This post first published September 24, 2011.
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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