This is one flighty book. One which defies classification too, as even it admits, in the afterward. And the purpose is the main point of the book, so revealing it would be a spoiler and ruin the fun. But it is a series of vignettes, fictional mixed with non-fiction, through various characters. It charts around 150 years of history. It’s form and function is paired to Sappho’s fragmentary work.

This, to be honest, made it simultaneously fast to read and difficult to actually pay attention to. You are constantly getting resituated in space and time and a new character. It’s a bit of a puzzle, and one that can be really frustrating sometimes. Things do come together with enough patience. And I do typically gravitate towards stuff that is unconventional, so I’m somewhat predisposed to extending a fair amount of good faith to even new-to-me authors. I doubt this is actually a novel, though comprised technically of a lot of short snippets of stories. I am also not sure what else it is, though it goes into that after the end, if you’re curious, and you can figure where you’re at with it yourself.

Prose wise, I liked it. The format makes it so it’s quite poetic but it is also grounded in what is concretely happening in the life of the character, typically. It gets in, gets out. It’s unabashedly angry, rightly so, when charting the path of men oppressing women. Probably put some people off but it didn’t bother me even slightly.

And a special note: I highly recommend you get this in the hardcover binding from the US coming, because the paperback UK has really crap binding. The gutter is terrible and so tight, it’s actually annoying to keep the pages apart, almost like a mass market paperback, but oversized.

The first very enjoyable instalment. The previous two are fun... but I would say not very well written, honestly - especially in the dialogue department, which is stiff and wooden. This has much better flow and a more improved plot. Though, I think a mix of this with the movie would have been a very great book.

Where certain plot points drag and the movie corrects, the movie also misses entirely explanations of certain events. The book fleshes out so much more of Potters’ family backstory and has amusing diversions that, while clumsy, I certainly liked regardless. It’s a bit wild how different the book is from the movie, thinking about it.

While much of the problems with the writing can be chalked up to, I think, the publishers wishing certain parts to be made very plain for kids, some of it is the desire for red herrings and cashing in on stuff mentioned in the previous books. But even when it attempts to wrap it up in a nice bow it sometimes falters. For instance, what about the sneakascope, which probably ought to have gone off more often—or is it actually damaged? Why leave that dangling? There a few things that, when really examined, don’t make that much sense. But it nevertheless is undeniably fun and much improved from the others.

2022: full spoilers: I was pretty forgiving in the re read 2 years ago. I mention the contrivances but probably didn’t catch as many. It really is wild how much of a patchwork the world building is, and how many issues are created by the hand wave resolution to obstacles. The movie really did fix a lot. Winky’s storyline is so contrived, the elf rights go no where at all, Dobby just shows up with gillyweed and explains the trial to him, and he’s got the invisibility cloak on him but forgets he’s got it going into the water, which would have helped a heck of a lot trying to free everyone, if he did believe everyone would die. It’s overwritten by a mile and the Crouch showing up was dumb, the other houses as paper thin, as are those characters. What about the sneakascope Harry has? Suddenly there’s another animagus yet again and this convoluted as heck B plot mystery. It’s just too much. And oh my god the exposition on the audiobook is 4+ hours long at the end with Voldemort and the final reveal after it. And then Sirius shows up for the reveal? And then suddenly a dementor kills the only witness? Another animagus. No lol I don’t think so.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s also a really fun… but I can’t say it’s well written. It sure thinks young adults are incompetent readers, more like childrens writing and no trust in the reader, only with darker themes.

2020: Far better than the movie this time. There are some wild contrivances in the movie, such as, uh, how the f did Crouch get out of prison?

Moody is waaaay harder to spot and you find out how he was taken. Plus, the missing ministry worker dovetails nicely with the other things and segues into V’s return, which is again, much more fleshed out. The only thing I liked more in the movie was how Harry got Gillyweed, which was the plan here.

And the ending of this goes way further in explaining why Fudge is such a dick about Harry and the disbelief of the dark lord’s return. Nicely sets everything up. And Rita is far more of a character that helps with it.

All in all it’s just far more superior and interesting. The writing is slowly getting better with each iteration, I find, too.

This isn’t going to be for everyone, but it’s one hundred percent for me. Where to even start. Essentially, it’s about twisting the things we have codified in our lives and their meaning, granting them a different purpose, which is steeped in mythology and folklore. The journey is always a journey inward. And the power of the narrative we have crafted already in its changing, to change us, fundamentally. It’s what these kinds of stories do best.

But it’s also just delightful to read. The words pop, it is wildly engaging because you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, what does what, just as the protagonist is doing the same. I’m always for questioning the nature of reality type stories. This is classic fantasy at its best, when the market is flooded with commercial crap like Sanderson, devoid of true wonder and magic or provocation. What a breath of fresh air this is.

2022 reread: Interestingly, my previously overwhelming dislike of this was assuaged quite a bit. 3/4 of it is actually great. Sure it’s annoying Harry is a bitch all the time but it’s actually surprisingly funny, which it never was before. I was also just really interested in the lessons and it finally takes itself more seriously. The propaganda campaign maybe just hits differently in our Fox News fake news days too. I’m not sure. But I was really into it. But then…

It does go off the rails, doesn’t it. JK seems to be unable to prevent herself from insinuating wild contrivances. The two way mirror still makes no sense at all. Neither Sirius or Harry think of it all those times, and he doesn’t tell anyone else, and then he destroys it? The romance subplot is just bad. The ministry Fight is way more stupid in the book, what with Neville kicking out wildly and hitting the prophecy and just weird, stupid choreography. I did like Dumbledore’s explanation more this go around, but it is again, hours of exposition dumping. Culminating in the prefect explanation that seems placed to be really emotional or something, but was pretty ineffectual. Still, I did like this loads more. And again, a mixture of the movie and book would be the best version.

Edit: after sleeping on it I just find I actually didn’t like it and it’s many contrivances just continue to piss me off more, so 2 stars. Didn’t like it, downgraded from 3.

Falls Wildly short of two previous. Long and meandering sub plots that don’t go anywhere (and terrible dialogue that mimics the subplots) such as Cho and Harry being completely pointless and Harry really never even looks at the mirror to communicate with Sirius? Really? Really?! It’s the sneakascope nonsense all over agin, but worse considering it’s connection to the plot.

Apparently Snape is racist, which I didn’t remember and certainly makes him less sympathetic for the next books. However much he didn’t DO The Thing, he’s still apparently a terrible person despite his feelings toward Lilly.

There is no actual point driven home regarding the occupation of umbridge either. Everything is broken and must be put back together, maybe? That’s not actually a cogent theme though. It really does just read like JK has a hammer and smashes things in order to fix them up later after the tantrum.

It’s a collection of shit that happens to Harry that could be truncated a wild amount in terms of the OWLs and other goings on. It’s frustrating that with only one theme hit home, there is so much extra material. Arguably all the other books have this, but not to this extent and in the previous books, it’s actually interesting world building. Here it isn’t.

It comes very close to being 2 stars for me but that the ending over the overarching plot with Dumbledore and the way adults treat children, and the larger reveals are impactful. Also the wizard duel between V and D is pretty great.

In the end, however, I’d take the movie over the novel for sure. Streamlined this thing immensely.

Also how the F does an invisibility cloak that can cover three people entirely fit into someone’s pocket? Front or back or otherwise?

2022 reread: I think a 4.5 rounded up rather than a 4, though my previous criticisms still hit. I think knowing them beforehand allowed me to enjoy it more this go around, two years later. It’s certainly the strongest writing in the series and has some of the coolest scenes. The romance subplot is bad, she just can’t pull it off. They just kiss and never talk again lol what. And the locket thing is pretty vapid and emotionally manipulative. Again, the movie fixed a bunch of stuff. I like the Ginny / Harry kiss there better, Slughorns lines are better, and my favourite moment, about the goldfish magic doesn’t even exist in the book. I wonder if the last book will be my favourite still. Neat seeing my confidence in this being my favourite, knowing I went on to love the last book more than this one, and by far and away more than the movie, for once.


2020: Much better than Order of the Phoenix but still has the same flaws as others in the series. It is the strongest entry though, imo, as the world building is interesting and pertinent and the characters are more nuanced - though there are no real arcs for anybody again and there’s dialogue that doesn’t need to be there.

Also, did anyone notice Ginny and Harry get together but literally have no conversation in dialogue whatever until the recap of the events and the ending of their little get together, which is completely undermined by the conversation right after with R and H.

It is infuriating how close some of these books come to being really and truly great, but fall short for the same reasons each time. It’s great Harry remembers something important is in his trunk for once in his goddamn life though (liquid luck) and not before like the sneakascope and the mirror (what the actual fuck) and again, the most important item, the locket, serves only to be emotionally manipulative because JK hasn’t got the chops to pull off anything else; with the exception being one sided dialogue for Dumbledore, of course.

However, credit where it’s due: the pacing I found to be much improved; every scene/chapter, for the most part, serves a purpose of some kind with few exceptions; Harry is a bit more believable, though the actions and dialogue of everyone are annoyingly couched in gender roles. Ginny and Luna save the day as extremely likeable new characters while the trio are essentially always static figures despite it being about growing the f up. And of course the horcrux and delve into memories to unravel the story of Voldemort I found to be both interesting and a great propellant for the fiction.

Again some of the world building is expanded for strange reasons. If side along apparition is possible, why did no one mention this before, especially when explaining people coming and going from the Quidditch World Cup?

Non verbal spells are hand wavey imo. Some wizards can some can’t etc. But really all the grown ups spoke their incantations in any situation but for a few specific times where you assume it’s possible, so it seems like a patch for instances where things don’t make sense in other books, rather than something always planned. Why would they internalize doing the easiest spells non verbally but then do spell work verbally when not teaching? If it’s true it’s mostly for duels, you’d think it would have been brought up in the DA last book, at least by H?

When the divination teacher made her prediction in the past Dumbledore claimed that only half was heard because the other person was removed from the premises. But, Sybil said after she made the prediction she saw Snape there in the doorway. So if he was removed afterward why then did he not hear the whole prophecy and recount it to Voldemort? Doesn’t make sense. He would have had to have been removed before she finished, no?

Overall, my favourite book. Don’t think that’ll change with the next one. I recall being slightly disappointed when I first read it and that was when I’d have given most of the books 5 stars, being much less critical and far more young.

2022: still dope.

Hope after all.
Everybody gets an arc. Everything meaningful I wanted I got, and more, actually.

In a story about remorse and love and hope, there is a surprising amount of humility ingrained as well. The small pain points of somewhat clumsy plotting: the sneakascopic (although a different one albeit) and the maddening mirror I hated so much make a return appearance and serve a purpose. I don’t think those were plotted from the beginning but they were rectified, and that made me smile. As did the idea being introduced that sorting is done too early (yet still happens? Annoyingly).

Also, Dumbledores fleeting look of triumph from Goblet of Fire when he learns that Voldemort has taken Harry’s blood, is cashed in, to great effect, I think. The elf rights finally has something to do with the plot. The DA return too. It is my deepest regret that Umbridge didn’t not meet Mrs Weasley’s wand, as Bellatrix finally did.

When backed into a corner, the conclusion is impactful and meaningful and there is more nuance in what the world created is trying to communicate to readers. From moral absolutism never kill, to defend yourself when necessary, even if you must kill.

Dumbledore and Snape are deeply flawed individuals, both of whom commit reprehensible acts synonymous with Voldemort at times. Interestingly, when I was much younger and read this for the first time, it left me cold. I had no love in my heart for Snape even after the reveal. I still despised him. He was, essentially, a Nazi after all. Yet he is the American History X. Now that I am older it is not so black and white and nuance finds me.

There are small ditpicky things I could say, but i felt this was genuinely good. There’s less dialogue to trip over. Everything matters at all times. Previous events and characters and even the previous books are amplified by the efforts of this one. Even going in knowing the various twists. What really shines through is that the plotting that struck home is the stuff that’s clearly planned from early on. The incorporation of things in previous books is hit or miss. But this actually says something, as the previous ones maddeningly often do not. And that is enough to bury my quips.