Fairly standard kid's fantasy fare from Rowling as she re-introduces the world to the classic British fairy tale, which had been mostly forgotten since Tolkien spliced it with the epic. She mines gold from this rich and storied tradition, but doesn't really fashion anything unique from it.

We can see the beginnings of Rowling's authorial failings (and a hint of her strengths as well). She adopts Rouald Dahl's 'awful family' trope, though it's clear that Rowling does not have the gift of bizarre characterization or the knowledge of the darker parts of the human soul that made his books resonate.

She writes sympathetic characters, but not unusual ones. Overall her writing has relatively little character or style. Then again, mass success often requires leaving the more unusual elements behind. So she relies on standard character types, managing to keep them afloat through the patented perpetual plot of the airplane book.

She also pulls from that old British tradition of 'children lost in fairyland', seen often in early fantasy (Dunsany, Eddison), which Lewis also made use of. She also has the vast, unknown underground of magic just beneath our world which keeps itself always mysterious and quiet, much favored by Gaiman and other Urban Fantasy authors (though Rowling's invented world is strained and piecemeal, moreso as the series goes on).

The strength of the book is that it combines the tradition of the 'child in fairyland' with another British standby: the boarding school bildungsroman. It's the same neat trick Mervyn Peake pulled in 'Gormenghast', though Rowling's version is tame in comparison. Her tale of the intellectual, emotional, and physical growth of the young, outcast everyman is rather predictable, except for some insight into angst in the fifth book.

Rowling's prose is quick and simple, but sometimes awkward and without music or joy. It is not the sort of deliberate simplicity Carroll achieved by expressing complex ideas in playful terms. It is rather the sign of an author whose unsophisticated voice prevents her language from vaulting higher.

Simplistic elegance is deceptively difficult to achieve, and so it's hard to blame Rowling too much when she falters. It's unfortunate that she didn't put a few failed books under her belt before finding success, as such early outings are often best winnowed chaff.

Her plotting--as ever--is scattered and convenient; though in a shorter book, it shows less. Her plot twists, as usual, disappoint; they are not built upon progression of events but upon reader expectation and emotional red herrings.

It's the beginning of an enjoyable series, but there's really no need to start any earlier than the third book, when Rowling finally finds her pace and begins to lean more heavily on that which she does well, which helps to hide her faults. Watch the movie if you need a primer.

My Fantasy Book Suggestions

I was never a Harry Potter kid. I honestly harshly judged Harry Potter readers my entire life. I was a Series of Unfortunate Event's weirdo. I was a Lemony Snicket child. I was a member of VFD and I knew how to write acrostic poems.

  

Harry Potter was too popular. It was too cool. It was too massively praised. JK Rowling made too much fucking money (still does). It was TOO MAINSTREAM and edgy middle school me didn't want to be LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

But I am so fucking old now. I pay taxes. I am a married woman. I get home from work at 6 pm and I change into my pajamas, complain about the government, rant about gen zer's, mention how different things were back in my day and fall asleep after a glass of wine.

I am too fucking tired of this world, I am too fucking tired of being angry at everything. I am too fucking tired of thinking about global warming, cancel culture, and the inability of my generation to afford housing. I just want to escape.

I am still a romance reader and romance lover. But I am not gonna lie, I am also so tired of the oversaturation this booktok market caused. Romance books have had the same rinse/repeat for a few months now. I read so many romance books in the last few years that it became almost impossible to find something that hasn't been done before. I have to read 20+ books just to find a new one I actually like. That might be my own fault. Or the market's fault. Or tiktok's fault. Where only the popular/same old ever sells. But I digress.

I decided to pick up Harry Potter for the first time in my life at the age of 27. Because of the culmination of these reasons. And because most of my best friends are Harry Potter fucking fanatics and they forced me to. And you know what? I am glad they did.

  

Listen, say whatever you want.

You can like this author, you can hate this author. You can think of Harry Potter as the most boring children's fiction that could ever exist in this world. You can think of her writing as simplistic, unremarkable, overrated... I mean, the woman is British and I can't even tell. And yet...

You cannot sit here, look me in the eyes, and tell me that what she has created here is not worthy of praise. The level of creativity, the characters, the world building by itself... All her controversy aside...

There is a reason why these books got movies. Hell, there is a reason these books got two entire amusement parks that make billions daily, and will continue to do so for years.  HARRY POTTER IS FUCKING MAGICAL .

There, I said it.

  

Don't tell me that you would not even set foot in an Universal Park if you didn't get a chance. I myself have been twice and even without reading the books, or watching all the movies, that shit was emotional.

Separating the craft from the creator, and even if I don't - as an editor - I'd never be able to sit here and tell you this world building isn't the most fantastic thing I have read in my life.

So, you know what? Politics aside, do fucking read Harry Potter. Do love this series. Do talk about it to this day and to pass it along to your children, because I for sure will.

Some things will exist and live on despite of their makers. And I can't for the life of me hear another one of my friends tell me: oh god, I feel so guilty about loving Harry Potter still. God, I am afraid to talk about it online.

Well, I am fucking not.

  

I sat on my couch with this book at the age of 27 and all of a sudden I was inside of that train with Harry. I was touching that letter, I was hugging Ron after my Quidditch match. I was scared for my life when Hermione got stuck in that bathroom with the stupid dumb troll and for a few hours, I was a kid again. I had fun. I was immersed. I couldn't put the book down.

If that's not a good book, I don't know what is.

So yeah, I am too old to be wasting my time trying to prove strangers on the internet I am a good person. I know what I stand for, I make a difference in political matters when voting. I actually care about things that count. I am active in ways that will make a difference for the people I want to protect.

And I am also too fucking old to be burning Harry Potter books at the stake because it's author has opinions I disagree with.

So here I stand before you, good reads community, and I absolve the child in you. I give you permission to love and appreciate Harry Potter like you always have.

The child in you never had ill intentions, the child in you didn't have all that prejudice talk instilled into you. The child in you just wanted to escape. So do. Do escape to Hogwarts. Allow yourself to keep all the magnificent things this series has brought to the world. And do support your local library while you're at it for your September yearly reread.

I know who I am.

I am a fucking Gryffindor. (I took the test lol)

Onto the next book. Can't wait to read Dramione fanfic.

n  n

No matter what anyone says I am never doubting Snape ever again. He is the best character in this entire series. He is just misunderstood. Damn you Slytherins!! They just know how to win me over.

Snape: check.
Draco: check.
Voldemort: Check check check!

Oh, i would love to know what house you guys belong to?
And NO YOU CAN'T BE IN TWO HOUSES!! That is literally just not possible.

Just took the quiz and i am a HUFFLEPUFF!
You know who else is a Hufflepuff? My new boyfriend!



WHAT??? Voldemort is afraid of Dumbledore??
Hell yeah. I am already loving this. =D

OMG OMG OMG OMG THIS IS HAPPENING! This is my first time so please no spoilers. I know i know we all have watched the movies but i don't really remember anything from this first one.

I used to hate Harry Potter.



Now before you hoist your pitchforks and torches, allow me to explain.

When I was a wee child of six, my dad decided it'd be a good idea to introduce me to the series—starting from the Goblet of Fire.

Back then, I was a vivacious reader, but mainly of chapter books, like Junie B. Jones or Bailey School Kids. The thickest book I'd read was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.



So when my dad plunked this gigantic doorstopper of a book in front of me, I quickly lost interest and deemed Harry Potter boring and overhyped. I carried this opinion through my teenage years, rolling my eyes at the people who'd pillaged bookstores at midnight and refusing my uncle's generous offer to purchase me the entire series because he knew I liked to read.

Fast forward to 2009, when I was deep in the clutches of Twilight and desperate for something to fill the power vacuum Breaking Dawn had left. Then I stumbled across Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in my school library.

"What the hell," I'd thought. "There's nothing else to read anyway."

I'd settled on a cushy couch, flicked to the first page and laid eyes on this: "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

It was all over for me.

I read past the tardy bell, begged the librarian to let me keep it, even though we weren't allowed to check out books that early on in the school year. I zoomed through it in class and snuck the Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azaban home under my coat. I even pleaded my mother to haul The Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, those thick, heavy hardbacks, home from her school's library (my mom's a teacher), so I wouldn't be left Potter-less during the weekend.

Having come across them long overdue, I knew major spoilers, including who would die in the end, yet it still broke my heart when I read The Deathly Hallows.



There are no words to describe how much I love Harry Potter, and how much I want to smack my 14-year-old for obsessing over a controlling, douchebag vampire when I could have been laughing and swooning at Fred and George Weasley's antics.



I am not part of the Potter generation. But I wish I had been.

n

Stuck at home? Got some time on your hands? Want to start a long series? But you don't want a dud?

Check out thisn   booktube videon all about which series are worth your time (and which ones aren't)!

n  Here's the Written Review!n


Can you hear me screaming?

As expected, the illustrations brought this book to a whole new level. I legitimately want to buy another copy, solely to take it apart and frame it.

Each page is just bursting with new life. Honestly, how could you not love such beautiful images?


Hogwarts, Hogwarts. Hoggy Hoggy warty warts.

I think at this point, everyone and their great-great-grandmother has heard of this book.

Harry Potter, orphaned before he was one, was sent to live with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. He was always a bit of an odd child - much to his family's dismay.

Things just... happened ...around him. Like when he was running from bullies and jumped to the school roof. Or when he got an atrocious haircut (courtesy of Aunt Petunia) and all of his hair grew back in a single night.

On his eleventh birthday, a letter comes to him and a whole new world opens in front of his eyes.

In short - I LOVED THIS ONE. I thought I loved the Harry Potter books when I first read them, but when I bought the illustrated version...well, that love instantly quadrupled.

The fully illustrated Philosopher's Stone still has all the wonder and amazement as the boy-turned-wizard embarks on a harrowing 7-book-adventure and the illustrations bring a whole new dimension.

Seriously, I can't emphasize enough how much I love this book. Just look at these images - they're magnificent:


Ahh! Just look at sad, tiny Harry. Don't worry kid - life will get better!

Not only are these full-color, high quality images but there are so many of them.

Often, illustrated books have a picture here or there but not HP. There's pages and pages of pictures like this - and often the pages without full-sized images will have a small illustrations here and there between the large ones.

Words cannot express how highly I recommend this one. If you haven't read HP recently...I strongly urge you to check out this book.

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads

"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

I wasn't always the most ardent fantasy reader, but even since reading The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy, that quickly changed. And figured what better way to continue the journey than Harry Potter. I'm very glad I did so. Had I really known how fun and thrilling Harry Potter is, I would've read all books many times over by now. But better late than never I guess.

"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers - I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."

Right off from the beginning, what stood out to me most was, how easy it is to read everything. May be it is because the author moves mainly along building characters - which are much quickly understood - instead of building a detailed fantasy world. Unlike in a Tolkien novel, where we are given every minuscule detail of the world, Harry Potter is far more character focused, and has been done amazingly. I never dreamed I'll this fascinated by a children's book.

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them."

Now that I'm finished with the first book, I cannot help regretting why didn't I read this before. This is far far better than watching the movie - and considering how enjoyable the movies are, that's saying a lot. Definitely going to re-visit this one, many times hopefully. Cannot wait to start reading the next one.

" 'Ah, music' he said, wiping his eyes. 'A magic beyond all we do here!' "

I knew I couldn’t go wrong if I picked up this gem!
I’ve literally owned this book since it came out in the 90s and I FINALLY have gotten around to reading it and I’m so happy I made the time to. I heard from someone that between the Halloween season and Christmas season is the best time to read the HP series so after being in a months long reading slump I figured it was worth a try especially right now.
Of course I’ve seen the first movie a million times (the others movies-less and less as they go on), but I didn’t feel I enjoyed this less already knowing how things play out. There’s plenty of scenes that are different from the movie so it was unique material and the writing is so descriptive that reading about the delicious feast or the battle or the quidditch game can make you feel as though you’re there instead of watching it on the screen. The joy of reading is the places it can take you-real or imaginary.
I loved it. I will immediately be starting book two asap.

It´s never too late to get back to magic school, even if one is just a dirty muggle.

Quite a while ago (I was young, so young, omg, what happened, where is all the time, how could this hopeful young boy become such a demoni…), sorry, typo; I read this thing and now I thought that a reread might be an extremely interesting experience, especially regarding my obsession of vivisecting literature with the help of the almighty tvtropes. But there is a problem.

I have a massive deficit of reading all kinds of fantasy because the series take such huge amounts of time, there is a hyperinflation of YA and high fantasy and I am more into sci-fi, humor, and horror, so I can´t really compare it with other, similar kids and YA fantasy literature. But I can just cherrypick any weird thought, Frankenstein it together, mwuahahaha call it a review, post it, run, and hope that nobody notices. I should have put this to the end of the review…

It would be really interesting to know which elements were already there, maybe even in similar constellations, and which were Rowlings´ own, unique inventions. The underdog group of friends, the systems of magic, the only sure thing and constant in fantasy might be the big bad evil lurking in the background while the sockpuppet antagonistic humans prepare the final war. More comparisons could be interesting in the other direction, the future, my obsession, too because there might have been the one or other opportunistic genre swifts, series, subgenres heavily influenced by Harry that are now beginning to collide with newer hypes and trends. Quite a freaking amazing evolution.

I am not sure if a man could have written a similar piece, because there are, gosh, gender differences. Yes, I just dissed and discriminated against my own gender, sue me if you want, I´ve legal expenses insurance so good luck with that, but my perfectly politically incorrect opinion is that there are genres and readers that just perfectly fit together. Or not, and in these cases, different genders, gender identities, etc. are prone to reading and writing gender specific content. Although there may be female hard sci-fi, plot focused writers with minimalistic characterizations and male authors writing soft epic, romantic fantasy, they are exceptions and I don´t deem this diversity something negative. On the contrary, I will just shout out that a man would maybe not have been able to write such a compelling book and that Potter could have failed, or at least not have had such immense success, without the feminine touch. Now I´ll be roasted, trolled, and hunted down, but that was totally worth it. Stupid haters, get a life. I should really consider reducing the offending the audience level.

Rowling did an immensely good job in using Sandersons´laws of magic to make anything interconnected and somewhat even linking character traits to certain kinds of magic systems, and preferences while aiming at one of the biggest and fangirly/boysest audiences possible, young readers. Many of these won´t have seen similar uses in old, unknown works or still too difficult to enter high fantasy concepts and will be blown away when they first enter this amazing universe.

Faith stereotypically and predictably, far less creative and open minded than the young readers, helped in promoting Potter by talking about the danger of magic and such trivial, evil works on kids and children. Really, bigots, did you learn nothing out of 2 millennia of religious wars, witch burning, and genocides? Sigh, as already said, haters gonna hate, but at least this ridiculous attempts of demonizing one of the most pop cultural big bangs of all time helped to make it even more popular. What did they fear, that millions of boys and girls start doing black magic, break quantum dimensional time travel stuff, and unleash the flying spaghetti monster that would ruin their assets?

The extreme success of Rowlings´ excessive use of adjectives and breaking many other rules of this, so called, self proclaimed, quality newspaper writing gurus, high brow literature, „I´ll tell anyone to write just with my, only right, recipe, because this is how art has to be done and creativity has to be unleashed under controlled circumstances“ is a good reason for rofling around all day. Seriously, Nobel price, elitist high culture literature trash woman/man? How many people would read your favorite, old and cheap as dirt, garbage if schools and universities wouldn´t buy this ridiculous, bad writing (fueled by nationalism, pride about the big sons (why no sisters?), each nation on earth with its own, terrible, old big prodigies of writing weird, boring, bad concoctions because they were the only freaking, elitist people writing something centuries or decades ago) to torture helpless young people and make them hate reading for the rest of their lives. Close to nobody! And honestly, what´s wrong with you ever so sophisticated literary critics, fine arts professors, and wannabe pseudo intellectuals, looking down at literature that kids love and that´s made for them while promoting the haters troll train that bores them out, steals their time, and makes them functional illiterates? Go, Harry, transform them from the inside out into the slimy, stinky creatures they truly are. That escalated quickly.

Looking at a kind of big history picture of the socio cultural impact of one of the most successful fantasy series ever, one could ironically say, that it´s the ultimate, exaggerated interpretation of what could be behind the words, using soft sciences and magics. Maybe doing so is wrong, true, ingenious, stupid, deep, a waste of time, however, how audiences perceive and philosophy about groundbreaking works, by reflecting its impact, is maybe one of the greatest extra joys of reading.

One of the coolest magic tricks would be to reactivate the fully immersive flow and flash of reading when young, but I can at least feed on the reminiscences of already quite blurry pictures and sharpen them while rereading one of the most groundbreaking fantasy works ever that helped make hundreds of millions of kids, and the one or other adult, avid readers.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon...

Dove sono stato tutto questo tempo senza averlo letto?

Mi ha fatto sognare talmente tanto che, al momento di "Gli studenti di Hogwarts potranno portare un rospo; oppure una civetta; oppure un gatto" mi sono immaginato in viaggio verso la scuola di magia con la mia gatta cicciona sottobraccio.
Il fatto che non mi ricordassi solo vagamente del film (visto un paio di volte da piccolo) mi ha aiutato a farmi coinvolgere e spiazzare dai colpi di scena. L'ho amato.

I'm not going to comment on the literary shortcomings of this book, the cliches, the painfully long narrative, the fact that the characters will not think about an issue for months, but then suddenly it becomes important again. Smarter people than me have already said all this.

What bothers me about the Harry Potter universe is its characterization of magic. Why is magic so easy in the Harry Potter universe? It's only moderately a matter of skill to use magic. Magic is mostly saying the correct word with the correct intonation and the correct flourish of the wand and boom! you've done something magical. If it were only for small things I don't think this would bother me so much, but the same works for more serious things, like killing someone.

There is so much that is contrary to logic (and I don't mean science, I mean how reasonable people would behave) in the magic of Harry Potter that it drives me crazy. Why is the magical world so separated from the real world? What is their interaction? If magic works in the muggle world, what is preventing someone like Voldemort from completely taking over the muggle world? What is preventing any character from killing any other character by simpling saying the killing curse at any time? Human decency? Obviously there are a lot of characters in the books that don't have any. This never made any sense to me.

I would like to draw a comparison with (and I'm sure people on a site about reading books will crucify me for mentioning TV, which is obviously incapable of being an art form) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In Buffy, every time you use magic, you pay for it. For little things, like floating a pencil, you pay for it in concentration, and maybe a little physical energy, but not more than going for a walk. However, the more you take, the more you have to give back in one form or another. The show is not always entirely consistent on this, but the idea makes sense. To bring someone back from the dead, you have to kill something else, or pay some other kind of price. If you want to kill someone, there is a physical price, a mental price. Nothing is free. In Harry Potter, it seems like everything is free.

It's always put me off, and every time a fan tries to explain to me why I'm wrong it sounds like a deus ex machina, or just a plain old stretch.

Also, quidditch is the most pointless sport ever created. Only in 1 game out of 1000 does anything 99% of the action matter to the outcome of the game. Only the seeker and the bludgers mean anything.

I have absolutley no idea why goodreads deleted my review AND rating but thankfully I still had it saved! So here it is again, may it stick around this time!

”It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.”

Okay, here’s the thing: There are already 96.502 reviews about this book on goodreads and I think it’s safe to say that mine will carry no weight. *lol*
So I decided to make this a short “my thoughts about this book” review. ;-P

1.)t”Thirty-six,” he said, looking up at his mother and father. “That’s two less than last year.”

I totally forgot how horrible the Dursleys are and I think I kind of suppressed how dreadful Dudley is! Such a spoilt brat and this is actually putting it more than just lightly. If anyone should go to a boot camp sort of school it certainly should be him.

2.)t”Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh,” said Hagrid. “Harry – yer a wizard.”

Bless Hagrid for being the kind and compassionate man that he is! <3 Those lines went down in Harry Potter history and started it all! XD

3.)t”Blown up a toilet? We’ve never blown up a toilet.”
“Great idea though, thanks, Mum.”

Haha! You gotta love the Weasley twins! They might be side characters but they always manage to bring some humour into the book and they succeed to give that typical sibling and family vibe. =)

4.)t”Are you sure that’s a real spell?” said the girl. “Well, it’s not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and it’s all worked for me.”

When I read this I totally had the Hermione of the movie in my mind. Emma Watson played her so well and I’m really glad that Hermione came off her high horse. She was really insufferable at the beginning of the book. *lol*

5.)t”You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.”

Urgh! And so it begins! I never liked Malfoy and I’ll never do. Sorry, guys! Yes, I felt sorry for him after book 5 but he’s still a slimy little spoilt brat at the beginning of the series. Still, if his parents would have raised him differently he might have even turned out to be a nice guy. *sighs*

6.)t”Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?”

And here comes another character I’ll never forgive. Snape is a horrible teacher and an even worse human being. There I said it. Nothing that happens over the course of the following books will change anything about the fact that he’s unfair and mean to his students! His past doesn’t excuse his actions. Still, I gotta give Rowling kudos for all the foreboding! Boy, alone the comment with the bezoar. XD And Dumbledore explaining the relationship between Snape and Harry’s father. Well done! ;-)

7.)t”But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.”

I still love that scene and I’m really glad Hermione and the others finally bonded. Also, I love that they tried to be good kids at the beginning. In the first book they actually don’t want to do anything forbidden and feel bad about it. Well, and then the other books happen. *LOL* Apparently practice makes perfect though, because they go for plenty of forbidden things but don’t get caught anymore. Haha!

8.)t”All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I’m sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession.”

Lee Jordan is the best! <3 He’s the main reason I enjoy the Quidditch games so much! His commentary is just funny and brilliant!

9.)t”If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I’ll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there. It’s only dying a bit later than I would have done, because I’m never going over to the Dark Side!”

I LOVE HARRY’S DEFIANCE!!! That’s one of the many things that made me like him so much! He never backs down and always continues to fight. No matter the odds, he’s facing his troubles holding his head high! Even this early in the series you can already see that he’s going to be a great MC!

And now let’s move on and read book two! ;-)