Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Ratings3,024
Average rating4.4
I would probably give this one a 4.75 out of 5 stars. Don't get me wrong I absolutely loved it. I just found some parts slower than others. Still an amazing read!
Having established a winning setup with The Prisoner of Azkaban - slow start, long and baffling middle, big batch of clarifying reveals at the end - it seems that JKR decided to go down the ‘if it ain't broke don't fix it' route With The Goblet of Fire and stretched the same format out to fill an extra two hundred pages, when really she could just have cut out the bits with the blast ended skrewts or Hermione's quest for the emancipation of the house elves and written a shorter, tighter story. Im giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming that these points must evolve into something significant in later books because they were unnecessary here.
It's interesting to note that The Goblet of Fire, like the previous books in the series, came out a year after its predecessor. The remaining three books have two or three years between releases. With this book being significantly bigger than the first three, I do wonder if JKR rushed it and if that's what's responsible for its many niggling mistakes. Her inability to punctuate Sirius's name properly throughout was incredibly irritating, not to mention her continued insistence on using ellipses where they're completely redundant, for the third book running. She's also come to rely on a select few favourite phrases so much that their repetition now jolts me entirely out of my reading (Hagrid's ‘beetle black eyes', or ‘bottle brush tail' in reference to Crookshanks being the worst offenders).
On the plus side the Weasleys remain absolutely adorable, and I think Mr and Mrs Weasley might be my favourite characters of the whole series. I could have wept when Mrs Weasley and Bill turned up in place of Harry's family for the final task in the tournament. I enjoyed the introduction of Mad Eye Moody and his roaming, magic eye, and I hope we'll see him again after his convalescence. I'm looking forward to finding out what that glint in Dumbledore's eye meant, and also if Fred and George do invest all that gold in a joke shop. I suspect not though.
3.5 stars.
Easily the best one yet.
I enjoyed this book so thoroughly and finally found that some of the main characters were relatable. It was magical and riveting and had me at the edge of my seat throughout the entire novel.
Finally saw a bit of why people love these books so much!
A 4.5 star read. This book is just darker, deeper and generally more juicy than the other three books. I love that the plot and the character developments progressed more significantly in this book. I love the Tri-Wizard tournament events. I loved Cedric diggory and I was heartbroken all over again at his death. I also have a soft spot for Krum as well and I loved meeting Bill and Charlie Weasley in this novel. I found it super interesting to re read this book and notice the discrepancies between the film and book for example the scene with the merpeople (yes people not just women) was entirely different and less violent than the film depicts. Also both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are mixed sex schools not all boys and all girls schools like the film suggests. Also the memories in Dumbledores pensieve were different than the one dramatic memory shown in the movie. Also I never remembered Rita Skeeter being a beetle and writing articles about the champions, Hermione and Hagrid until re reading this book. I also forgot about Winky so that was a lovely surprise to remember her. Overall this book is just much more thought out and richer than the first three books so I give this book 4.5 stars and I can't wait to continue with this series!
Once again I'm impressed with the character development in this series. They are imperfect as real people are, learning real life lessons. These are my favorite things about the series in general, and this book specifically.
It seems to me that this book is more of a setup for what follows than it is about the Triwizard Championship. My only complaint is that the book felt long to me at times, but that's a personal thing.
Overall, this is a fun read that is well written with some good perspectives to think on while walking the road of life.
Reread 2020: I just love the entire story in this book. It got dark! I decided to listen to some ambient sounds, so I was reading this book while sitting in the Hufflepuff common room! ☺️ definitely made the experience even better. Damn, this book makes me so happy and yet so sad at the same time ❤️
No me sorprende que este sea, de lejos, y hasta este momento, el libro que más me gusta de la saga, quizá porque es donde empieza la verdadera acción, porque finalmente Voldemort tiene un cuerpo, y porque Hermione y Rom empiezan a tener mucha más relevancia que en los 3 primeros libros donde seguían viéndose como personajes secundarios, cuando está claro que ese par son de más importancia en la historia. Lo amé, aparte de ello sigo encantada con Sirius Black.
A little too many plot conveniences.
Mostly one-dimensional characters.
Some humor.
Plain, ordinary narrative language (with a bunch of false latins for spells and magic stuff).
Summary: I read it (a sixth time?) through my kids' eyes, who were reading/listening for the first time.
I love reading books to my kids, a lot more than my kids love being read to. I didn't write about it here, but I started Wrinkle in Time a couple months ago and my kids did not love it. They tolerated it until we got to IT being introduced, and that was just too much so we put it down. I might have tried to pick it up again, but my son's teacher gave him a copy of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire because she thought he might like it. He loved the idea of reading such a big book. He may have read it independently, but he does not tend to have that much reading stamina. I had read them the series' first three books, and we had already given up on Wrinkle in Time because it was too scary. But I had not previously read Goblet of Fire because I suspected it might be too scary for them. So I was not really sure if we would make it through.
I talked about it with them, and they were willing to try. I like to keep the book moving and listen to the audiobook in the car. We started with the Stephen Fry audiobook version, but I have that on a bootleg MP3 file that is impossible to find your place on. So we gave up on that one about 1/3 of the way through and moved to the Jim Dale version when my wife drove the kids on a trip without me. I continued to read out loud here and there, but by the time we were about 2/3 of the way through, it had become mostly an audiobook.
Goblet of Fire is the book that moves the series from a late elementary series to a middle-grade/young adult series. It gets darker, and Harry and his friends get older. They have a school dance, and romance starts to become involved. My kids are 8 and barely 10, so it does start to be a bit old for them as well. We stopped a lot to talk about what was going on, both because there were British cultural influences that they were unaware of and also because there were other issues that were over their head. That is part of what is so good about reading aloud; nothing else helps you see your kids as kids more than seeing blank looks on their faces as it becomes clear that they have no idea what is going on.
I assume anyone reading along has read these books before, so I will not hide spoilers. The Goblet is not introduced until nearly 40% of the way through the book. The first task is about halfway through the book. The death happens with more than 2 hours left in the audiobook.
Because I know my kids tend to get scared, we made sure that the section about the third task was mid-morning on Saturday while we were folding clothes. And after the end of the chapter (immediately after the death), we stopped for a day. And then the last couple hours were early Sunday afternoon, and once Harry got back from the graveyard, there was no interest in stopping until the book was done.
As is our custom, we will watch the movie again on a Saturday mid-morning because the kids know it will be a bit scary. As we were getting ready for school this morning, my son said that he didn't think the dragons or maze would be very scary. But he was scared about Wormtail getting his hand cut off.
I think slightly scary books like this are helpful to let children know that the world is not always safe. Some kids have already experienced that more than is helpful and do not need the reminder. But some kids (including mine) do need the reminder. But also the idea of good triumphing over evil is also important.
Kids may have in the background the Christian story and Christ's resurrection. But seeing a story of children participating in good overcoming evil is more tangible in ways that I think make both the story and the theology better. Theologically, kids can intellectually know that Christ's death and resurrection is a good over evil story. But fiction tells that in another way that is also helpful. Of course, christ-figure stories like Harry Potter use the cultural understanding of redemptive sacrifice. As adults, we should be aware of the womanist and feminist critique of redemptive sacrifice. I think kids need to see fictional representations of redemptive sacrifice because that practice in their heads of doing hard things is part of what can help them do hard things on their own.
Part of what kept coming up for me in this book is that Harry assumes he needs to save Ron, Hermione, and Flure's little sister because he does not trust that the adults around him are going to make things right. That is a trauma response to growing up in the Dursley's house, where adults made things worse. It is why the orphan story is so common in children's literature, because we want kids to think that the default is having adults fix things for them. But a story without conflict is not much of a story. And the orphan who does not have an adult that is there for them is one way to make sense of kids needing to take care of themselves.
After we finished Goblet of Fire, my son decided to go back and read the Sorcerer's Stone independently. I don't know if he will finish, but I think it is good that he tries. It may be time for me to introduce them to Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. And if they respond to that, then KB Hoyle's Gateway Chronicles.
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I didn't really review the book. I have read it too many times and everyone else has as well. But I did listen to the Stephen Fry version this time and I think I prefer him to Jim Dale
http://bookwi.se/goblet-of-fire/
Re-reading the series. I truly feel at home in this world. Rowling can always take me away.
On this read I really noticed just how many differences there are in this book to the film... it's mad how much is left out!
Really enjoyed the re-read!
ONWARDS!
This one stuck with me for a long while after having finished it. Books that can do that have a special place on my shelf. highly recommend this series so far, just to read this book.
Funny how many things you forget when you've only read the book once, but seen the movie a million times.
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Re-reading on audiobook!
There are some good parts of this book. But in general I found it extremely long and drawn out. Also, Harry doesn't even have to do anything for himself in this book. It's all just an accident. He just happens to have good luck and other people who tell him what to do. Meh.
You know, because I've seen all except the final Harry Potter movie, I cannot help but compare the books to their movies. Now, there's a death in this book - and no, in case there is actually someone left in the world that doesn't know who dies in the book, I won't say - however, even though I knew the death was coming even when watching the movie, I felt a lot more emotional in the movie than it did in the book. Maybe it's just me, and I certainly do like all the extra information that didn't make it into the movies, but the books just aren't connecting me to the people as well as I had wished.
SO PERFECT JUST LIKE ALWAYS. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. Can't wait to read the fifth :D
In the movies, this was the one that I did not like. Something about it just struck me as contrived. Thankfully, I liked the book a lot better, even though it seems that, in the end, Harry only won through because he was a “good” person. I hope that as he grows up, he'll start winning his battles by brain, rather than by aura.
Easily one of the peaks of the series. The whole plot around Padfoot and Lupin was well rounded off with a neat piece of time travel. In all fantastic reading it the second time. The only problem is that it sets such a high standard that Order of the Phoenix cannot help but disappoint.