How the hell am I supposed to review Harry freaking Potter? Just the fifth best-selling book in any language of all time, nbd. I’m sure I have some original thoughts on it.
I read this 12ish years ago but I was a different human then. I’ve started and finished a bachelor’s degree, gotten married, had a child, gained an astronomical amount of context, perspective, and life experience since then. I’ve also had a memory-wiping coma. One of my few resolutions this year was to reread the series, although it doesn’t really feel like rereading – I remember next to nothing other than what you’d pick up from general cultural osmosis.
So what can I say about it? It’s really…good? I have a different perspective now that I’m also through the second book, but at the end of this one, I was whelmed. It was at that point a little hard to understand why it was such a profoundly culture-shaping book, but also a fast and very enjoyable read. I wasn’t absolutely dying to read the next one, but I was sure that I would be reading it. I wondered then, and still wonder, why the teachers are all so pissy and oblivious when there is clearly some shit going on around Hogwarts, and they really should not be so incredulous whenever someone brings it to their attention. I want to adopt Neville. I want the Weasleys to adopt me. I hate the cover art. And that’s where I leave you.