Harry Potter - The Complete Series

There is literally no way to adequately describe this series in a review. If I had to try, I would start by saying how complex the storyline is. It's complex, yet not difficult to understand (they were originally aimed at children, after all). Everything is woven together so intricately and intelligently, that it all falls into place. J.K. Rowling will keep you guessing throughout each book as well as through the series as a whole. She'll give you all the information to make educated guesses, but you can't be sure until the end. Love it.

One of the things that I love about the series is the characters growth. Eleven year olds are very different than seventeen year olds. J.K. Rowling doesn't ignore this fact. She lets the characters grow show more in developmentally appropriate ways as well as taking them on the psychological and emotional journey of the story.

The rereadability of this series is nuts. There so much you get out of reading the books more than once. You'll notice things casually mentioned in book 1 are important in book 3, book 7, etc. You'll make connections you never thought possible (ie, how could she have known that this tiny fact would be important 4 books later?!).

Overall: You need to read these books. Seriously good for all ages. show less

This has been my favorite of the series so far. Surprising considering I spent a majority of it frustrated beyond belief. Umbridge was an AMAZING villain, I hated her even more than Voldemort.

I love books that make me feel more than just mild emotions and this well...the ending is like a punch to the throat. So SAD. Despite expecting it, I wasn't prepared for Sirius' death. He had become one of my favorite characters.

It's difficult to rate the Harry Potter series because they were more than just books, they were events and discussion topics and a whole lot more, since their release coincided with most of my childhood. I even have a signed copy of the third volume on my shelf, having waited hours in line to see Rowling sign it. Thus the Harry Potter books mean something more to me than the material itself might merit based on quality. For the purpose of this review, though, I'll be focusing on the quality of the books alone.

The Harry Potter series has several virtues, its greatest being that the series is very readable. You can go through hundreds of pages of Harry Potter in a day with ease, and the constant forward momentum of the plot makes every show more volume a page turner. There are few times when the books slow down, but in the overall scheme of things they are quickly forgotten. This makes the series ideal for anyone looking for an entertaining read, or for people who haven't read much before. Another of the major virtues is the concept that Rowling explores with these books resonates universally- we'd all like to be whisked away from mundanity into a world that's more magical, we'd all like to think that there's a wonderland hidden behind back alleys and thick forests that someday we'll uncover. We'd all like to somehow be special. Rowling gives this to the reader (indeed, with the titular character Rowling gives us a character who's not only special, he's The Chosen One special, another rank of special above all the other special people), but she couches this magical world filled with special people in a relatable format: grade school. We've all been through it, and so even though the classes are potions and charms we can still relate to the experiences. Combined, the readability and strong central concept, as well as giving readers a battle between good and evil, makes for a very fun book series that well deserves its popularity.

On the other hand, there are also many flaws in this series that detract from its greatness, and which make me doubt whether I will still enjoy the books as much when a few more decades of my life has passed. First, the characters and their relationships. Harry Potter, at first a sympathetic reader surrogate, goes through long stretches of the series spewing teenage angst at everyone around him. Perhaps this was Rowling trying to communicate that teenagers can be unpleasant, self-centered jerks, but she went a bit overboard with this lesson for my taste. Harry’s friend Ron shares this trait, going through a significant portion of the fourth book being a jerk to Harry more for the sake of dramatic tension than any reason that makes real sense. Hermione is defined merely as “the smart one who follows rules” far beyond the point where she should have a more nuanced character. All of these are relatively minor complaints, though, compared to my main one: Rowling rarely makes these characters actually feel like friends. Over 90% of their interactions with each other are aimed at solving the mystery of that year, or preparing for the next big challenge presented by Voldemort or the school, and very rarely do we see them actually enjoying each other’s company. We’re left to assume that such things happen between the lines, but often it seems more like we’re reading about Detective Harry and his two assistants rather than about three teenage friends.

Other aspects of the characters are also noticeably weak. The villains are pure evil, with almost no nuance, to the point where Slytherin is exclusively populated by assholes, and the adult villains are basically magical Nazis. There’s room for nuance here, but besides the character of Snape (whose death renders his allegiance a largely moot point, as he would have been killed regardless of what side he was fighting for) Rowling mostly blows past the possibility of differing perspectives to tell a simple good vs. bad story. Toward the end of the series characters start to pair off in romantic couples as well, an aspect of characterization Rowling seems particularly weak at writing. Harry and Ginny just felt shoehorned together at the last moment, as Ginny had appeared very rarely for the books before Harry suddenly decides he is in love with her. Recently Rowling has revealed that Ron and Hermione would have made a bad couple, and it stuns me that she’s just realizing this now. To anyone who was paying attention it was blatantly obvious that the guy with major self-confidence issues, a bitterness streak against those with wealth or fame, and probably with an inferiority complex probably wasn’t a good match for the brilliant overachiever who everyone constantly praises. Nevertheless, Rowling had planted the seeds, and she was either incapable of analyzing whether the two characters made sense together or wasn’t willing to deviate from the planned course even though she knew it wouldn’t make sense.

Beyond the characters, the world of Harry Potter, though fascinating and richly depicted, often felt as though Rowling was making things up as she went. This was epitomized in the sixth book when Rowling reveals that there is a spell that can be performed that makes a person keep a promise, and if the person breaks that promise that person dies. Well, that spell apparently solves everything, right? Don’t want people using the unforgivable curses? Make everyone promise not to, and they never will again! Don’t want people killing muggles? Make everyone promise not to, and all the muggles will be safe! Don’t want death eaters trying to oust the government? Have everyone promise not to be a death eater, or an evil wizard, and problem solved! This spell, much like with the truth serum that makes an occasional appearance before disappearing for books at a time, would seem to completely change the world of Harry Potter, but it’s never clear that Rowling has bothered to think of all the implications of the new aspects of the world that she is introducing. As such, it feels like a patchwork universe as often as it feels like a living, breathing realm.

Finally, there are a couple structural problems to the series. The fifth book was flat out bad. Overlong and completely forgettable, when reading the sixth and seventh books years later I would be able to remember all the characters and occurrences except those introduced in book five. Whatever, 6 out of 7 isn’t too shabby. I’m saying that prematurely however, because the single worst segment of the series is located at the very end, in the form of the epilogue. Wow is that thing poorly written. I expect it’s the case that long ago Rowling wrote out the epilogue, and after the series became successful this epilogue became a sacred cow to her that no editor could touch. She certainly had the juice to keep it any way she wanted it at that point, but the series would have been better off if she had had someone to give her some constructive criticism.

So yeah, the Harry Potter series has some issues. I’m not prepared to say, however, that they outweigh the virtues of the books, despite the fact that I talked about the flaws for so much longer. I’m sure that when I have kids I’ll be buying them the Harry Potter series, perhaps rationing them out so that they don’t reach the darker volumes too soon. The key is that after they read them, though, I’m going to buy them books where readability isn’t the chief virtue. show less

my parents got this set for me from the scholastic book fair in the 4th grade and i was THE coolest kid in school because of that. I read through the series and would reread my favorite books constantly. i am also definitely the person that turns the 19 hour movie marathon into a 40 hour marathon because i will not shut up about the differences between the books and the movies (this does not mean i do not like the movies. i adore the movies. to an extent haha). im not sure if i would still enjoy the books now, as an adult, but i will always remember fondly on how magical the world was to little 10 y/o me

There are countless reviews about the HP book out there, so I'll try to be brief. After all, who hasn't read at least some of the books or seen the movies?

I began to read the books after watching the first movie because I loved it..and well, why deny it? Because everybody else was doing so. But I was ten years old and I had nothing to compare it with. After reading Harry Potter, I realized how different they are. The movies are OK, entertaining but nothing more. They lack the magic of the books.

Rowling prose is agile, fluent, easy to read yet beautiful and detailed enough. I've never read any other author who can balance both aspects so well without finishing with a bunch of flat characters and a too foreseeable plot. The history show more becomes darker and more dramatic with each book. Harry Potter would have not appealed to me so much to if there were seven Philosopher's Stone-like books. The characters matured, changed; the readers also did. It's the Harry Potter generation: kids who grew up with him.

Some people will say Rowliing can't write, that it's pure marketing. I'll answer that she must have done something right if she can keep me reading until 3AM (believe, it's not easy). show less

It's hard to express how big of an impact the Harry Potter series had on me. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was one o the first novels I read in English, and since then I was hooked. I read all the books the moment they were available to me, researched fan theories, and had a near-religious experience when I went to Harry Potter World. I love all the symbolism in the novels, and how real the people seem. I love the mystery and adventure aspects.

Currently, I'm struggling with my relationships with Harry Potter, due to JKR's consistent offensive, transphobic comments. I don't know that it changes the substance of the books (though it did make me think more about how problematic the portrayal of house elves was). JKR's show more commentary makes it difficult for me to do anything that supports her, and I expect this is a struggle I will continue to have for a long time. show less

Harry Potter holds a place dear in my heart. Reading the first book in the afternoon in second grade, when I had seen the package for it arrive in front of my house was the kickstart to a journey of a childhood through many years. It turned out that the two illustrated large print editions of the first two harry potter books had not been intended for me, they had actually been meant for a family friend's daughter, but when my mother saw the look on my face, she let me have them. As a series, the worldbuilding is something that fantasy has never seen. It is both complex and detailed, yet simple to understand. There is a good, and there is a bad, and sometimes simplicity has its benefits, it makes things easier for the reader.
The way show more Rowling wrote the books, we as readers could clearly tell that we were to root for Harry and has gang, and despise Voldemort and his followers. When there is a clear evil, it makes it easy for us, and for a children's book, that's important. If I were to read this series now, yes I would marvel at the magical spectacles, but I would say that it is pretty simple when it comes to the conflict, yet there's a certain charm that no author has never been able to replicate when it comes to fantasy. This series birthed a franchies, a loyal following of fans, and I must say that is impressive.
Yet we must not seperate the art from the artist, and though I am glad for reading the series, I will in no way support it ever again. show less