Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Side note: I didn't actually read the French version of this book. (I wish my French was good enough for that.) This is a tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack in Paris last Friday. My condolences go to all the family members, friends, and neighbors of the deceased.
I loved this book a great deal. There are happy and sad moments all intertwined into an amazingly written story with great characters and complex conflicts.
Rating:
I don't know why I still say it: 5 stars.
Spoilers ahead!
(I'm sorry if this is not the most enthusiastic review. I'm not in a very happy mood after all that has happened the past days.)
Let's just start by saying that I was pleasantly surprised with the small amount of dead people in this book. My expectations were so grave this time.
What I expected:
What really happened:
(I will go into the casting and the effect this had on my ability to take Cedric Siriusly in the movie review that will arrive at some point in the future.)
But let's be Sirius here, I liked Cedric. But I had expected much worse. For one because I have been spoiled already for about all character deaths in Harry Potter, so I know what to expect. Secondly, because HELLO! VOLDEMORT JUST CAME BACK?! That final battle is amazing. It was around midnight (again) and I was still wide awake. Flying dead family members? Phoenix songs? Count me in.
Apart from being epic, this whole Triwizard Tournament brings other pleasant things along. Like the adorable romance between Victor Krum and Hermione. This might be what I like most about the Harry Potter series: there's a perfectly balanced mixture of light and darkness. Sure, I like my dark and depressing dystopia or my deadly violent fantasy novels, but I also like to smile once in a while. Not flat out laugh, but just smile, because something simply happy comes along.
Some new characters I loved, others I hated but in a good way.
I thought I liked Moody, but then he turns out to be a disguised Death Eater, so...
I'm not going to lie, at some point I was ready to strangle Skeeter.
Sirius, I love you (even though I know a particular SPOILER regarding your ending).
Krum and Fleur are okay. I don't love them, but I don't hate them either. And I think Hermione and Krum make a good couple.
Some random things I liked in the book:
My definite favorite part in the story is the pensieve and watching the trials. They gave me a really intense feeling. The idea that Sirius was sent to Azkaban without a trial I thought was brutal to read. I hope the pensieve comes into play in other books as well.
Okay, back to this end battle of Harry and Voldemort's. I can't even begin to describe how awesome and intense it was to read that part. The Crucifix Curse, but especially the connected wands. The wands, you know, I still don't get how that all happened and what the theory behind that whole connection is (which says something because I'm already fairly into the Half Blood Prince and nothing has ever indicated any kind of explanation for the whole thing). I'm not saying it's not there, though, since it was late and I was probably extremely tired and semi-delirious. But I'm just trying to say that I would be surprised if it turned out that the only thing keeping Harry from getting killed was Fawkes dropping two feathers into the wand-machine. But that's just me and my endless problems with wand connections. Sorry.
The thing with this book, mainly, was that I spent over 700 pages being a complete paranoid psychopath. I have been suspecting about every character of being evil two times or more, except for this list of characters that I trust:
-Harry
-Ron
-Hermione
-Sirius
-Owls
-McGonagall
-Dumbledore
-Snape
Yeah, that's right, Snape is here on the list, but Hagrid (I was going to write Haymitch for a second) has been a serious suspect. If I come out of this series with PTSD or any other mental illness, it's been worth it.
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