Author: J.K. Rowling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publishing: July 8, 2000
Series: Harry Potter #4
636 pages (hardcover)
I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series as a part of Shannon’s Harry Potter read-along. September is the month for Goblet of Fire.
Goblet of Fire has always been one of my favourite Harry Potter books, and re-reading it for the umpteenth time now, nothing much has changed. I still love this book and I had a really great time re-reading it!
In this fourth book of the series, Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup before school starts with his friends Ron and Hermione, but the exciting tournament ends horrifically when several Death Eaters (Voldemort supporters) scare everyone and shoot the Dark Mark into the sky.
At school, Harry discovers that Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, an event not held for over a century now. The Tournament is a friendly competition of magical skill and bravery between three magic schools, with one student from each school chosen to represent them. Only students seventeen and older may drop their name in the Goblet of Fire to compete, which means Harry can’t try, but he’s perfectly happy to support whoever the Hogwarts champion is.
However, when it comes time to choose each school’s champions, the Goblet of Fire spits out an extra fourth competitor — Harry Potter. Suddenly, Harry finds himself having to perform all sort of dangerous tasks; whoever put his name into the Goblet seems to want to put Harry in danger.
I really like this book for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is the introduction of these other wizarding schools. I admit ,when I first read this book, I was like Harry — it did not occur to me there were other wizarding schools, as it was never mentioned before. Anyway, I love the Triwizard tournament and the idea that there are other wizarding schools out there, especially Durmstrang, even though they’re hinted to be a not-so-great school because they focus a lot on the Dark Arts, I just love the idea of a school in the far north, with uniforms that include fur trimmed hoods and stuff, and they traveled to Hogwarts in a pirate ship! Okay, it wasn’t a pirate ship exactly, but it was a ship and I thought that was cool … Hahaha, so random, I know.
Another reason I like this book is the growth in Harry’s relationship with his friends, specifically Ron. Harry and Ron have a huge fight in this book, and I really like the depth it brought to their relationship. With Harry now a competing school champion, Ron’s subconscious jealousy of Harry (of being famous and all that) explodes and comes out at last, and they stop speaking to one another for a while, only to, of course, make up later. Friends fight in real life — I’m glad Rowling incorporated this into her story as well. And it makes their friendship seem all the more stronger and genuine for future books!
With each Harry Potter book, the plot becomes progressively more complex, but I think this is especially so in Goblet of Fire because we have more bits of the past revealed to us now and must piece it together with the present, as well as the fact that the Ministry of Magic is more involved and that means things get relatively more political. I love plots like this, where lots of things that happened in the past are now affecting the present and future in the story.
My final thoughts? Goblet of Fire is still as amazing as ever, 11 years later! Oh, and yes, I did get teary when Cedric died (I can say he died, right? It’s not really a spoiler by now, is it?) Especially when Dumbledore honored Cedric with his speech. Beautifully sad.
My Rating: 5/5
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