Book Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)

Despite some character inconsistencies, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire jumps straight into the fun action now that we intimately know the main characters.

Harry has attended Hogwarts for three years now, so everything mystical and weird about it is no longer shiny. He glides through the school with the Marauder's Map with ease, gets by with his made up perilous fortune for a Professor Trelawney exam, and even lands a Christmas school dance date. Harry does not have too much time to get too comfortable, though, when his name is drawn out of the Goblet of Fire, pitting him against three of the strongest students from around the world.

Like most middle schoolers, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all are facing the pressure of being themselves despite other's expectations. Hermione, the underdog herself, takes up a moral fight against house elf slavery. Ron, who is always in the lime light of his dragon-studying brother and famous best friend, must swallow his pride and encourage Harry when he needs it most. And Harry, who is destined to take down Voldemort, is now competing against the brightest of the schools, even though he is not ready to do so. Rowling keeps each character true to who they are while maintaining their imperfections. Hermione takes on too much, Ron is distrusting, and Harry does not believe in himself and is a horrible procrastinator. These attributes are not overcome, but compensated by each other, because in the end, they need each other to be successful in each endeavor… which brings me to Hermione and her fight for the house elves…

The only misplaced story in this book was the one concerning Hermione's exhausting and detrimental fight against house elf slavery. Hermione is the only one advocating for house elves- which is very odd looking back to the past books. Whether it was out of loyalty to Hermione or Dobby, Harry would have joined Hermione's fight. Harry did trick Lucius Malfoy into freeing Dobby when Dobby was being abused. Hermione is left alone in her fight, which she is finally distracted from when she must try and stop Rita Skeeter.

As a literature enthusiast, I loved the role of media in The Goblet of Fire.  Rita Skeeter would have fit perfectly in with today's news, twisting truth to be entertaining, false propaganda. Media is extremely powerful, and Rowling challenges her young adult readers to question media's influence and truth at the same time.

I am terribly late to the Harry Potter bandwagon, but this book has been my favorite so far. I wish there was more Hagrid and his weird love of creatures or more of Snape's antics against Harry, but I enjoyed Fred and George's tricks and kooky Professor Moody. This chunky 700+ page book was worth taking up half of my carry on.


You can purchase Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire  by J.K. Rowling (ISBN 0439139600) on Amazon for $8.87 here.

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