LogFAQs > #929580803

Tier 4

Harry Potter
Book Series

"You're a wizard, Harry."

Absolutely one of the most charming stories in existence. The worldbuilding and way it combines classic magic with modern-day sensibilities was very unique at the time, and the allure has somehow not been eroded by the litany of copycats that followed. There's just something intrinsically entertaining about watching students complain over writing essays about trolls. Hogwarts is a setting full of mystery, and every time you uncover another one of its weird secret rooms or hidden passages it feels like discovering buried treasure. The cast of characters as a whole are very entertaining, but I'm going to give a shoutout to Harry himself as the glue that ties everything together. He gets dismissed a lot because he's surrounded by a lot of eccentric weirdos, but the older I get the more I appreciate his straight man act. He's relatable despite being the chosen one, because his life sucks regardless.

The main reason it's not higher are kind of major: I don't like the last two books, and the in-universe consistency of the mechanics of magic is nonexistent. How are spells made? Why did they give a time machine to a 13-year old? The list of things that don't make sense or are never answered is...kind of long. Still, it's an issue I can excuse (usually) because it's evident that J.K. Rowling never meant for the series to be so long and had no idea it was going to become as big as it did. Audience expectations can majorly shape a story, and while it overall made for a better series (Book 4 and 5 in particular are not only ambitious but very good), the author wasn't able to transition the expanding scope into a satisfactory ending. Book 6 feels like filler outside of the one big spoiler at the end, and while Book 7 tries to do something different, it just doesn't..do it well? There's a lot of complaints about the epilogue but that's easily the least of Book 7's problems. Harry's average-ness as a wizard made him very relatable for most of the story but also made it difficult to resolve the conflict in a way that didn't involve railroading the plot into a victory.

Even with those flaws, I still really like this series. I actually reread it recently and was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up. The best way I can describe the series is as a modern-day fairy tale, and it's going to be remembered for decades.

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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.