Although Howl's Moving Castle is an engaging romp through a predominantly light and attractive fantasy world, it does have some dark spots.

Most obviously, of course, there is the capricious destruction which the Witch of the Waste wrecks on the land in general and on some of the characters in particular. What the witch does to Sophie—stealing some seventy years of her life—is mild compared to her gratuitous cruelty to Percival and the murderous desecration she carries out on the persons of the Royal Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin. Fortunately, the author reveals the true nature of evil with such a light and deft hand that it never becomes graphic or sensational.

This is true of her treatment of the sexual undertone of the novel as well.

Jones has made the comment that she tries "to use fantasy—just as one...