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A review by emmareadstoomuch
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
4.0
Act 4 of 7, gents! And I’m stuck somewhere betwixt 4 and 5 stars for this one, so I’ll just write this review, pop on back to the beginning and smack a rating on this bad boy. (Disclaimer: I am on Hour 26 post-wisdom teeth surgery, on some painkillers no one should turn their nose up at, and desperate for solid food and human interaction. So in other words, bear with me, because this may be...somethin’.)
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire/
Okay, let’s start with our characters. I always gotta discuss the same collection of several. Both Harry and Ron are pretty consistently eh characters for me (except in the first book, in which I really enjoyed Harry). Here, instead of being eh, I found them...annoying? It drove me absolutely insane that Harry kept procrastinating his clues - like no yeah, do your Divination homework the night it’s assigned, but please put the life-or-death clue off to the side for now. And don’t even get me started on their constant, needless bickering. Ugh. HOW ARE YOU BOTH SOMEHOW EQUALLY ANNOYING HERE?
Neville, on the other hand? Cemented his status as a fave o’ mine. His backstory is great. He really deserves to be in Gryffindor, the brave li’l guy, and I just want to give him a big hug. Snape, meanwhile....Well, somehow he outdoes himself here. I just don’t know how I’m going to hold onto this rant until book 7. God, you guys, get ready for a tsunami of anger, I guess.
And let’s discuss that feminist message, shall we? I, first off, love that my perhaps-all-time-favorite character Hermione gets political as hell in this one. Mad respect, girl. And for a cause that she’s laughed at for, even one that would make her life far, far easier in every means if she just backed off it! (I’m seeing some parallels to feminism here….) Plus, her defeat of Rita Skeeter, who taunted her for her appearance and reduced her meaning as a person to the boys she spent time with, is just amazing.
And don’t even get me started on the representation of women in professional sports in this book! Fabulous enough that almost half of the Gryffindor quidditch team is female, but the fact that there are women competitors in the Quidditch World Cup? Amazing! There’s no underestimating the empowerment that representation lent to young, female readers who dreamed of being athletes.
If only this wonderful treatment of women - and we know that Rowling is a tried-and-true feminist - extended to the Triwizard Tournament. But alas, all we get is...Fleur. Fleur’s only trait is her beauty (cough cough, reminds me of someone we know, cough cough, CHO F*CKING CHANG), she (like Rita Skeeter to Hermione) is reduced to the boys she spends time with/thereby must be flirting with (Cedric, the Ravenclaw quidditch captain), and, worst of all, she’s not a good competitor. She gives an eh performance in the first task, receives pity-points in the second, and is ignored and eliminated in the third. Ms. Rowling, my love, couldn’t she at least use her looks cunningly to distract her opponent? If you were only going to give us one girl competitor out of four, couldn’t she at least be, well, good?
There were fewer stupid mistakes in this one, but there were still some. One being that somehow magic-less mermaids painted pictures of themselves on a rock...underwater. Unless they’re sourcing that fancy schmancy under-da-sea paint, they should not be able to do that. Also, the search for Sirius is never mentioned by the many (many, many, many, MANY) members of the Ministry of Magic we are CONSTANTLY seeing in this book. Or by Rita Skeeter. Which doesn’t make sense, because that search was a big f*cking deal. (And don’t you think ol’ Skeeter would want to bring up that failing when she’s writing inflammatory articles about Hogwarts and/or the Ministry?)
But this comes down to the same thing all these reviews come down to: the world. Goblet of Fire gives us the biggest look into the Wizarding World since Sorcerer’s Stone (Quidditch World Cup! Triwizard Tournament! The operations of the Ministry of Magic!), and because I love looking at this world so flippin’ much (plus fewer teeny errors) I have to give this a high rating.
Bottom line: definitely better than the second and third, and maybe (MAYBE!) an almost-tie for favorite-so-far with the first one. The feminism contains some mixed messages, there are a couple things that don’t make sense, and I still haven’t found a way to kill a fictional character (but when I do, watch your back, Severus). But the world, Hermione, Neville’s story, and a couple other great things overcome all that. This book rocks! Hurray!
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire/
Okay, let’s start with our characters. I always gotta discuss the same collection of several. Both Harry and Ron are pretty consistently eh characters for me (except in the first book, in which I really enjoyed Harry). Here, instead of being eh, I found them...annoying? It drove me absolutely insane that Harry kept procrastinating his clues - like no yeah, do your Divination homework the night it’s assigned, but please put the life-or-death clue off to the side for now. And don’t even get me started on their constant, needless bickering. Ugh. HOW ARE YOU BOTH SOMEHOW EQUALLY ANNOYING HERE?
Neville, on the other hand? Cemented his status as a fave o’ mine. His backstory is great. He really deserves to be in Gryffindor, the brave li’l guy, and I just want to give him a big hug. Snape, meanwhile....Well, somehow he outdoes himself here. I just don’t know how I’m going to hold onto this rant until book 7. God, you guys, get ready for a tsunami of anger, I guess.
And let’s discuss that feminist message, shall we? I, first off, love that my perhaps-all-time-favorite character Hermione gets political as hell in this one. Mad respect, girl. And for a cause that she’s laughed at for, even one that would make her life far, far easier in every means if she just backed off it! (I’m seeing some parallels to feminism here….) Plus, her defeat of Rita Skeeter, who taunted her for her appearance and reduced her meaning as a person to the boys she spent time with, is just amazing.
And don’t even get me started on the representation of women in professional sports in this book! Fabulous enough that almost half of the Gryffindor quidditch team is female, but the fact that there are women competitors in the Quidditch World Cup? Amazing! There’s no underestimating the empowerment that representation lent to young, female readers who dreamed of being athletes.
If only this wonderful treatment of women - and we know that Rowling is a tried-and-true feminist - extended to the Triwizard Tournament. But alas, all we get is...Fleur. Fleur’s only trait is her beauty (cough cough, reminds me of someone we know, cough cough, CHO F*CKING CHANG), she (like Rita Skeeter to Hermione) is reduced to the boys she spends time with/thereby must be flirting with (Cedric, the Ravenclaw quidditch captain), and, worst of all, she’s not a good competitor. She gives an eh performance in the first task, receives pity-points in the second, and is ignored and eliminated in the third. Ms. Rowling, my love, couldn’t she at least use her looks cunningly to distract her opponent? If you were only going to give us one girl competitor out of four, couldn’t she at least be, well, good?
There were fewer stupid mistakes in this one, but there were still some. One being that somehow magic-less mermaids painted pictures of themselves on a rock...underwater. Unless they’re sourcing that fancy schmancy under-da-sea paint, they should not be able to do that. Also, the search for Sirius is never mentioned by the many (many, many, many, MANY) members of the Ministry of Magic we are CONSTANTLY seeing in this book. Or by Rita Skeeter. Which doesn’t make sense, because that search was a big f*cking deal. (And don’t you think ol’ Skeeter would want to bring up that failing when she’s writing inflammatory articles about Hogwarts and/or the Ministry?)
But this comes down to the same thing all these reviews come down to: the world. Goblet of Fire gives us the biggest look into the Wizarding World since Sorcerer’s Stone (Quidditch World Cup! Triwizard Tournament! The operations of the Ministry of Magic!), and because I love looking at this world so flippin’ much (plus fewer teeny errors) I have to give this a high rating.
Bottom line: definitely better than the second and third, and maybe (MAYBE!) an almost-tie for favorite-so-far with the first one. The feminism contains some mixed messages, there are a couple things that don’t make sense, and I still haven’t found a way to kill a fictional character (but when I do, watch your back, Severus). But the world, Hermione, Neville’s story, and a couple other great things overcome all that. This book rocks! Hurray!