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Thursday, December 29, 2016

Throwback Thursday: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling



Author: J. K. Rowling
First published by Scholastic in 2000

Harry Potter is midway through both his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream). He wants to find out about the mysterious event that supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for hundreds of years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards.


And in his case, different can be deadly.


I am probably one of maybe a handful of people my age who hasn't read the entire Harry Potter series.  Shocking, right?  My daughter binge read them in a month last spring in her 6th grade year. Let's not get me started on her love for Draco Malfoy and Snape...  My daughter challenged me to finish up the series, so I picked up Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire again. I had DNF'd it a lonf time ago. I managed to muddle through the book this time, but I can't say I liked the book all that much.

I really liked the first three books.  This one, not so much.  There was just too much book.  It kind of felt like the author knew what she wanted to do to turn the series more dark, but didn't quite know how to get it there.  It was way too long and really dragged on and on.  The last 1/3 of the book was pretty good but the rest...snooze. I liked the Tri-Wizard Tournament.  It would have been better with more challenges and less day to day stuff.

Incidentally, this is my daughter's least favorite of the 7 books.  She assures me the rest of the series is much better.  I really hope she is right.  I'm not sure I can make it through something like this again.

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