Monday 2 November 2015

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling

RATING: FOUR STARS

Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft & Wizardry promises to be his most exciting one yet. True, the inter-house Quidditch league has been cancelled this year, but this is due to the fact that Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament - a competition that hasn't been seen for a terribly long count of years! The representatives of Durmstrang Institute are arriving for the competition from Scandanavia, along with those from the French, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.

Each of the the three world renown magical schools will have a champion chosen by the Goblet of Fire, who will compete against each other throughout a series of dangerous and possibly fatal challenges for the glory of their school. Yet there are those who seek to ruin harmless fun and twist it to their own purposes. Even as Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour and Victor Krum are chosen as champions, so is Harry Potter in a mysterious and unprecedented violation of the tournament's rules! Yet Harry is bound by magical contract to compete, despite his fears and those of Albus Dumbledore that something sinister is afoot . . .

The Good
The Goblet of Fire is one of the most exciting instalments of the series so far and has several interesting aspects to its story. The first is the feature of the Quidditch World Cup (which was sadly left out of the adapted movie), which sees Harry and the Weasley family travel via portkey to see Ireland play Bulgaria somewhere in the English countryside. As well as being fun and novel to read about, it gives a nice introduction to Krum, the early activities of Voldemort's Death Eater's and builds an essential backstory to the 'Triwizard Conspiracy' as a whole.

As well as the beginning, the Triwizard challenges are also great fun to read about and J. K. Rowling has detailed Harry's anxiety and misgivings about competing well. I admit that although I am a fan of Quidditch of the matches Rowling describes, Gryffindor winning almost every match can get a bit repetitive. The absence of the school's league in this book helps give a nice break from it and means it's even better in the next book when it all kicks off again!

The Bad
Once again, I have nothing to fault with the book and Rowling has done a fantastic job bringing her world and characters to life!

My Thoughts
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire is one of the most exciting and unique books in the series and continues Rowling's story in the same manner of literacy excellence as its forebearers. The characters are lively and realistic, it's exciting and Rowling writes with a vivid, flowing style that makes the book almost impossible to put down!

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