Reviewing: Harry Potter 4 + 5
I'm 28 years old, reading Harry Potter for the very first time.
Let's see if I missed out during my formative years or not.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Though my list of questions regarding the lack of appropriate student safety precautions at Hogwarts continues to grow, this was another great entry in the series – featuring the return of an arch-nemesis for the ages.
Let’s get my questions out of the way first. So I get that there’s a Triwizard Tournament where different wizarding schools get together to compete. That’s fine. And it makes sense that you’d have to get all the schools together for this to happen. But it’s my understanding that Beauxbatons Academy and Durmstrang Institute both essentially parked in giant RVs for an entire school year. Am I missing something? The Beauxbatons had a massive carriage, and the Durmstrangs had a big boat, I think. Were their students in those all year long? And if so, were they having class and stuff in there? Even if these vehicles are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside (a form of magic that shows up early on in the book), there’s no question that the students likely prefer going to their actual school. Why do these schools have to relocate for an entire year? Why not just send the champions?
I mean, realistically, it’s not like the Olympics where you have hundreds of athletes and multiple sports occurring each day. There are three events throughout the year. Why not leave and then come back, as opposed to camping outside?
Here’s the other thing. Why on earth was anyone okay with allowing Harry Potter to compete? I get that the goblet is magic. But the rules were clear – no one Harry’s age could compete, and one person per school. It’s no wonder Hogwarts won the Tournament! They had twice the chance to win. If I had been the Headmaster for one of the other schools, I would have either found a way to pull out of the event, or I would’ve insisted that my school be given an additional student. If Harry was submitted to the goblet under an imaginary fourth school, surely we could’ve pulled that off. It just takes all the sportsmanship out of the event. Or hey, couldn’t you have let Harry participate only to the smallest extent that the magical contract would’ve needed? Like if he immediately forfeits each challenge, does that count?
Okay, I’m done. Let’s get into the real stuff. I loved that Voldemort is back. His return was dramatic and invigorating, and it gave the entire series a huge shot of adrenaline and purpose. We all knew that Voldemort was going to come back, but the fact that he’s finally here makes the danger feel present as opposed to just ominous. The first chapter wasted no time in accessing this part of the story, and it gives the whole book a sense of gravitas that it might have been denied if the first chapter had been different.
I also really liked Moody’s character, though I felt a little disappointed that we never really got to meet the real Moody. He looked and acted like someone who had seen too much of war, which made him a great new addition to the school in terms of unsettling the kids and giving them lots to gossip about. The fact that he turned out to be an imposter meant that we wouldn’t really be seeing the character again – but then again, maybe I’m wrong, seeing as I haven’t read the last three books yet.
Hermione’s battle for house elf rights was one that I was actually totally behind, so I felt bad that we didn’t get any firm conclusion on that just yet. Maybe we’ll get that in a future book, but I wrote in my review of The Chamber of Secrets that the character of Dobby wasn’t my favourite. It didn’t feel right that we were laughing at a really pitiful character. So to have Hermione recognize the plight of the house elves actually helped me feel a bit better. But by the end of the book, nothing’s come of it just yet. I get it – Voldemort’s back and that takes greater precedence, but it was a bit frustrating that we spent a good amount of time seeing the work Hermione put into her crusade and then find out it hasn’t come to anything just yet.
In many ways, this book seems to be setting up more than resolving plotlines. That’s not a bad thing – everything that had to do with Voldemort’s return and the Death Eaters was exhilarating. But you can’t close this book with the same sense of conclusion as you can for the ones that have come before. Instead, this book leaves you dying for more. And on that note, I am finally through the Jim Kay illustrated versions of this series, which means I have to downgrade to plain-old-paperbacks. I’ve really really enjoyed the illustrated versions, and look forward to one day getting to see books 5-7 get their editions released.
I haven’t written much about him – I’ve actually only mentioned him once – but I need to say that Ron is one of my favourite characters in this series. He makes me smile regularly – and even chuckle aloud from time to time. I’m glad he’s around. Okay! On to book 5!
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I’ve changed my mind. Hermione is my favourite.
My jaw dropped when I held this book in my hands for the first time. At a whopping 800 pages, this was my largest literary undertaking since Lord of the Rings a few years back. I reminded myself that the key was simply diligence – if I read one chapter a night, I’d get through this in…I did the math…oh man, it was still going to take over a month. But here I am on the other side of it, and as much as I can say that this didn’t necessarily need to be 800 pages, I can also say that it was a pivotal entry in the Harry Potter story.
One of the first differences between this book and its predecessors is how angry Harry is for most of the time. I actually found myself getting annoyed with him after a few of his angry outbursts before realizing that his inability to control his emotions wasn’t a flaw – it was the point. Harry hasn’t had the easiest road to adolescence by a long shot – and now that Voldemort’s out in the open, tensions are understandably high. We see Harry struggle with his place in the world more than we ever have before, and it makes total sense. I can’t tell you how often as a teenager I struggled with the back-and-forth of being told “You’re 16 now, so…” at one moment and “You’re only 16, so…” the next. Harry’s in that same place. On one hand, he’s the main character. He’s done incredible things. He deserves a bit of credit for his achievements. But at the same time, he’s still just a kid. And there are grown-ups who have dealt with Voldemort before who are trying to protect not only Harry but the entire world. This is a book that really captures a lot of the essence of teen angst.
To that end, this book felt a lot like The Empire Strikes Back to me. In the iconic Star Wars sequel, Luke is tired of training and wants to get out and save the day. However, his desperation to be the hero ends up costing him much more than he’d anticipated, while simultaneously revealing a grave truth about his fate that he likely should have been told long ago. Whether or not the parallels were intentional, it’s no surprise that we’ve reached this point in Harry’s coming-of-age path. As we grow, we start to see the cracks in the foundation that got us this far – and we also all too often make the mistake of thinking we can fix them with a bit of spunk and determination. In terms of where Harry started in this book and where he finished, I was thoroughly satisfied. None of these books have felt skippable, and that’s saying something considering there’s been five and we still haven’t reached the ultimate final battle between Harry and Voldemort.
Dolores Umbridge had earned her place as an iconic villain long before I got to meet her this year, but I definitely learned why she’s so reviled. As others have put it in the past, she’s an intensely real and present evil. We don’t often have Voldemorts in our lives, but we’ve all met Umbridge at some point or another. She’s delightfully infuriating – every single moment. I can hardly blame Harry for talking back to her the number of times he does. All the same, Hermione is the one who stole the show for me this time around. I wrote in my review of The Goblet of Fire that I really appreciated Ron – and I do. But in this book in particular, Hermione seemed to be the glue holding everything together. She never gives up on Harry, even when he’s being a royal jerk. Not only does she not give up on him, she’s a good enough friend to let him know when he’s being a royal jerk. Her inner strength in the face of a potentially crumbling friendship was really inspiring, and I’m so glad she’s a part of the story. I don’t think Harry and Ron understand how badly they need her in their lives.
To get back to the coming-of-age-ness of this story, I really liked the chapter where we learned an unpleasant truth about Harry’s parents. Learning that my own parents weren’t perfect was a very difficult thing to accept for me, and Harry’s similar revelation almost gives him an identity crisis. However, I love the message it sends. Sometimes we don’t understand the wrongs and injustices that have come before us until we’re a bit older. There are games I played as a kid that I wouldn’t play now – jokes I told back then because I didn’t understand them. But the more of the world you see, the more you learn that we’re all broken people in one way or another. I don’t say that bitterly or as a pessimist. In fact, I think the beauty of this world comes from the broken becoming whole. But Harry’s discovery of his parent’s past adds a layer of complexity to his relationship with them as well as his understanding of himself, and I loved that. It also shines a bit more light on Snape’s story. It’s clear that I’m decades late in reading these books, and as a result, much of the ending has been spoiled for me already. One thing that has never crossed my path is the fate of Snape or the fullness of his back story, so I’m really looking forward to seeing where he ends up.
I imagine some Christian parents may struggle with the aspect of this book that involves a magical connection between Harry and Voldemort’s minds. I didn’t really have a problem with it, but the argument could be made that it’s a bit too reminiscent of demon possession. The one thing I’d say to that is that at the end of the day, Voldemort and Harry are both human figures – though Voldemort is admittedly monstrous to the point of near-inhumanity. Voldemort’s not a purely spiritual creature, and to that end, I see this arc of their mental-magic-connection as more of a representation of the battle between good and evil within all our hearts as opposed to a spiritual possession issue. Just wanted to address that before we moved on. I don’t know if I’d say this book was my favourite of the series – partly due to the length – but I loved where the characters went and I can’t wait to see where they go next.