoiler

I freaking love this scene so much, and I was so so happy it was in the book.

As most of this generation, I think, I saw the animation first. It didn't bother me much at the beginning, but I developed a... curious sensation as I approached the ending of the story. I don't think I can explain it properly, but I feel like the book and the film complement each other in a way that I haven't really seen written work complement adaptation, like, ever? It's weird, even. This is, of course, my opinion, and you are well entitled to feel differently, but I find it funny that the characters are best developed in the novel, while their film counterparts are more charismatic and easier to relate to; the novel's plot is more complete, it has a "bigger" feeling to it, but the film's is more... consistent. Does it make sense? I don't know.

Anyway, read it, love it. Diana Wynne Jones was a genius and deserves each and every praise she gets.