I am WAAAYYY behind in posting my reviews for the HP read along, so in hopes to get a bit more caught up, this post is going to contain mini reviews for books 1-4. Posts may contain spoilers if you haven't read the books.
Harry Potter and...
...The Sorcerer's Stone: This is one of my favorites in the entire series. It sets up the series without being all set-up. We get to meet most of the characters and see them grow and evolve starting in book one. I loved the idea of Hogwarts letters arriving by owl and owl post in general. We get a glimpse of Voldemort's power, but still don't really have any idea what he's capable of. It's such a great start.
...The Chamber of Secrets: While this isn't one of my favorites in the series (it underwhelms in my opinion), but I love to hate Lockhart. He's so dense. But I kind of love that he's so clueless and unhelpful even when he tries to help. We also get to see Mrs. Weasley's nurturing side and the burrow for the first time. Oooh and I love how Mr. Weasley is obsessed with all things muggles. I was so confused about the young Voldemort and the diary. But it didn't take away from the series for me which is good.
...The Prisoner of Azkaban: Sirius!!! Sirius is one of my absolute favorite characters in the entire series. I never thought that he was evil. Plus, I love that he can change into an animal at will. That is so awesome. The ending of this book just about broke my heart, Harry almost gets away from the Dursley's but then again so close but yet so far. And I love Hargrid and Buckbeak.
...The Goblet of Fire: This is such a long one and it's kind of all over the place. While I liked the idea of a Tri-Wizard tournament but it was just kind of distracting. It was too much of a departure for me. However, I did like that everyone had their little relationships going on. And the whole start of the Ron/Hermione kerfluffle. I cannot reread this series without thinking of David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr. (And who can be pissed at David Tennant about anything? I mean, really?) There's just so much random stuff going on it's hard to keep track. But then everything hits the fan at once and you'd think that now that people realize that things are out in the open everything will get on the same page. But at the same time you know with 3 books to go, probably not.
Yay for Harry Potter! I've been re"reading" these books via audiobook, but have only listened to the first one so far. I can't wait to start the second one!
ReplyDeleteJim Dale is an amazing narrator. I love that he does voices for different characters. My library has the print, ebook and audio. I feel like it's such a time investment to do the audio though. So I usually pick up the book rather than the audio.
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