Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: A Book Review

One of the pleasures (and also frustrations) is to compare a book with the movie version. It’s a pleasure because you look for those exciting markers in the movie that made the book so good. So, I set out to read the fourth book in the Potter’s series The Goblet of Fire before I venture to see the movie. So far I have enjoyed all the Potter movies, and book series (at least the books I've read). But, I heard that this particular book/ movie is a bit darker than the previous three movies. So I wanted to check this out myself. I found out that it is a darker story then the other three books, but there is an important reason why.

In the Goblet of Fire, you have the same cast of characters, but there is a definite edginess to the book that was not there in book one; it is Death. Death is real and palpable in this book. Rowlings introduces the theme of death in the first chapter with the unfortunate killing of a hapless muggle (a non-witch or wizard) and ends the book with the death of an innocent Hogwart student. She interwove this theme subtly through out the book by names like the Death Eaters, and how dangerous the even a Triwizard tournament can be. Previous books had characters that died, but death wasn’t in the foreground and holds such a major part of the plot.

J.K. Rowlings’ writing is fluid, yet descriptive. She has the ability to describe settings and surrounds, and character emotions in a crisp way that doesn’t allow the reader to get bogged down in minutia. For example, during the different Triwizard Tournament tasks, Rowlings active prose places you right in the middle of the action drawing layers upon layers of imagery to propel the reader along almost effortlessly.

Because she uses such a heavy theme as death, you could say that this book is Harry’s coming of age Book. By the end of the book you see Harry grow in maturity and depth that is heart warning and sad at the same time. The adolescent angst that is so typical of most light teen fair is offset by a dose of reality that is all to real. Death is real. It is painful, and The Goblet of Fire does not hide that fact, and shows through the adventures of a teenage wizard, a painful lesson we all learn in real life.