I generally don’t buy books that aren’t available in an ebook format; therefore, I didn’t read Harry Potter (in English [1]) until a couple months ago, when it was finally released as an ebook. I immediately purchesed the whole series and it has been my B read [2] up until I finished in about a week ago. Here are my thoughts.

This does contain spoilers.

---

One thing most people agree about JK Rowling is that character is her best skill, and I agree wholeheartedly. Which is why I’m going to begin by discussing what I didn’t like about her characters.

For the most part, the characters are tenaciously consistent in their behavior to the point that it comes off as almost juvenile, until something happens that reveals their underlying motives. Snape is shamelessly biased against Harry and for the Slytherins, doesn’t make attempts to rationalize his bias, and at no point is seen going against this for appearance’s sake. The Dursleys outright hate Harry, to the point of abuse, and don’t even try to pretend otherwise. Draco is completely mean-spirited and doesn’t show a hint of a greater aim (good or evil) beyond putting others down.

The insidious thing about this is the shameless consistency is completely superficial. Dig beneath a character’s facade and a being with complex motivations appears. The problem with that is, you never know who is secretly evil or good: nothing about their behavior foreshadows it. So for instance, nothing Draco does until the very end of the fifth book suggests that he is anything more than a petty ostracizer, so it seems that Draco’s character inexplicably changes in the final two books. And yet it’s not so: then more complex Draco that emerges in the final two books is completely congruent with the Draco of the first five books. Petty ostracism is exactly what we’d expect an insecure, glory-seeker would do until pressed by circumstance to move beyond that. So, although the characters are drawn up well, every character development is a random surprise rather than something that was set up previously, and I didn’t like that.

Other than that quibble, the character was very good, and I can’t remember a book where I had more unexpected in-character moments. (For example, Luna’s question, “Is that why you dyed your eyebrow, for the party? Should I do mine too?”, came out of nowhere but was so totally Luna.)

I believe that Harry Potter will be studied as a classic for how it does character alone (and especially the way dialogue supports the character).

---

Now for other aspects of the books.

The style of Harry Potter was natural-sounding and easy to parse, rather pleasantly concise I would say, if not spectacular. You can tell she tried to reflect the pace of the action in the prose (for instance, using shorter sentences and omitting details in the Quidditch scenes to reflect the quickness of the game); this is successful but other writers have done it much better.

The style did have an odd quirk. I once read a review that pointed out that Rowling tends to avoid using the word “said” to mark quotations, replacing it with other words like “cried”, “exclaimed”, “quipped”, etc., and rather formulaicly, as if it were an eighth grade writing assignment. I didn’t notice it before I read that review, so the overuse of words other than “said” doesn’t sound overly stilted, at least. However, now that it’s been pointed out to me, I do notice it quite a bit, and it does seem a little silly in many places.

The story itself it had strong and weak points, but it passed two crucial tests for me. One, I was hooked. Whenever I got near the end of a book, I found I couldn’t stop reading because I had to see how it turned out [3]. Two, I regularly go back to reread sections.

The main weakness of the stories is that many plot turns are hard to swallow, even allowing for a reasonable suspension of disbelief. The fourth book, Goblet of Fire, was the one I found particularly dubious; I simply found it too contrived, and didn’t find anyone’s reaction to the odd circumstances believable. This, nevertheless, didn’t stop me from reading through to the end once I got to the late chapters, so I suppose it wasn’t a deal-breaking weakness [4].

The system of magic was surprisingly consistent, given how many seemingly random effects pop up. I wasn’t expecting that.

---

My favorite character is Phineas Nigellus Black. My favorite living character was probably Luna Lovegood. There really weren’t any significant characters I didn’t like in the whole series; I would say the least interesting character was Cho Chang (and she gets a pass because she was understandably upset about her boyfriend dying).

One fascinating thing is the similarity of Harry Potter’s home life with Jane Eyre’s. In Jane Eyre, Jane was (like Harry) orphaned at a young age and adopted by her aunt. Like Harry, Jane had a fat, spoiled, abusive cousin. And like Harry, the reason Jane’s relatives detested her so was because of her refusal to conform to their way of thinking. Jane was intelligent and creative (more of a Ravenclaw) while Harry was noble and open-minded; this was a stark constrast to their vehemently banal adoptive parents.

Speaking of Ravenclaw, that is definitely the house I’d belong to myself. However, on a lark I went to JK Rowling’s Pottermore site and underwent the Sorting ceremony there; the site sorted me into Slytherin.

---

[1] A few years ago I purchased the Latin translation of Harry Potter, and read through about half of it. Yes, there is a Latin translation of Harry Potter. I was surprised to see how many nuances I caught when I read it in Latin.

[2] My A read at the time was The Last Temptation of Christ. I guess I’m burning in hell either way.

[3] My advice on how to put Harry Potter down: stop reading in the middle of a chapter during a transition. The chapters usually end with some drama that makes you want to see what happens next.

[4] For an example of a deal-breaking suspension of disbelief, see the movie Signs.