Mary Heim

She created these tropes and these concepts in the mystery genre.

And I am feeling this way about Howl.

There are a lot of cozy fantasy tropes that might feel familiar to you here.

But it's because Diana Wynne-Jones did it long before a lot of even some of the best in the modern genres.

Now, I don't want to say that no cozy fantasy came before her.

But I really do get the feeling that she was revolutionary in a lot of the cozy fantasy tropes that we feel like we know so well.

She feels like she falls into the OG category, as it were.

I really just so enjoyed this story.

The world we escape to, the twists and the turns that I didn't necessarily think to see coming.

This story is adventure and it is found family.

It's got strong character arcs.

with hints of magic and fairy tales that feel just probable and accessible in a way that makes it just such a delight to sink into.

If you are anywhere on the fantasy reader spectrum, or even if you're just like a gentle adventure, well told, please do not wait like I did to finally get around to reading this one.

That is Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne-Jones.

I think you might really like it, Meredith.

I would definitely say that it is closer on the spectrum to Legends and Lattes than it is to Hitchhiker's Guide.

I will say I don't know exactly if it's billed as YA, but it definitely feels like new adult.

But maybe even before we started really labeling things as such that these characters are like, I think maybe young 20s.

But there's nothing here that feels egregious.

They are out on their own.