Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This was by far the best Harry Potter book I’ve read so far. The story was packed with action, twists, and emotional moments that kept me hooked from start to finish.

The Triwizard Tournament added a lot of excitement and mystery, especially the big question of who put Harry’s name in the Goblet. I liked how the tasks weren’t just about Harry winning but also showed his non-selfish character, like when he helped Fleur’s sister during the second challenge. It was a great moment that showed how much he cares about others. I also loved Dobby in this book—he’s such a sweet character, and it’s nice to see him in a better job.

The book balances the Tournament with deeper, emotional storylines. Rita Skeeter’s article about Hagrid show more was frustrating, but I (really) appreciated how Dumbledore stood by him, showing his kindness and support. Hagrid, as always, is a wonderful character, and it’s great to see him getting the respect he deserves.
The differences between Snape in the book and the movie stood out to me as well. It gave a new perspective on his character.

The ending really took me by surprise. Cedric’s death was shocking, and the reveal about Moody not being Moody was completely unexpected. The twists and Voldemort’s return added a lot of intensity to the story, and it tied together so well with things from the previous books.

Final Thoughts: J.K. Rowling’s writing in this book was impressive. She managed to weave two compelling storylines, the Triwizard Tournament and Voldemort’s return, while still bringing back important details from earlier books. It made the world feel cohesive and engaging. This book had everything action, mystery, and some really emotional moments.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. show less

Undoubtedly plenty of readers loved how chunky this book is but for me it seemed lengthier than necessary like a hundred or more pages could have been cut without losing much of the story in the process.

There was a tendency towards repetition with Harry rehashing events for Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, etc. It just seems like there’s a way to let other characters in on what’s happened without dragging the reader back through something they’d experienced alongside Harry only a few pages earlier.

I’m also not the biggest fan of long-winded reveals/explanations particularly from villains, not only is it reminiscent of the end of any Scooby Doo episode (which I do have great nostalgic affection for, still...) but that kind of show more one-sided dialogue to me is such a momentum killer, it’s a thinly disguised info-dump, which is fine for a half hour cartoon but less fine for a behemoth of a novel.

There are a couple things that feel increasingly questionable as I progress through this series. One is how often characters are fat-shamed or how just being fat is practically a defining characteristic of their villainy. Then there’s the house elf situation. I do find Dobby and Winky endearing and vividly described, however, with their speech patterns, their devotion to their masters, and their supposed contentment/love for their servitude, it hits a little too close to the worst stereotypes of slaves (like Gone With The Wind level stereotypes). I very much like the combination of Hermione and activism, it suits her character, it’s just I wish this subplot had been depicted differently, particularly with more active involvement from the elves, hopefully that’s the case in the books I’ve yet to read in the series.

I know so far this review hasn’t been all that positive but there were things I liked about Goblet Of Fire. When the tournament had tasks (albeit not enough of them), I found those scenes entertaining. As always I enjoyed any moment involving Ron’s family and I appreciate that his family’s financial struggles are never ignored. And Hermione remains my favorite character in the series. I wasn’t thrilled by the makeover but at least the boys were into her prior to that and as long as her personality and her smarts never receive a makeover, I’m mostly good with it. show less

Definitely the turning point of the series and not just because YKW is back. Harry and friends aren't kids anymore and the playfulness of the first three books is overshadowed by more serious issues such as bullying, jealousy, social inequality, and mortality. On the bright side the boys finally realize Hermione is a girl.

I remembered the whole Quidditch World Cup being a slog to get through because I was dying for Harry to get to Hogwarts, but I didn't find that this time. Rowling expands her world and introduces a lot of new magic and new characters in this book, and this is the point where it all beings to feel really epic with Voldemort becoming a real threat once more.

I will say that Harry is starting to annoy me know, not helped by the blatant favouritism that too many show him (Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, Ludo.. Madeye..). At least that's acknowledged but it still bothers me! I've never found Harry that "special" he just blunders around and either achieves what he dose through pure luck or copious amounts of help from his friends. Plus he and show more Ron are incredibly rude to their Yule Ball dates which is very uncalled for, no excuse for bad manners! Ron is kind of a jerk in this book too.. from what I recall that might be able to get worse too!

Still I loved re-reading this book! Looking forward to The Order of the Phoenix! show less

Carrying on with my Harry Potter reread after a several-months break from it. I had trouble getting into this one this time, which surprises me a little bit because HP4 has consistently been in my top three Harry novels in the past. By the start of the third task, I was pretty much riveted though.

Bullet Points of Points (spoilery for anything HP, mostly not under cut)

--A looooot of pages go by in this one before we even get to Hogwarts. Despite my general gentle impatience with the book this time around, I still loved the Quidditch World Cup stuff. Rowling does such a great job presenting all the bits of a giant sporting event and offering social commentary on it. And the continued world building is aces throughout this bit. But what show more really struck me as I carried on with the book was how well Rowling uses this opening bit given the story she wanted to tell. With the Triwizard Tournament as the center piece of the book, she clearly had to leave out the usual quidditch games at Hogwarts. So we get a match in the beginning so quidditch fans aren't disappointed that they won't get any more throughout. And we she introduces a number of things in these chapters so that we don't need any explanation later: Death Eaters (what they are, what they look like), portkeys (how they work, what traveling by one feels like), the effects of Veela on human men, etc.

--The actual opening of the book at the Riddle House is delightfully creepy and very well done.

--As much as I poke a little fun at the way most of the books have the "explaining chapter" where someone tells us (and Harry) what we missed and what was really going on at some point in the school year, I do enjoy those bits. It's like Poirot gathering all the suspects together and revealing who done it. But in HP4, by the time we get to the explanation, a large portion of which has to do with what happened with the Death Eaters and the Dark Mark at the QWC, all that seems so long ago that the explanation falls with a little bit of a thud. The mystery of this book (and more on this in a second) is who put Harry's name in the cup. Of course we get that answer in the explanatory bits, but I'd almost kind of forgotten by the end (and this is a many times over reread) that there's also the mystery of who set off the Dark Mark and how/if Winky could have been involved. Because it just isn't remarked on all that much throughout the book (it certainly gets a fair amount of attention early), I felt a bit "Oh, right, that" when we got that piece of the puzzle.

--All the HP books, to varying degrees, are mystery novels. There's always something the Trio has to puzzle out, something they have a wild hare about (and often get at least partially wrong while also being some of the only people who seem to be looking in even remotely the right direction for what's really important). This one feels a bit mystery light. Who set off the Dark Mark at the QWC and who put Harry's name in the cup are really the big questions. (There are some little other ones too: What's the deal with Karkaroff? How/why could Mr. Crouch have been in Hogwarts in the middle of the night? How is Rita Skeeter getting her scoops?) But compared to some of the other mysteries (like, who's the heir of Slytherin and what happened when the Chamber of Secrets was opened before), they aren't super exciting, and--and this is the salient bit, I think--the Trio doesn't do a whole lot to try to solve them. There's little sense of Harry, Ron, and Hermione researching things, putting clues together, and ultimately building an understanding of something (even if an erroneous understanding). Most of the other books have events that stack--each big piece of information adds something to what we already knew and the sum of all those pieces equals something greater than each piece on its own. But the events of HP4 are more parallel than stacked. Each thing we learn tells us something, but they don't all go together to get us somewhere big. This is probably a result of the story being more episodic than any HP book since HP1. The nature of the tournament sort of dictates this. Much of the Trio research activity goes toward doing the tasks. All this isn't a criticism as such. I just personally prefer stacking stories, and I don't usually care for episodic stories. On this umpty-dump reread, I imagine that accounts for some of my impatience with the book post-QWC and pre-third-task. Just being in the world is enough in the beginning because Rowling does the beginning so well. And the end is so plotty and meaty and horrifying and hurdling-forward-y.

--The very nature of this non-stacking, episodic structure does give the last hundred pages an incredible oomph though. Man. The first time I read this, I was just blown away by Cedric's death. It is SO. SUDDEN. (It just kills me in the movie too. Even though I know it's coming, I almost don't see it coming.) I think this is largely because the structure doesn't really telegraph that Something Is Coming. I mean, you kind of think, sure, we must be getting to it because we're to the third task and the book is nearly over, but the climax pretty much comes out of no where. That's pretty brilliant.

--The scene in the graveyard, man. OMG. It is horrific. Well done, JKR. Well done.

--When Lily's echo tells Harry to hang on because his dad is coming. All the feels trying to leak out of my eyeballs on this read at that moment.

--I love Dumbledore in the aftermath, the way he treats Harry. The way he refuses to let anyone squirrel him off before he has a chance to know what happened, the way he makes Harry talk about it right away, the way he insists that no one badger him about it after that. Dumbledore is a scheming old schemer with his own "greater good" issues still, but he's got his head on straight here protecting Harry's emotional and mental well-being.

--A couple of minor inconsistencies in this one that I don't remember noticing before. Molly Weasley seems to imply that Hagrid wasn't around when she was in school, but we know from previous books that he should have at least been assistant gamekeeper if not gamekeeper proper by then. And shouldn't Harry be able to see the thestrals (which aren't introduced until the next book) at the end of this one?

--This book makes me want a novel from Krum's pov. Deep waters in that boy, I think. (I always, always wish for novels from Dumbledore's and Snape's povs. And a maurader-era book. And book from Hermione's pov where we get to see the lives and friendships of girls at Hogwarts. What do they do about their periods? And who explains to them about them if they start at school? What friendships does Hermione have with other girls that go on when Harry and Ron aren't around? It's implied later that she's decently close to Ginny. But who else? /tangent)

--Ug, HP5 next. Maybe I'll be all about that one, contrary to usual, since this one didn't floo my powder as much as I expected it too.

0h! So, it's 25 May, right? And this is my 37th book read this year. Guess what book I posted about on 25 May last year? 37th! And guess what book it was? HP1!
May 2016


An enjoyable reread. Struck this time by the commentary on news media. Also brilliantly chilling, that first real encounter with Voldemort. And I love the way Hermione reacts to bullying in this installment--she stands up for herself, doesn't overreact, and remains confident in herself and in her friendships. Nice. July 2012

Thoroughly enjoyable, this one, even on a third read. Nice dose of Hogwarts shenanigans coupled with really meaty plotty bits. I had forgotten how much the movie leaves out of Goblet. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that fully two thirds of the book is not in the film--and while most of that missing material is not strictly necessary to understand the Voldemort-arises-again story arc, its absence effectively impoverishes the story of this book as well as the themes Rowling is developing for further exploration in later installments. September 2010 show less

Hermione and Ron begin to suss their mutual attraction, and as teenagers it manifests primarily as rows and then awkward formality. Harry is equally strained in his affection for Cho Chang.

Hagrid is outed as a half-giant, and Harry's best side comes out in his unapologetic defense. It's not just Harry, though: Ron and Hermione are right there. Later hinted Dumbledore asks Hagrid to offer an olive branch to the giants now that Voldemort is risen, and Hagrid seems to have persuaded Madame Maxime to accompany him (they have made up after her affront at his open statement she's half-giant).

Hermione's morality shines in her motivation for SPEW. She makes the link to the prejudice Hagrid faces. Her efforts are wincingly annoying, though: at show more the heart of it, she doesn't seem to see the desires of House Elves so much as project upon them her personal desires. What does it say about Rowling that she imagines a species that are truly "better" when servile? Interestingly, this goes nowhere. Hermione simply doesn't bring it up again, focusing instead on helping Harry with Triwizard Tournament prep, and in discovering that Rita Skeeter is an Animagus.

Cornelius Fudge's behaviour here appears to be inspired by (if not precisely modeled after) Neville Chamberlain's Appeasement policies in WWII, more concerned with his popularity & maintaining his job as Minister, than in doing the work at hand by taking threat of Voldemort seriously.

Reveals important to the larger story:
-- Snape turned spy against Voldemort before latter's downfall; Snape has the black mark and can still tell when it's been activated.
-- Karkaroff also turned, but after V's downfall. He revealed that Crouch's son was behind the torture of Neville's parents (who for inexplicable reasons were believed by Death Eaters to know the whereabouts of Voldemort); they are cared for at St Mungo's, not recognising anyone (or presumably, themselves).
-- Neville was never asked by friends what happened to his parents.
-- V cannot "touch" Harry at the Dursley's, not explained why but V confesses it in graveyard to Harry; unclear if that remains true now that V's reincarnation spell was successful (he can physically touch Harry now, for example, when before Lily's love protected Harry)

The movie substitutes Neville for Dobby's role in helping Harry. Also, movie skips all the complicated Azkaban machinations by Crouch, his wife, his son. In the book, Crouch is much more implicated in rise of V because of this. show less

My Review:

This is by far MY FAVORITE Audio version up to this point. I feel like the production just improves so much better with each book that they do. This was originally my favorite book of the series so I was curious to see how it would be reflected in the audio version. And I was beyond impressed. Many ppl told me it was very different from the films and its not lol The film actually did a pretty good job actually considering how big this book is. This is one of the biggest books of the series and there wasn't that much taken away. It honestly makes sense why certain aspects were either simplified or removed. The only complaint I could have for the films is the loss of Sirius in all the scenes. I do think they could have added show more those in there.

Some of the differences from the film:
The House Elf Rights Campaign--this was barely teased in the films overall. It wasn't touched on at all in the actual film of Goblet of Fire. We see Dobby and some issues with Crouch's house elf. We see how passionate Hermione is about this and how hard it is to change this.

The Crouch Plot Line-This wasn't handled the same in the film. The film had to really simplify this plot line. Its much more complex in the book. I do understand the changes for this

The Rita Skeeter Plot-We really only see her toxicity in the beginning elements. But what we see her do later in the book and then her being capture by Hermione as a insect .....isn't in the film and I understand why it wasn't. I really admired what this does for the book. The third act is a bit darker so it gives a bit more light and humor at the end.

Abuse of Hagrid--This was a aspect I had totally forgotten about the books. And we see the damaging effects of journalism. I really appreciated how this was handled.

Scenes where the film did better----I will say that the film did some really good scenes from the book that I do think were more impactful seeing it on the screen over reading. The first task with the dragon is much more exciting lol and then the Christmas ball scene. I do think both of those scenes the films really made it BETTER!!!

Now overall of course the book is going to be better because in the book we see more depth and complexity than what they can portray in the films. We see the true friendship bonds between these three and when they are fighting with each other, how much it effects them emotionally. But I do think the film did a super great job with this one as well. And its not that much different from the book and most of the changes or how they simplified certain aspects, makes sense. Especially with how large this book is.

Narration review: I was really impressed with the narration. I really loved what we got with the updated voices for the students especially Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry we get a much more mature voice so that might be off putting for some readers. I wasn't bothered by it at all. We see the same type of change in his voice in the films and I was also expecting the change and new that they updated the voices and actors so we can see his growth and maturity changing.

Not sure when I will be reading Order of the Phoenix to be honest. That book was the most depressing out of them all. Just how everyone treats him is really hard to read. It will probably be a couple of weeks before I return to the series. show less