Books that remind me of Howl's Moving Castle: A Masterlist
Howl's Moving Castle (HMC) is my favorite book of all time, and I tend to look for the things I like and love to read the same trope or style of book over and over again. There are a few things I look for in a book when trying to capture the magic of HMC:
Characters - we are looking for STRONG and quirky characters that follow the general vibes of a vain man (or whatever) with magical power and a salty stubborn kindhearted woman (or whatever) who bursts into his life. Preferably there is a third, magical little fellow to fill the Calcifer role who is a dear friend to them both.
Romance - this vain silly powerful character and this pushy kind character need to fall in love. Im sorry. Its what im HERE for. I love a romance.
Funny/Witty - the book should be FUNNY, not "unserious", but not take itself so seriously. I want BANTER and witty dialogue. We want a little bit of jabbing, name calling, and arguments as our two leads fall in love.
Cozy Vibes - the plot should not be "Avengers style saving the universe from destruction" levels of stress. We should have character driven moments, scenes that evolve naturally out of us feeling "of course that's what he/she would do", scenes of domesticity whether that's eating or cooking, cleaning or decorating. There can be stakes, and there can be danger, there can even be plot twists, but overall we should not feel stressed while reading - these are comfort reads with happy endings.
Setting - I have to be honest, I have never really looked for a HMC book stand in OUTSIDE the fantasy genre - I really want this to be a fantasy setting. It is also important to me there be a "home base", i.e. the Moving Castle. So I love for our heroine (or whatever) to MOVE INTO the Sorcerer's space for some contrivance and cause havoc.
SO HERE ARE THE BOOKS, and how/why the remind me of HMC. THERE MAY BE SOME SPOILERS and I will continue to update as I read (I will only inlcude books I have read to be sure of quality - but send me recs so I can check them out):
Emily Wilde Series: A magical male lead who is the combination of Sophie and Howl - gorgeous, vain, argumentative, particular, loves cleanliness, loves spiders, loves sewing, and is embarassingly smitten with our female lead. Emily herself is not really a one to one for any of the HMC characters, but she feels like she fits perfectly - smart, sharp, blunt, and loyal. Emily's hound Shadow sort of meets my Calcifer stand in character, as does a little fairy named Poe. The adventure is small stakes, affecting a small nordic town nestled into snowy mountains, and many of the scenes take place inside a cabin in need of a facelift like the moving castle. Others on this list follow far more of the beats of HMC, and yet Emily Wilde feels like the strongest successor to the characters and the charm in my opinion.
The Maid and the Crocodile: The third installment in the "Raybearer" world, but a stand-alone novel that does not technically require you to read "Raybearer" and "Redemptor" but I think it helps... This was my favorite of the Raybearer books by far and away. The story is fairly small stakes - the consequences of the plot will really only affect the two main characters. Sade reminds me of Sophie in many ways - a girl on a journey from meek and quiet to opinionated and outspoken all the while sharing her passion for cleaning and domestic work. She also has a rare and undiscovered magical power of her own, like Sophie. Her love interest is a terribly vain cursed magical man seeking her help to break his curse, and he has a little magical gecko helper that soooort of fills the Calcifer role. The Crocodile also has a magical house with multiple magical doors leading to various places in the Realm. The author even shouts out the HMC novel in the acknowledgments for inspiring parts of the book. I think OVERALL this is the closest one-to-one adaptation to HMC, but the wittiness and characters for me do not reach the levels of some of the others on the list.
Uprooted: A klutzy nature loving girl is surprisingly whisked away to a castle by a local curmudgeonly sorcerer, named The Dragon. Turns out, she has a unique magical ability she never knew about. The Dragon teaches her magic in a cozy single location first half of the book, and our heroine learns baking and cooking, cleaning and loooove along the way. Much higher stakes story revolving around saving the kingdom, some politics, and some much darker parts of human nature and well just nature than others on this list. But numerous beats are similar.
Sorcery of Thorns: A young librarian learns a terrible secret and is forced to cohabitate with a handsome young sorcerer in a deal with a demon for magic. The two leads are bickering and witty, trading barbs as they fall in love. They eventually make home base in Thorn Manor, and the demon aforementioned is a Calcifer-esque addition to the fun. Tad less cozy, tad higher stakes than I would care for - but the banter and found family in the Manor reminds me a lot of HMC.
The Paper Magician: For this one... you have to sort of squint to see it. But trust me: there is SOMETHING here that is HMC all over it and it would be a HUGE spoiler to go into it. Lets just say it has something to do with a LITERAL stolen heart. A young magicians apprentice is paired against her will with the titular Paper Magician, to live in his home and learn his trade. Along the way, we get some lovely world building, fall in love, and save some hearts.
Sorcery and Small Magics (edit to add) - two sorcerers studying at the best magic academy have been “rivals” since they met. They accidentally get tangled up in a curse and embark on a “forced proximity” adventure to find a sorcerer living in a magic tower full of doors to strange places to break their cursed bond. Did I mention they bicker and provoke one another, and our main lead has a secret special magic to uncover? This is a queer, slow burn, low spice low stakes (only effects the two main characters) story and it was full of the type of comedy and whimsy I look for in a HMC successor. A planned trilogy
Where the Dark Stands Still (edit to add) - WOOOOW wowie wow this might be the new contender for best “clone” of HMC (lovingly I use this it def stands on its own); magic girl who can’t control powers enters a bargain with a demon and moves into his magical manor and befriends a hearth spirit only to fall in love with the demon who is actually a sorcerer who sold his heart in a bargain with a REAL demon and she has to use her lovable nature to save her found family. This is the only book on this list to date that has a true Michael stand-in character as well as a Calicifer stand in. O and The romantic couple call each other charming insults. This one is much darker and bloodier and morally greyer than HMC, but takes place almost entirely in the bounds of our “castle” and the magic wood that surrounds it.
A Harvest of Hearts (edit to add) - I read this one as an ARC from NetGalley. Pretty macabre and full of gore and piss (really one chapter has waaaay too much piss) to be considered a true cozy in my world, but was marketed to me as such. The simple and tad crass butchers daughter Foss finds herself under the spell of an ethereally handsome and utterly naive sorcerer who did NOT mean to cast it. She ends up drawn to him against her will to try to break the enchantment, and tricks him into letting her become his cleaning lady in his enchanted house. And there is a little black cat that ABSOLUTELY fills the Calcifer role. Our sorcerer, Sylvester, even throws a tantrum a la Howl and slime with some plates. The plot is utterly charming as a HMC fan but the dark and eerie world building and crass language keeps it from being a “favorite” of mine.
A Matter of Magic/Mairelon the Magician/Magician’s Ward (edit to add) - a forgotten gem of a bygone era of fantasy fiction (2002, but seriously it feels like the early 90s somehow). Patricia C Wredes humor is so FULL here that I actually found myself skipping some of the overlong pages of this comedy of manners and bumbling dandies to get to the plot. A real Sorcerer disguises himself as a fake magician to catch a band of thieves, and ends up adopting a young thief into his confidences. Turns out the thief is a young girl with innate magical abilities disguised as a boy to stay safe on the streets. These two end up being my type of soulmates - comfortable and bickering and utter equals and partners in crime and life. The first book finds Kim, the young street urchin, following Mairelon the Magician in his horse drawn cart across the English countryside and the second book finds Kim his ward, entering magical high society as a debutante. There is cozy tea and eduardian snobbery, a slow burn love story, and found family. The style is more HMC than the plot, to be fair, but I HIGH KEY RECOMMEND
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter (edit to add) - have you ever wished some of the best parts of the HMC film were in the book?? This one was as if Heather Fawcett put post it notes on the wall full of WHAT was in the book and film and rearranged them with new connective tissue and a tape of grief for an older female protagonist (a 35 year old widow). The greatest magician of his generation has a terrible evil reputation but is actually a kind hearted, sarcastic, disorganized spider-loving mess with jewels in his ears? Check. Our female protagonist moves into his magical house that can me moved and transported and is appalled by the mess so starts organizing? Check. There’s a bumbling darling apprentice that’s the only one who understands the magician? Check. There’s a beautiful but otherworldly “witch” battling the magician in fantastic ways on the streets of the city? Check. Take the cats from “Castle in the Air” and throw them in. The devoted sister? Check. Baking? Check. Now from the film: time travel love story? Check. Magic used too often turns the user into a big black monster that becomes less and less human? Check. Seriously yall - what else could you want in a HMC clone???
