June Hur's latest tour de force, Behind Five Willows, is an ardent love letter to literature and its devoted stewards.

Our heroine, Haewon, is a young transcriber working for a bookstore during a time when censorship runs rampant and the very existence of literature is at stake. The familiarity of this violence is sobering, but Hur's response to it inspires hope as bright as the sun. Throughout the novel, we are reminded that the written word has always been one of the biggest acts of revolution in history. We are reminded of its power to change, to heal, and to invoke empathy towards not only others, but towards ourselves as well.

In addition to this novel’s beating heart, readers will find the plot spellbinding, the romance swoon worthy, and the characters deeply lovable. Haewon, after all, is a character whose book-loving spirit lives on within all of us

This is, in it’s entirety, a Howl’s Moving Castle retelling. And yes, that wonderful book by Diana Wynn Jones has become its own myth, and now has many retellings of it like one would retell Cinderella.

Overall, there isn’t inherently anything wrong with this book being a retelling, but I found so many plot points, characterizations, and dynamics to be exactly the same as Howl’s Moving Castle that it became quite predictable. I could write an essay on Howl Jenkins becoming one of modern literature’s most popular character archetypes.

The characters were fun, I enjoyed Havelock (hard not to enjoy a Howl archetype) and Agnes was sweet (though a little too similar to Emily Wilde at times for me to fully embrace her) The cats were cute, and I like the cat philosophy Heather implemented into the book. But for me personally, I could not emotionally attach to the characters of this book like I had attached to Heather’s previous ones. Perhaps because a lot of the characters felt too similar to the characters in the Emily Wilde series.

The plot wasn’t particularly strong, and as a result the pacing lagged often throughout the book, making it difficult to finish. If it had been shorter, perhaps it would have felt more stimulating pace-wise and kept my attention. The plot points, like I mentioned above, share many with Howl’s Moving Castle. And perhaps I am getting tired of retellings now, and that is why I found it to be boring.

Ultimately, Heather is a very talented writer—her signature antiquated prose flows easily and beautifully. It’s something I always admire about her. And while Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat shelter was cute, it didn’t cement itself as a solid fantasy for me.