A Review of 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' by J.K. Rowling

Please note: this is a book I read in 2017.  Due to starting a new job, I kept up in reading but fell behind in blogging.  Reviews for 2018 reads will begin after the remaining 2017 reviews are posted.  Thank you for your patience!

"Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age.  Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup.  He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years.  He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard.  But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal-- even by wizarding standards.

And in his case, different can be deadly."

I'm not going to lie, this book is in my top 3 Harry Potter books, so this review will be a little biased.  It's right up there with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  And here's why:

1. I love this book because this is the moment where everything changes.  It's so different from the other books because there is a focus on the tournament and the different tasks that accompany.

2. I love this book because Harry, Ron, and Hermione are older and they're beginning to come into themselves.  For Hermione, I love that she is able to show a different side of intelligence.  Namely that you don't have to choose between being smart and being good-looking.  And it's not even that you should want to be one or the other, but just showing that these two worlds can come together into one if you would like it too.  It defeats the trope that the most intelligent person in the room, especially if they're female, is also the least attractive and least worthy of love and appreciation.  Way to go, Hermione, for breaking down barriers for young women coming into their own.

3. Everything changes in this book.  The entire series as we know it has been turned on its head.  Suddenly these nervous murmurs about You Know Who turn into fully realized fears (albeit slowly because of the stupid Minister of Magic).  Suddenly there is this heavy focus on the body that there really hasn't been in the past, since J.K. Rowling was so busy setting up the story over the course of about three books.  And a lot of this has to do with Voldemort's focus on the body.

4. This is sort of related to number 3... the entire tone of this story becomes super intense.  Literally, Hogwarts will never be the same again.  I was talking about before in my reviews of the earlier Harry Potter books that I love returning to this charming and fairly innocent Hogwarts filled with wonder, but starting at this point, the school will never be shed in the same light.  As much as I grew to miss this light and happy tone to Hogwarts, this was the point in the series where my interest was cemented in this series.  Nothing will ever change that.

There are many reasons why I love and will always love this book.  It's not perfect, but it's very dear to my heart.

I give 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude