Harry Potter Mini Reviews

Harry Potter Mini Reviews

Hey Ho Bookaholics!

Today I bring to you my first ever thoughts on the most talked about book series of all time in this week’s post:

Harry Potter Mini Reviews!

Quite sadly I have never ever read the Harry Potter series before this, but I have watched the movies a bagillion times and have heard spoilers upon spoilers about the content from the books that weren’t included in the movies.

So after completing my Harry Potter Book Collection I thought there’s no start the new semester (and the month of July) than to dive into the Wizarding World of Magic!

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As many of you know by now, the Harry Potter series follows the story of a young boy named Harry, who find out he is a wizard on the eve of his eleventh birthday by the appearance of a half-giant by the name of Hagrid who informs him that he is famous amongst wizards both young and old because he caused the downfall of the most powerful wizard, Lord Voldemort when he was only two-years-old.

We are taken on a journey, as young Harry unknowingly meets his future best friend (and future brother-in-law) at Kings Cross Station prior to boarding the Hogwarts Express, and is then sorted into the brave house of Gryffindor, where he meets his second partner-in-crime; Hermione Granger. With every book, new characters are introduced. Some of which meet tragic ends and others which are so cruel and evil we wish they were the ones to die.

As the series progresses and Harry, Ron, and Hermione grow up to become young adults, they learn more and more about their enemy, Lord Voldemort, becoming less and less fearful of the name, and in time find out what they are able to do to destroy him once and for all – with the help of Dumbledore and a few others of course.

1. Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone. 

While reading this, all I could think about was the movies. Keeping in mind I’ve seen this movie about a billion times already, the general layout of Hogwarts as portrayed in the movie is hard to shift from my mind; but the faces of the characters as well as their attitudes and demeanor all changed for me while I was reading the book. In this book Professor Snape was shown to despise all Gryffindors, especially Harry, and with no remorse. This made him seem ugly and just downright mean. Even though I know how it all ends; I still consider Professor Snape to be the most vile character in the series thus far (we haven’t reached Umbridge yet…).

Audiobook Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSlIKmhexUc&list=PLcx9OAawsrz3mldMCTdys4XF6dpXrKcw_

 

2. Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

Two words. Gilderoy Lockheart.

One word. No!

The whole way through the book I wanted to rip Lockheart from the pages and just replace him with a more desirable person that would actually be worthy of all the attention he was receiving from the women.

My thoughts throughout the book were mostly; What does Ms. Weasley and Hermione see in him? I thought Hermione was the smart one?! Agh! Kill him off already!!! Get to the chamber pleeeeesssee!!! Finally his memory is gone! POOF! Bye bye Lockheart.

I truly understand that obnoxious and self-absorbed characters like Gilderoy tend to make stories interesting – especially if they have a decent back story like this one did with his plagiarism problem – but I really don’t like obnoxious and self-absorbed characters. That was why I was so glad that in the end his spell backfired on him and he lost his memory; because goodness gracious who could stand to have him around any longer? I certainly couldn’t.

Audiobook Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8T1lkybT5Q&list=PLcx9OAawsrz2A4kWqKJTm0q_XzdWkw0tx

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3. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

This book is amazing! It is hands-down my favourite.

Excuse me for starting from the end, but Harry is a sassy little shit! The last thing he says to Uncle Vernon;

“He was my mum and dad’s best friend. He’s a convicted murderer, but he’s broken out of wizard prison and he’s on the run. He likes to keep in touch with me, though…keep up with my news…check if I’m happy….” (HP + The Prisoner of Azkaban 1999)

Is the best line in the whole entire series, and at that moment I felt that things would start looking up for young Harry who’s luck, it seems, does not come to his aid when he is living with the Dursleys.

This book was amazing for so many reasons;

  1. Harry runs away from home and we uses Nevile’s name so he wouldn’t be noticed (because the scar is not noticeable). It’s a hard life being famous *sigh*.
  2. Sirius Black is a badass punk who escaped from Azkaban to commit the crime he was incarcerated for. Not to mention he was unaffected by the dementors that presided in Azkaban prison due to the fact he knew he was innocent. If that is not some awesome will power and self-acceptance I don’t know what is.
  3. We learn about the Marauders becoming anamagi for Remus and HOW THE WHOMPING WILLOW CAME TO BE! Also the first mention of Marauders and Snape prank/ bullying. This was really cool because ever since I started the series all I wanted was to hear about the Marauders and their adventures during their school days.
  4. The Time Turner was given to Hermione by Professor McGonagall which is new to me because they left that out of the movie. This shows McGonagall as a mother figure and not just a strict teacher as she is portrayed in the movies. She vouched for Hermione and personally asked the Ministry of Magic to grant Hermione the use of a Time Turner so she can complete her classes, since McGonagall knows she is more than capable to do this.
  5. Serious having Buckbeak as his pet ^_^. Need I say more?

 

4. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

This book took FOREVER to read! My friends and I call it; ‘The Fourth Bok Effect’.

For ‘The Fourth Book Effect’ to occur, the series must contain more than four books and/or be a complete series.It is the phenomenon where it takes longer than usual to complete the fourth book in the said series for reasons unkown to you.

In all honesty, I don’t remember much of this book apart from the part where the Death Eaters caused a scene at the Quidditch World Cup and all events after Harry entered the maze. This is partly due to the fact that I had read ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ and ‘Hollow City’ in the time it took for me to finish this novel. Once again I couldn’t stop comparing the book to scenes from the movie with bits and pieces from my own imagination added in. I may have to read this series a couple hundred times to burn the scenes from the movie from my mind.

I have been looking forward to this book for a very long time. This movie was by far the most intriguing, mostly for the fact that it came directly after Harry had witnessed a death and people had gained the ability to see thestrals, and upon recognising this he met Luna Lovegood, and begun to think that if only they could see these beasts, maybe he was going crazy.

The thing that shocked me the most in this novel was Percy Weasley. In the first four novels, Percy had in no time become my favourite (I made a post about it here) Weasley brother, but much like he had done to his family, I disowned his as my favourite as soon as I heard about the ‘row’ he had with his father and all the nasty shit he said to him. But in all honesty, I’m still willing to forgive him if he tries to redeem himself later on in the series, which I have a strong feeling will not happen.

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Audiobook Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOIoUNdtjU&list=PLcx9OAawsrz0d1ZuFcH1GWowcxWAQKSZY

 

5. Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix

I felt quite sorry for Sirius in this book

I absolutely love the Weasley twins!! They are not recognized enough by their family and do not have the same ambitions as their Mother has for their future and therefore idea the facilities, resources and people they have at their disposal to aid in their the growth of their dream.

The endings to these books are always so amazing. I just live for the encounter that occurs between Harry, The Dursleys, and whoever has turned up to greet Harry (usually Mr. and Mrs. Weasley) when he is leaving the station.

Audiobook Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDwAKNb3xL0&list=PLcx9OAawsrz0nsRV77YDbaW1EMGzYwUVb

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6. Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince 

It has been a month already, and as you can probably tell, I have been marathoning this series and it has taken quite a toll on my concentration. I was over half-way through this book when I could feel myself slipping into a dreaded reading slump.

Good news! I managed to conquer this minor mental setback in order to finish this book.

Audiobook Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovLAIi6E2ew&list=PLcx9OAawsrz0CJ8Zv9vrF-IuhBs6ycv0l

 

7. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

I listened to the first few chapters on audiobook because I wanted to finish at least one book this October and I thought that now would be a great time to try audiobooks!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and where I had once pitied Kreature, I learned to love him and see his reason for being such a grouch around Sirius when he was alive. As someone who has watched Harry Potter and The Deathly hallows movie a dozen times (meaning I have witnessed the deaths a dozen times), the elements they failed to include in the movies were the ones that pulled at my heart strings the most.

I expected all the deaths that occurred, just not the circumstances of most. Especially in the scene where Percy came back, I was startled and pleasantly surprised, but pitied him as he was the last to speak to Fred before his death as he – you could tell – didn’t feel he deserved the honor to be the one his brother had laughed with just prior to his death.

Then there was Kreature. God I love Kreature. Why weren’t the house elves part of the movie battle!! Kreature running out of the kitchen, leading all the other house elves into the fight with Regulus’ locket dangling from around his neck, made me tear up.

This book concluded the series wonderfully and tied off all loose ends associated with the Harry Potter universe. After finishing the series, I do not believe that there is any need for another book about the Potters, rather a spin-off series of the Marauders would’ve done us all well.

Audiobook Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoF8k8OY5Ns&list=PLcx9OAawsrz2jHs1CEBJbQ2vp7mOwoKMe

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Each book took me about 1 to 5 days to read because of homework and school; otherwise, I would’ve finished them all within the month of July.

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I have also uploaded a spoilery review for The Cursed Child. The so-called eighth Harry Potter Book. Click on the image below or the title above to be taken to the page.7 - Harry Potter Mini Reviews

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Thank You so much for reading and I hope to see you all back here again Monday 🙂

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© Jasper+Spice 2015. All Rights Reserved. Please do not use without permission. All opinions are my own and all photos featured are from my Instagram @jasperandspiceand you can also follow me on Goodreads

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