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

Hi everyone

This review is about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; the fourth book in The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling.
The novel won The Hugo Award in 2001.
My gorgeous copy was a gift from my husband and it has 617 pages.

                * SPOILERS *

I really loved this book.

Hermione is amazing. She’s confident, smart and she gets it right every time. She knows she’ll get Rita Skeeter. She is above the teasing and gossiping. She cares for Ron and Harry and she can’t stand them not talking to each-other. She is a great character.

Sirius, Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley really care for Harry and I’m so glad he gets to experience that. Sirius has to leave him at the end and Harry can’t stand it. Molly hugging him. Molly being there as his family. So sweet and so sad at the same time. It almost made me cry.

It’s wonderful how Rowling mentions something at the beginning of the book only to make it an important part of the story later on. And when you reread the books you notice how often she does that. It’s all over the place. Characters, spells and objects, everything becomes important one way or another.

Snape bothered me though. Someone like him simply can’t be a teacher. He bullies Hermione into changing her teeth so he can’t make fun of her? He reads the interview out loud in class so everyone can make fun of Harry and Hermione? It’s too much and I can’t believe it. In reality, someone like him wouldn’t be a teacher and shouldn’t be around children in general.

And the house-elfs? That’s just wrong. They are slaves! How can Hermione be the only one who sees that? The house-elfs being happy slaves doesn’t make it acceptable in any way.

Another thing that aggravated me a lot was how Rowling treated Ron. It’s only normal for him to be jealous of Harry and the attention he gets from everyone. Ron is always the overlooked one. Rowling made him ‘the bad guy’ and I don’t think he deserved it. It hurt.
What hurts even more and what gets worse in the next book is the disbelief Harry is met with by others. They don’t believe him when he says he didn’t put his name in the Goblet of Fire or when he says Voldemort is back. I honestly can’t stand that sort of injustice.

These points made me more aware of some problems in the books I never noticed before. It might be me growing up and noticing them more or thinking about them more instead of accepting these problems like I used to.

I honestly love the series, I really do, but some things are just wrong.

Happy reading!
Helena

Life is good.