Cosmos by Carl Sagan

none im busy w/ school :(

Posted: February 16th, 2025

Rating: 8/10

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

Review:

My whole reasoning to read this book was becasue I wanted to do a Howl's Moving Castle retelling with CodyWan as a fusion, so I read with a very analytical eye. I wanted to see how I could adjust the book plotline to my fic and quite frankly, I realized early on that I could not. The story I want to tell and this book's plot would not align well beyond the beginning and the premise. Anyways, I do not think this going to be much of a review as much as it will be my musings on how to write this CodyWan fic.

I did enjoy the book overall, though because I was taking such a keen eye to the plot, I feel like I was not fully immersed in the story. I watched the Ghibli movie, maybe last year and I was trying to see where the movie plot and book plot aligned (honestly not much). The movie was much kinder and idealistic compared to the book, which had much more realistic depictions of the characters and kind of an almost mundane fairytale, where the heroine is grubby and petty and whiny and half the time she runs away from her problems instead of faces them.

It makes me a feel a bit despondent, though I've been feeling sad for a very long time now. Sophie was so blind until the last moment, she didn't see how much the people around her loved her and cared for her, until she nearly lost it all away. Maybe that's something I need to take away for myself as well...

Anyways, I feel like that's something I've lost along the way. That ability to write and not care about what others are thinking. I liked the book, I don't know what else to say. Currently, I just feel like a dry well, run out of water to give. I want to write but there's nothing left in me to write. I'm so tired.

I guess to sum it all up, the book was good, I enjoyed it, you'll enjoy it too.

The pixel art above was made by fatbeard91 on deviantArt