The fourth book in the Harry Potter Series is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling. We see Harry grow as a wizard and use all he has learned to service the Triwizard tournament. Keep reading to find out why you should give this novel a read!
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Summary
Harry Potter spends the end of the summer with the Weasleys and is invited to go to the Quidditch Cup. The event is going to host over a hundred thousand wizards and everyone is attending. But things go south when the Death Eaters attack the camp. One of the Death Eaters shoots the Dark Mark into the sky, causing mass panic.
A few weeks later, Harry, Ron, and Hermione return to Hogwarts for their fourth year and learn that this year the school will be hosting the Triwizard tournament. It hasn’t been held in a century because it was deemed too dangerous as many students died.
Three student are going to be chosen for the tournament, one from each school and they have to be 17 or older. The three schools that are participating are Beauzbatons Academy, Durmstrand Institute and Hogwarts. However, a fourth person is chosen and that is Harry Potter.
Now, Harry has to participate because of a binding magic and discover who put his name in the Goblet of Fire. But behind the scenes, Lord Voldemort plans his return to power and he will go to any lengths to make that a reality.
Commentary
Right off the bat, I will say the Quidditch cup thing was such a disaster. Ignoring the lack of security, lack of leadership, and lack of manpower, the event was still pretty badly managed. Not only was magic unsupervised, but the memories of the humans working the event was erased 20 times a day. And to make the matters worse, the same humans were the ones that ended up being attacked by the death eaters.
Now, let’s dive into the crux of the book, the Goblet of Fire. When Harry’s name is announced by the Goblet of Fire, we are told that he has to participate because of a binding magic spell. That is the stupidest thing ever. What if somebody put the name of a first year? Or a 5-year old? They would HAVE to participate. Considering how easily it was manipulated, that is a real possibility.
The second issue I have is that when we are told that only a strong wizard could have put Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire, that is the end of that mystery. Nobody does an inquiry looking for the perpetrator. The list of who could have done it is very small but we don’t see anyone looking into the matter.
I have a lot more I would love to rant about but those are essential to the plot so I will stop here. These are thoughts that I had when rereading the novels so don’t mind me too much. J. K. Rowling is an amazing author with one of the most complex worlds ever built. She does however, take the easy way out to keep the plot going.
Conclusion
With that said, I did enjoy this book a lot. There is always something going on and while I could have done without the news reporter, it did put the spotlight on Hermione. She is easily my favorite character and very well written. The fourth novel is one of the stronger novels in the series for me and I am glad it felt refreshing for me second read.
Harry Potter is one of my favourite fantasy novels as well. The fact that magic and reality both are weaved into one narrative makes it all the more believable. Whilst alot of imagination is at play yet the human element is not missing and that is what make the series so exciting to read
Agreed. Rereading it and getting to appreciate it all over again is a great feeling
Love the review!
Thanks!