In a bit of a reading slump. Decided to reread Harry Potter for the thousandth time. What a great book! You get instantly sucked into the world. What is there to say? It's just so magical and whimsical. The first one is definitely a children's book, yet it is darker than I remember, even in the beginning. Also I forgot how funny it is! Narrator and Harry are both full of snark and sass. No wonder this book brought reading to an entire generation.

In a bit of a reading slump. Decided to reread Harry Potter for the thousandth time. What a great book! You get instantly sucked into the world. What is there to say? It's just so magical and whimsical. The first one is definitely a children's book, yet it is darker than I remember, even in the beginning. Also I forgot how funny it is! Narrator and Harry are both full of snark and sass. No wonder this book brought reading to an entire generation.

In a bit of a reading slump. Decided to reread Harry Potter for the thousandth time. What a great book! You get instantly sucked into the world. What is there to say? It's just so magical and whimsical. The first one is definitely a children's book, yet it is darker than I remember, even in the beginning. Also I forgot how funny it is! Narrator and Harry are both full of snark and sass. No wonder this book brought reading to an entire generation.

What to say about CoS? It's just as good (if not better) than the first one! Even more than the first one, this book rewards rereading. The Riddle mystery is so intriguing. I focused on Ginny this round and definitely felt more for her woes than I did in the past--Poor Ginny! The book is still really funny, but it's is darker than I remember! Similar to when I reread Roald Dahl--when I was a kid, I just took it all in stride. Now it's pretty horrifying! But still a great book!

What to say about CoS? It's just as good (if not better) than the first one! Even more than the first one, this book rewards rereading. The Riddle mystery is so intriguing. I focused on Ginny this round and definitely felt more for her woes than I did in the past--Poor Ginny! The book is still really funny, but it's is darker than I remember! Similar to when I reread Roald Dahl--when I was a kid, I just took it all in stride. Now it's pretty horrifying! But still a great book!

What to say about CoS? It's just as good (if not better) than the first one! Even more than the first one, this book rewards rereading. The Riddle mystery is so intriguing. I focused on Ginny this round and definitely felt more for her woes than I did in the past--Poor Ginny! The book is still really funny, but it's is darker than I remember! Similar to when I reread Roald Dahl--when I was a kid, I just took it all in stride. Now it's pretty horrifying! But still a great book!

I remember waiting anxiously to get my hand on this one. Definitely lived up to the hype. This is where it starts ramping up. This book follows a different formula than the first two--no He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named secret plot. The characters start growing up, and the world becomes a bit less black and white. We meet some new characters: we are introduced briefly to Cho Chang and Cedric, and of course Professor Lupin. Lupin is my favorite of the DADA teachers, and it's great to see his interactions with the trio here. Though the plot is getting more complicated, this book has the humor and excitement from the first couple of books. I love how intricately all of the plotlines come together here. This one may be my favorite of the bunch! On to GoF.

I remember waiting anxiously to get my hand on this one. Definitely lived up to the hype. This is where it starts ramping up. This book follows a different formula than the first two--no He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named secret plot. The characters start growing up, and the world becomes a bit less black and white. We meet some new characters: we are introduced briefly to Cho Chang and Cedric, and of course Professor Lupin. Lupin is my favorite of the DADA teachers, and it's great to see his interactions with the trio here. Though the plot is getting more complicated, this book has the humor and excitement from the first couple of books. I love how intricately all of the plotlines come together here. This one may be my favorite of the bunch! On to GoF.

I remember waiting anxiously to get my hand on this one. Definitely lived up to the hype. This is where it starts ramping up. This book follows a different formula than the first two--no He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named secret plot. The characters start growing up, and the world becomes a bit less black and white. We meet some new characters: we are introduced briefly to Cho Chang and Cedric, and of course Professor Lupin. Lupin is my favorite of the DADA teachers, and it's great to see his interactions with the trio here. Though the plot is getting more complicated, this book has the humor and excitement from the first couple of books. I love how intricately all of the plotlines come together here. This one may be my favorite of the bunch! On to GoF.

This is the first of the long Harry Potter books. Though the earlier ones had surprisingly dark elements, this one takes an even bigger turn. There's the scene of terrorism at the world cup, the underlying threat of the death eaters, and of course the scene at the graveyard. It was more horror-iffic than I remember. There's still a few good zingers in this one, but overall not as much levity. This one may also be the best of Jo's mystery plotting. Several of the best plot twists of the series. There were so many threads that all came together in the end in such a satisfying way. The characters really start to grow in this one too. This time the character who stuck out the most was Fleur Delacour. What a great character! She's feminine but still ends up the champion of her school AND her most precious possession is her sister, Gabrielle, and not one of the many goofy guys around her. Looking forward to revisiting the rest of the series.

This is the first of the long Harry Potter books. Though the earlier ones had surprisingly dark elements, this one takes an even bigger turn. There's the scene of terrorism at the world cup, the underlying threat of the death eaters, and of course the scene at the graveyard. It was more horror-iffic than I remember. There's still a few good zingers in this one, but overall not as much levity. This one may also be the best of Jo's mystery plotting. Several of the best plot twists of the series. There were so many threads that all came together in the end in such a satisfying way. The characters really start to grow in this one too. This time the character who stuck out the most was Fleur Delacour. What a great character! She's feminine but still ends up the champion of her school AND her most precious possession is her sister, Gabrielle, and not one of the many goofy guys around her. Looking forward to revisiting the rest of the series.

This may be my least favorite of the series, but it's still 5 stars for me. Harry gets a bad rap in this one because he's "moody" and "annoying." Well I would be too if I had 1/7 of dark wizard soul living inside me. At almost 900 pages, this is the longest one of the series. Some of it does seem a bit rushed, but honestly I'm not sure what I would cut. This one also had some of the most infuriating characters. But I think the fact that it makes you care so much is a strength and not a fault. I cared about Harry and friends in this one. You also start getting some of the love interest type stuff in this book. I cared more about that when I was younger, but it's still entertaining now. Overall, there were a lot of mistakes were made in this book! But the mistakes were character mistakes--not author mistakes.

This may be my least favorite of the series, but it's still 5 stars for me. Harry gets a bad rap in this one because he's "moody" and "annoying." Well I would be too if I had 1/7 of dark wizard soul living inside me. At almost 900 pages, this is the longest one of the series. Some of it does seem a bit rushed, but honestly I'm not sure what I would cut. This one also had some of the most infuriating characters. But I think the fact that it makes you care so much is a strength and not a fault. I cared about Harry and friends in this one. You also start getting some of the love interest type stuff in this book. I cared more about that when I was younger, but it's still entertaining now. Overall, there were a lot of mistakes were made in this book! But the mistakes were character mistakes--not author mistakes.

This is one of my favorites of the series. Things start to go down. You really delve into the backstory of Riddle, and you finally learn about why Voldemort didn't die when the AK spell rebounded on him. Delving into those memories may be the most interesting part of the series. You get to see a lot more of Dumbledore, though he is very opaque and secretive throughout the whole book. There's also more entertaining romance drama in this one. It's goofy, but fun to read about Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny working through their feelings. (We finally get to see how sassy and fierce Ginny is!) I also love the scene at the end with Mrs. Weasley and Fleur crying into each other's arms (can we talk about how amazing Fleur is again?). And though the war has started, and people start disappearing, things are still relatively normal. It's not until the end you realize that the war is actually real, and it's the last real year at Hogwarts.

This is one of my favorites of the series. Things start to go down. You really delve into the backstory of Riddle, and you finally learn about why Voldemort didn't die when the AK spell rebounded on him. Delving into those memories may be the most interesting part of the series. You get to see a lot more of Dumbledore, though he is very opaque and secretive throughout the whole book. There's also more entertaining romance drama in this one. It's goofy, but fun to read about Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny working through their feelings. (We finally get to see how sassy and fierce Ginny is!) I also love the scene at the end with Mrs. Weasley and Fleur crying into each other's arms (can we talk about how amazing Fleur is again?). And though the war has started, and people start disappearing, things are still relatively normal. It's not until the end you realize that the war is actually real, and it's the last real year at Hogwarts.

What a great end to the series. I did not like this one when I first read it--I wanted more hi-jinks at Hogwarts. This was a little too real. Now I appreciate it for what it is. There should be actual consequences when the worst wizard of all time comes back and takes control. There were a lot of sad parts in this book, and a lot of frustrations too. But it makes it all the more real. This book gave me a lot of feelings. But what stuck out to me during this read was just how good Harry is. Actually willing to die to save his friends and the people he cares about. Great series. Defined my whole childhood. Can't wait to pass it onto my kids someday.

What a great end to the series. I did not like this one when I first read it--I wanted more hi-jinks at Hogwarts. This was a little too real. Now I appreciate it for what it is. There should be actual consequences when the worst wizard of all time comes back and takes control. There were a lot of sad parts in this book, and a lot of frustrations too. But it makes it all the more real. This book gave me a lot of feelings. But what stuck out to me during this read was just how good Harry is. Actually willing to die to save his friends and the people he cares about. Great series. Defined my whole childhood. Can't wait to pass it onto my kids someday.