Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide

This is a review of all three "Pottermore Presents" booklets.

As trivial as it is to make a fan's day, you can just as easily break said fan's heart if you take his/her attachment for granted. You wouldn't believe how much I blame J.K. Rowling for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, despite knowing that she didn't even write the darned book. Speaking of writing: if I never again read/hear/see about anyone being discombobulated, it will be too soon!

Still, this review is not a rant about the evils of fandom, but rather an ode for a well-crafted world building.

One of my favorite aspects of the entire Harry Potter universe, is the amount of thought the author put into shaping the Wizarding World. Although it is by no means a perfect example show more of world building, it is one of my favorites. So much so, that even after the series ended I would still visit JKR's old flash-powered site to check her Wizard of the Month calendar.

This small collection of e-books is just the thing to delight a fan of the series. We get to follow Professor McGonagall's brilliant but rather tragic path to becoming the strict Head of Gryffindor House that we've come to love and respect. And there is still plenty of heartbreak left to be found by shadowing your favorite DADA teacher up until his very last breath.

But not everything is dreary in the Wizarding World. The author's brief summary of every Minister of Magic to grace England provides a rather informative and entertaining peek into the eccentric world of our heroes. You can certainly get behind supporting a Minister whose iron-clad defense includes the statement:

I assert our inalienable right to party.

And last, but by no means least: how could I have not enjoyed reading a brief history of everyone's favorite poltergeist? Just consider the following: miniature cannon and three-day standoff.

Score: 4/5 stars

Fan-service at its best, if one doesn't resort to x-rated practices. show less

This is a collection of short short stories -- call them snapshots if you will. In the first chapter you will find information about King’s Cross Station, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and the Hogwarts Express. Chapter two explains more about the sorting hat and what happens if the hat has a hard time deciding where a student belongs, otherwise known as hatstall. The third chapter describes the never-before-seen Hufflepuff common room and has information on the Marauder’s Map and the Great Lake. Chapter four has information on Hogwarts school subjects and time-turners (one of the more interesting stories). I really liked the fifth chapter with its story Hogwarts ghosts (and more information about ghosts in general), The Ballad show more of Nearly Headless Nick Hogwarts, more information about the portraits at Hogwarts, and the story of Sir Cadogan and how he came to have a fat pony as a mount. The sixth chapter tells you more about the Mirror of Erised, pensieves, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Sword of Gryffindor, and the Chamber of Secrets.

I liked all the information, although most of the information is apparently available on the Pottermore site. What I didn't like is the book felt padded; some pages had only a short paragraph. Still the good far outweighs the bad, in my opinion. I like having all the information gathered up for me.

If you are a fan of Harry Potter and either don't have the inclination to read through the site or just want to have the information easily available, this ebook is for you! show less

Short vignettes from Pottermore about the Hogwarts Express, castle ghosts, the sorting hat, the pensieve, Platform 9 3/4, portraits, and more. After giving details and the history of each thing, there are notes from Rowling. I loved hearing about the behind-the-scenes, like the creation of the time turners in the third book becoming a problem that she had to fix by destroying them in the fifth book. Fun for big Harry Potter fans.

I really enjoy all of the details of Harry Potter's world. JK Rowling's imagination is remarkable. That being said, this book is really just a collection of writings from Pottermore. They're still worth a read, but some may not feel the need to spend $2.99 for a book form of the same online content.

Short and sweet, I've read all the Pottermore pieces before, but I definitely delighted in filling some much needed downtime in my (stressful, family funeral) weekend with details about this well loved, always missed land.

A good companion to the series

Like the other two Pottermore ebooks, Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide is a collection of mostly preexisting works from the Pottermore website. However, it's handy having them collected in a themed ebooks that provides easier access to them. As works of writing, they're nice little additions to the lore of he Harry Potter series.

It has been a while since I read the original books (hence me tackling this series once more) however, I feel as if I already know this information? Despite that, I enjoyed the read, especially about how the Hogwarts express came about.

This was another quick read for me and I enjoyed it!