2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 clear-up, of books I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.
[I think I have finally outgrown this series and fandom, and I can no longer in good conscience support it, thanks to She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. My once-love of the franchise has turned sour; I am disenchanted, disinterested, and I can't look at it fondly anymore. I will always have the memories, but not the books.]
Final Score: 4/5
2020 EDIT: I am a dark emotional wreck after reading this again. And I am glad for it.
What a journey. What an experience. It is scary how relevant 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' is in terms of politics. It is surprisingly diverse, and contains strong messages concerning bigotry and the importance of us all standing together, of seeing each other as equals; to judge people for their actions and choices and for no other reason, to see how a man reveals his true character by how he treats his inferiors and not his "equals", to know that our differences are a strength and we should build bridges and not walls, and how hatred, false accusations and outright lies can hurt and destroy us as a society rather than help... these are things that the author has inexplicably not demonstrated nowadays, at the worst possible time. Maybe she should reread her old works.
I could talk more about this, this gargantuan elephant in the room, but I'm heartbroken enough as it is, and I would rather restrain myself for now.
In light of this, how amazing that our priorities and perspectives can change after over a decade. I now feel I must apologise if in my old review I was dismissive of Hermione's S.P.E.W. campaign, concerning house-elf rights, because she is absolutely right. (Poor Winky!) It is important and relevant to the story and the series' themes. I realise I was no better than Ron at his worst.
Yeah, though this is still my favourite 'Harry Potter' book, even I have to admit that Ron is a dick to Hermione in it. A lot of awful things happen to her in this instalment, and she receives hardly any comfort and support for it. Certainly never from Ron.
During the Triwizard Tournament, Hermione becomes the target of malicious publicity and lies by Rita Skeeter, saying she is a devious manipulator in a made-up love triangle with Harry and Viktor Krum (a "scarlet woman", as it were - hello, slut shaming). Sadly, predictably, the girl is then the recipient of what every woman of any importance - of what every woman on the internet - gets: death threats from total strangers. Harassment at every turn. (Even Mrs Weasley is against her briefly, when she knows Skeeter is full of shit!) It's a commentary on systematic misogyny! Another factor into this book's relevance! Keep in mind also, that at this point Hermione is only fourteen. But worst of all, Ron has the gall to blame Hermione for the death threats, for provoking them happening in the first place! Ron is fourteen as well, but come on! Empathy is all I'm asking for.
Human nature is human nature, even amongst wizards and witches...
Regardless, 'Goblet of Fire' is a fantastic book that I could not put down. So much detail, so much thought put into this world. It all feels so lived in. I could spot the subtle hints and foreshadowing earlier on this time! I highly doubt anybody - the characters and the readers - will be the same again after reading it.
Oh, and the film version can go screw itself. Royally. And hard. What a baffling, pathetic and disrespectful excuse for an adaptation. I implore anyone who has only seen the films - read the books!
Final Score: 5/5
Original Review:
Harry Potter Reviews
Book 4: 'The Goblet of Fire'
My favourite book of the series. And one of my absolute favourite novels of all time.
It has it all: the Quidditch World Cup Tournament, the Weasley twins' joke hexes, Veelas, the introduction to Voldemort's Death Eaters and the Dark Mark, the deadly Triwizard Tournament happening at Hogwarts, other wizard schools, Draco Malfoy Transfiguring into a bouncing ferret, the three Unforgivable Curses, house elves, dragons, mermaids, the Yule Ball, unicorns, a truth serum, Dumbledore's Pensieve, mazes, beetles, friendship quarrels, class struggles, gambling, very awkward romances; and all in one great big ball of growing up a teenage wizard in a strange yet believable and richly detailed world. Everything from Quidditch World Cup teams, spells, to school books on levels of magic is named and accounted for.
It was this book where I found that Ms Rowling's writing had cast the zenith of its lyrical spell on me. It was this instalment in the series which, without a shadow of a doubt, made my summer of 2007, when I looked forward to devouring every word every day. A great summer read.
Ms Rowling made her fantasy world not only seem real by connecting it to how our own world works, but she made me, a merely curious reader, wish more than anything for her world and the magic in it to be real. Almost everyone in the colossal cast of characters has a development arc. Each page is like a puzzle piece - placed here and there for a reason - and every plot point and subplot fits into the narrative; constructed sometimes in the most subtle and ingenious ways.
As you can probably tell, this review will mostly just be me gushing about the awesomeness of 'The Goblet of Fire'. But I'll try to write a summery so as not to get lost or lose track of what I'm fangirling about.
The book starts off with Harry Potter having a nightmare where an old Muggle man discovers wizards and a snake hiding in the isolated Riddle house, and an Unforgivable Curse kills him. The dream is a vision, and Harry's lightning bolt-shaped scar burns. He is in danger once more. But it's still the summer before Hogwarts, and there's fun and socialising to be had with Harry's best friends Ron and Hermione - and with the rest of the Weasley family - as they attend the Quidditch World Cup in tents using a teleporting Portkey.
But after the World Cup, dark wizards known as Death Eaters show up and wreak havoc. Could Lord Voldemort really be returning?
At Hogwarts, a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is once again recruited - Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody. The infamous and dangerous Triwizard Tournament is to take place at Hogwarts, and students from the foreign wizard schools of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive in order to compete in the "wizard games". The Goblet of Fire will choose the Triwizard participants from a selection of students' names. Harry is one of the students inexplicably chosen, despite being a fourth out of only three competitors allowed, and being too young. While at first this might seem like yet another fun adventure for him, as he must use his brains as well as his magical talent to get through the Triwizard Tournament's incredible tasks, it soon becomes clear that whoever put his name in the Goblet has malicious intentions. An even greater, final and fatal task awaits the befuddled Harry and his friends...
It is from 'The Goblet of Fire' onward that the 'Harry Potter' books get a lot longer as well as darker. My copy is 636 pages long. True, some elements and details are filler - like the betting Ludo Bagman and the goblins, for example - but they are interesting filler and help the reader to fully picture the vastness of the worldbuilding. This expansiveness of the magical world of 'Harry Potter' makes the book more multi-layered and complex, yet never boring or detracting from the story and character development. Nothing is perfect, of course, but any holes I noticed in the plot I didn't dwell on; I was enjoying myself too much.
The action does not primarily take place at Hogwarts, and the focus isn't on the classes so much as on the spells and potions themselves and how they are integrated into the plot, which is about the Triwizard Tournament and the threat surrounding it.
This is the book where the Dark Lord Voldemort is risen. In the climax, the reader finally sees the ominous villain of 'Harry Potter' in the flesh - as a snake-like, bloody monster of a human being, and his resurrection is one of the scariest and most enthralling things I've ever read in a novel. There is a first major death scene, and Harry Potter - the character and the series - will never be the same again. It's definitely not to be dismissed as simple children's entertainment.
The themes of love, friendship, power struggles and bigotry reach the peak of their full meaning in the fourth book and beyond.
Malice and evil hover over nearly every chapter in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. They really put the "Mad" and "Mood" in Mad-Eye Moody. Yet it is so exciting, so engaging and so utterly delightful in its suspense and solid plotting and characterisation that it contains a bit of everything needed to enjoy reading a novel.
The atmosphere of the writing makes you feel like you are in the story with the characters; you experience what they experience. This includes Harry's worries over how he'll overcome each Triwizard task and how he will protect the people he loves. I even feel for him whenever he's trying to talk to and impress his crush, Cho Chang from the Ravenclaw House, who sadly doesn't go to the Yule Ball with him.
In 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', stakes are higher than before, and on an epic, literally stadium-sized scale. Everything is grand, daring, and beautiful.
'The Goblet of Fire' is also where the roots of Ron's inferiority complex are explored and given depth. He hates being poor and a loser among five successful and ambitious older brothers. His friendship with Harry begins to crumble when Harry is selected for the Triwizard Tournament. Rather than being supportive, Ron thinks Harry put his own name in the Goblet of Fire in order to receive more fame than he already has, and thus Ron will be pushed aside and seen only as Harry's poor friend with hardly any talent or merit to show for in the press (especially with the scheming reporter Rita Skeeter digging into Harry's life and that of his companions). This book is also where Ron is clearly developing romantic feelings for Hermione, and when she goes to the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum, the Quidditch World Cup champion from the Durmstrang school, it doesn't help his insecurity problems any better. It's what any boy his age and circumstances would feel, making his sudden bitterness towards his friends understandable. He doesn't merely exist to be Harry's comedic foil. He has dimension, like every human being, and is not just a young wizard with a broken wand.
'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' is simply dazzling, and I cannot recommend it enough (still, best to read the previous three books first, to make the explosive taste of this one even more satisfactory and worth the wait). Based purely on my experience, it is best read in the summer.
The film version on the other hand, hoo boy.
Warning: long rant ahead.
I know the film version is very well received, but sorry, I hate it. Maybe I'm biased because 'The Goblet of Fire' is my favourite 'Harry Potter' book and so I'd want the film adaptation to be 100% faithful, but I don't think that's the case here. I just think it is poorly made in its own right, and it's where the quality of the films start going downhill, in my opinion. I'll only mention the stuff that bothers me the most, to save some time and blood vessels. I understand cutting out a lot of parts (like Dobby and the other house elves) in order to make the story work as a visual medium where action is everything (ironic given how the films often veer towards being too long and arguably boring). But it's so obvious what they cut out on screen that it is, quite frankly, laughable. The movie is obviously based on a very long and detailed book, and so the screenwriters had struggled to make the finishing product work. Not helped when they probably had to rush production because of the child actors growing up fast. Character motivations are hardly developed beyond a few lines of dialogue (Ron's jealousy of Harry's fame comes seemingly out of nowhere). There is horrible sexist stereotyping of the Veelas and the female Beauxbatons students (there exist male Beauxbatons students, too, movie!) - their magic is all about looking pretty, and the male gaze! and how do they even use a lot of magic without wands? I am actually glad that they cut out Hermione's subplot about wanting to start a campaign - S.P.E.W. - to free house elves from oppression and slavery, because she is quite insufferable there and, while very well intentioned in conception, S.P.E.W. doesn't contribute much to the overarching plot. Unfortunately with that removal the film gives Hermione absolutely nothing to do. This is startling considering how much of an impact she made in the last film. In film no. 4, Hermione just gives verbal support to Harry, looks prettily at Viktor Krum, and shows up at the Yule Ball to present to the world how kindly puberty has treated Emma Watson (who I admire greatly, don't get me wrong). She's even afraid to say the Avada Kedavra curse in class, when in the book Hermione Granger does say it out loud, because she's an avid, fearless learner and will do anything to get perfect grades - regardless of any danger. But the worst moment of all is Dumbledore's reaction to Harry being chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Movie Dumbledore gets a big personality change after the death of his first actor, Richard Harris, but this is where the assassination of his portrayal is most apparent, in my opinion. Dumbledore is hysterical and downright abusive to Harry! Shaking him (almost strangling him, in fact) and demanding if he'd put his name in the Goblet; when in the book, keeping in character, Dumbledore calmly asks Harry the same question without laying a finger on him. I blame the writers for this, not Michael Gambon's performance, which is done well for what the script gave him to do and say. I first saw the movie in theatres, and seeing the wise and soft-spoken Dumbledore laying harsh hands on Harry and shouting at him made me want to stand up and scream (pardon my language) "What the fuck were they thinking!?". But a couple of positives I will mention are: Neville Longbottom's role is expanded in order to fill in Dobby's socks, and the exposition-ridden climactic battle of the book is reduced to just getting on with the action in a well-shot and atmospheric scene, with a menacing Ralph Fiennes perfectly cast as Voldemort.
Rant over. Thew!
But the book is still an unforgettable treasure that I hold near and dear to my heart. The movie can go to Azkaban and get fed on by Dementors.
So where does Harry Potter go from here? The most evil wizard in history, the one who killed his parents and whose first defeat was his claim to fame, has returned, and there are cowardly authority figures who will choose not to believe this fact. The Ministry of Magic might even try to cover it up. What is Voldemort up to now, anyway? Where is he hiding as he conducts his plans to build a world dominated by pure-blooded wizards and witches? (Hitler's reign analogy, hello).
Find out what all of this bleak horror does to the boy wizard's state of mind in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'.
Harry Potter Book 4:
Final Score: 5/5
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