(Book Review) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Time to read: 2 min read

Book Cover Book Cover

Can I see Uranus too, Lavender?

Past Harry Potter novel reviews:

Review

This book is the first where it becomes clear the Harry Potter series is a Bildungsroman; the characters are much more mature and they encounter many more mature problems, such as romantic relationships and personal loss. The main story is that the intercollegiate Triwizard Tournament is taking place at Hogwarts, and Harry is chosen to be one of Hogwart's champions.

The story is much more action-based than the previous three novels and the book also introduces a large cast of very interesting characters. The writing, in particular the jokes and banter between the characters, also felt that it was targeting a more teenage audience. I really enjoyed learning more about aspects of the wizarding world, such as about the Quidditch World Cup and about the Ministry of Magic.

One concept that really stuck with me is the idea of a Pensieve, which is a device used by Dumbledore to store his thoughts and memories. This idea really resonates with me; I know currently there are services like Notion which works as a notebook to store one's thoughts and ideas, but these services still require the user to explicitly state their thoughts and ideas, which is cumbersome and may not be able to capture all the details. I wonder if, in the future, it will be possible for me to save my thoughts and memories onto a computer directly. I wonder what would be the security implications of using a Pensieve, as Harry was able to freely peer into Dumbledore's Pensieve; I also wonder, should a Pensieve be possible through technology, what form it would take. Will we have to get neural implants, or will we be become partially silicon-based ourselves, to facilitate integration with a computer? I believe reading fantasy novels has helped me become more imaginative.

Conclusion

A much more grown-up book about a much more grown-up Harry.

Overall rating: 8.6

What does the rating mean?