Category: book recommendations and reviews

Jameyanne Rereads Harry Potter 2019 Edition: Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows

Last week, I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, completing this year’s reread of the Harry Potter series. I have so enjoyed this reread, as I enjoy it every year, but I have particularly enjoyed writing down all my thoughts as I read the books and sharing those thoughts with you. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them.

If you’re just joining in now, you can find my thoughts on Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets here and Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix here.

So here are my random thoughts on the last two books in the series. As always, there will be spoilers, so if you haven’t read the books and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading now.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I really love the opening chapter of this book, “The Other Minister.” It not only does an excellent job of catching the reader up on what has happened since Voldemort revealed himself at the ministry at the end of Order of the Phoenix and how the whole world has changed since then, but it also is just a great Muggle perspective of the wizarding world we have become so accustomed to by now. It’s a really great opening to the book.

“Spinner’s End” is also a great chapter, and I think it’s interesting whether you know or do not know the truth about Snape. The first time I read it, I definitely took it as confirmation of Snape actually being on Voldemort’s side, which I think was a big part of the point. Rereading it now that I know all the truth, it’s really cool to see how well Snape acts, particularly when you consider that Wormtail is living with him, and he must hate Wormtail as much as he hated Sirius (it was Wormtail, really, who got Lily killed after all). I do wonder about Wormtail’s presence though. He isn’t important to the rest of the plot of this book, so I kind of feel like he’s there to remind the reader that he exists before he reappears in the seventh book.

I love how everything about this book exudes a darker tone and how Harry and his friends are treated much more like adults. Like when Harry first arrives at the Burrow, the conversation he has with Molly Weasley while he’s eating soup is a much more adult conversation than any in previous books. Same goes for his feeling that he can confide his suspicions about Malfoy to Arthur. We see it in how Diagen Alley has changed too, and that everything at Hogwarts seems more tense. Poor Hannah Abbott!

This brings me to the point about the sixth book that annoys me. Harry just becomes obsessed with Draco Malfoy and what he’s up to, to the exclusion of everything else. For one thing, it feels like a repeat of the first book when they’re convinced that Snape is trying to steal the sorcerer’s stone, except this time there’s barely any proof that Malfoy is up to anything bad, at least for a good chunk of the book. And the problem isn’t so much that Harry is obsessed. The problem is that he’s right. It just irks me.

Harry also becomes an annoying person around the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book, and he winds up doing a lot of things that feel totally outside his character. Like in Order of the Phoenix he is really upset when he sees how his father bullied Snape and hears that his father walked around Hogwarts jinxing people who annoyed him. And in this book, Harry is totally fine with trying out the Prince’s pretty gruesome spells on Crabbe and Filch, just because he can. This is actually kind of an interesting point, because as annoying as I find it, it’s kind of a cool point to show how much Harry trusts Snape (the book actually makes this point at the end).

If Malfoy wasn’t in Hogsmeade because he was in detention, how did he put Madam Rosmerta under the imperius curse? I assume he used an accomplice, like Harry said when he, Ron, and Hermione are debating the necklace incident. But a lot of the specifics of how malfoy’s plan came together get answered in the end, and this doesn’t.

Another thing that annoys me about this book is that while it’s cool to learn about Voldemort’s past, it isn’t really an interesting backstory. He’s a sociopath. He’s been a sociopath for forever. Personally,I prefer villains who have a reason—even a bad reason—for being villains. But maybe that’s just me. That being said, eleven-year-old Voldemort is quite creepy.

Okay, so while I like a lot of the elements of this book, it doesn’t feel as well put together as the earlier books in the series, particularly in the middle. It’s just kind of messy.

I appreciate that Dumbledore gives Harry a talking to about not getting the memory. He deserved that one hundred percent.

Dumbledore and Voldemort’s meeting is really fascinating.

If I wrote fanfic, I would most definitely write the Slughorn Christmas Party between Tom Riddle leaving school and Voldemort showing his true colors in which it’s obvious to Dumbledore that he’s a bad guy, but they’ve both been invited and have to make civil conversation while actually hating each other.

So if I have my timeline right, which I may not, the defense against the dark arts job has been jinxed for like forty years? Wow.

Ugh I hate that Harry uses sectumsempra on Malfoy. I like it for the story, but I hate it for Harry. It makes me so uncomfortable and angry with him, which is totally the point.

A lot of people hate on the Harry and Ginny romantic pairing. I don’t hate it, but I don’t absolutely love it either. I think part of the reason why is that we don’t spend a lot of time with them as a couple to really get attached to it and be upset when Harry breaks it off to protect her. There’s also a lot of telling and not showing that happens both with the buildup to the relationship and the relationship itself. I know having characters be happy is hard to write, but instead of just saying over and over again that Harry is happier than he’s been in a while, show us. And while Ginny is certainly more developed in the books than the movies, she’s still always kept outside important things like knowledge about the prophecy and the horcruxes, and that all stops me from really getting behind their relationship.

I don’t really like Harry exploding at Dumbledore about Snape being the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy. It makes complete sense based on everything we know about Harry and Snape, but hasn’t he exploded at Dumbledore enough for the series?

I think after this reread, I would say Half-Blood Prince is probably my least favorite of the books, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned so far. I just don’t like hanging out with Harry as much when he’s so obsessive, I don’t like that he’s right, I think the plot is in general weaker, and I wish Voldemort’s backstory was more interesting and not just Voldemort was born evil and just became more evil.

That being said, the climax of this book is awesome and creepy and then terrifying and then heartbreaking, and it leads into the seventh book so well.

Speaking of, it’s a good thing none of the horcruxes they track down in the seventh book are protected the way the cave is. If they had to search through thin air for magic like Dumbledore does, they would never get there.

I know Dumbledore drinking the potion is more dramatic, but seriously would it be against Voldemort’s cave rules to fill the cup with potion and just dump it on the ground or vanish it once it’s in the cup or whatever?

Malfoy must be good at the imperius curse to keep Rosmerta acting so normally all the time. Harry doesn’t do so well himself in the seventh book.

This must be a really interesting book from Dumbledore’s perspective, because he spent a lot of time this year trying to keep Harry off Malfoy and Snape’s trail—not that he does a very good job of it—but still.

This is another one of those endings where I hope every time that it will be different.

The end of this book is a little like a recap of the whole series, which works really well as a lead into the seventh book, which ditches the school-year formula the first six books have followed.

And I just love that Ron and Hermione continue to stand with Harry all the way.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The first chapter of this book is so, so creepy. It sets the tone well. And I love how from then on, things just take off and don’t stop.

I always wondered why Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn’t bring at least one cauldron with them. Like it wouldn’t have been that farfetched that they would need to make some potions.

HEDWIG!!!! Why? I mean, I know why, don’t answer that. But it makes me so, so sad! Poor Hedwig!

And Moody! It’s wild how so much of us getting attached to Moody happened in the fourth book when he wasn’t Moody. But losing him is still just so awful!

So when Hermione is sorting books, she puts Numerology and Grammatica on one pile of books and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts on the other, and I can’t figure out which pile she put which on. Again, I wish I knew more about arithmancy. Also why in the world is she indecisive about Break with a Banshee? Trash it already.

Not a big deal but I always wondered what happened to Crookshanks and Pigwidgeon when the three go off on their quest for horcruxes.

I would love to know Mrs. Weasley’s feelings on Harry and Ginny and the fact that they were dating and are now broken up.

I love how J. K. Rowling keeps the tension up through the scenes at the Burrow and on to the wedding and the aftermath. Things just continue to be really tense even when they’re in Grimauld Place trying to find the locket. And of course the sequence at the Ministry is just great.

It’s never quite clear to me if the reason the Death Eaters are hanging out outside Grimauld Place is because they know Harry owns the house or because they’ve been saying Voldemort’s name. You’d think there would be more out there if it was because they were saying the name. Because they would know for sure that they were in there.

Also when did Ron start saying Voldemort’s name? He was always so strongly against it, and all of a sudden he’s saying it.

Kreacher’s tale is horrifying.

I’m really curious why any muggle borns would turn themselves in to the Ministry for questioning. Like they at least should be aware of muggle history, right? Whatever the reason, the interrogation of muggleborns scene is really scary.

I really hope the Cattermoles made it out of the Ministry. I want to know what happened to them.

Also, I’m curious if Mr.Weasley puts two and two together and realizes that he wasn’t talking to Runcorn once he knows that there were intruders in the Ministry.

And of course, Umbridge is the worst.

The thing I love about the sequence in the Ministry is that it calls back so much to the fifth book. It’s yet another example of just how well put-together these books are.

A week or so ago, while we were playing trivia, I was talking with my friends about wizarding religion. Wizards celebrate Christmas, but it’s very secular. There is Easter break, but there isn’t any celebration of Easter beyond Mrs. Weasley sending the kids Easter eggs. Usually the Easter holidays is the time when the schoolwork ramps up, and we get into the climax of the book. But it was never religious. Students didn’t usually go home (Deathly Hallows is the exception and who can blame them), and there wasn’t even Easter dinner at Hogwarts. So there really isn’t a lot of religion in the wizarding world. There’s possibly some religion at Dumbledore’s funeral and at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, but the line between magical ceremonies and religious ceremonies is blurry. On the other hand, when Harry buries Moody’s eye, he marks the tree with a cross. I wonder if that’s a wizarding thing or if it’s because of Harry’s muggle upbringing.

And now we come to the point that seems most contentious, at least in my circle of Harry Potter fans: the time they spend in the tent. I know so many people who dislike this book for this segment, even call it Harry Potter and the Neverending Camping Trip. I admit that things can be a bit slow at this point in the book, but I don’t dislike it. The truth is they don’t know where the other horcruxes are, they’re in real danger all the time, they’re struggling to find food, and feeling isolated from the rest of the wizarding world and abandoned by Dumbledore. This is really important to their journey throughout the rest of the book. Cutting away from Harry’s point of view at this point and showing us what’s going on in the rest of the wizarding world wouldn’t, as a couple of friends think, solve the problem. For one thing, it feels like a cheat to get away from a part of the book that I imagine was difficult to write and certainly isn’t the easiest to get through. We’ve never left Harry’s point of view in the middle of the book before except in his visions of Voldemort, which are still his point of view, and those couple of times in the first book when we got Ron’s and Hermione’s perspectives during the quidditch games for some reason. So cutting away from Harry now would feel unnatural, and personally it would have annoyed me as a reader. Second, and I’ve expressed this view before, I hate it when the reader knows things that the main characters don’t—unless there’s some deliberate dramatic irony thing going on. It would make it much harder to connect with Harry and his feelings of isolation and abandonment if we, the readers, know what’s going on out there. So no, the tent isn’t the best part of the book, , but it’s an important part of the book. Rant over.

Actually, not quite over, because this is the part where I tell you of my vision of a Netflix original adaptation of the Harry Potter books. I think in that form, we could see more of the wider wizarding world throughout the course of the whole story and it would feel much more natural than it would in the books. Also, like, Netflix originals are so good I would love to see them adapt the Harry Potter books.

I’m so mad at Ron for leaving, but it feels totally natural. Remember Goblet of Fire?

Okay, so they can’t make good fooc out of nothing, but they can visit supermarkets and they have a bag of holding. So why don’t they buy enough food to last a while? Like once they realize this is a problem, they should plan ahead.

The Godric’s Hollow sequence is great every time. So many feelings. So terrifying.

I get that Harry has doubts about Dumbledore, but I’m always surprised that the source of those doubts is Rita Skeeter, after how she twisted the truth about Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid back in Goblet of Fire. Okay, so some of what Rita wrote about was true, like Hagrid was half-giant, and Harry’s scar did hurt him, but most of it was completely made up or so twisted it was unrecognizable. Hermione reminds Harry of this a couple times when they’re talking about Dumbledore, but it never occurs to Harry that Rita Skeeter might just be wrong. Okay so there’s no skating around the for-the–greater-good letter between Dumbledore and Grindlewald, but on the other hand who’s to say Rita Skeeter couldn’t fake that too? I’m just saying while I understand that Harry has doubts about Dumbledore throughout the course of this book, and it’s perfectly natural and a really good character journey for him, I wish he didn’t accept Rita Skeeter’s version of events so readily.

Ron’s totably right. Why didn’t Harry take the horcrux off before diving into the pond? It seems like a stupid move given that they know the horcrux can be sort of alive at times. A sentence explanation could solve this problem.

I like the bits when both Harry and Hermione express frustration with their new wands, because they don’t work right. Only aside from complaining, they generaally seem to do fine with them.

Xenophilius Lovegood is heartbreaking. He just wants to save Luna. Also awful because he betrays Harry but still heartbreaking.

Not gonna lie, I would love to see the scene when the Death Eaters take Luna off the Hogwarts Express. Was the train stopped halfway back to London? Do Ginny and Neville and other members of Dumbledore’s Army put up a fight? Or did the Death Eaters wait until they got to Kings Cross and grab her on the platform or even out in the muggle station when she was alone?

Of all the encounters they’ve had with Death Eaters so far, the sequence at Malfoy Manor is by far the most terrifying.

DOBBY!!! NO!!! I cry every time, particularly when Harry writes “Here lies Dobby, a free elf” on the headstone. I’m crying now just writing about it. Poor Dobby!

Harry says that the Death Eaters will know that Hermione snapped his wand by using priori incantatem, and okay, maybe, but that was months ago, and she’s been doing that set of protective spells every day since (or almost every day, since harry complains his wand doesn’t work as well). Would the Death Eaters really have the patience to wade back through all that magic to get there? I feel like they should be more worried about the fact that the Death Eaters will know what their protective spells are. The Death Eaters could certainly deduce that Harry doesn’t have the phoenix feather wand anymore, given that none of the wands taken from Harry, Ron, and Hermione match Olivander’s description.

Once you hit Gringotts in this book, it’s sort of the point of no return. You can’t stop.

I love how so much of the Gringotts break-in harkens back to the earlier books, particularly the first book when everything was so happy and innocent.

I love the scene in the room of requirement. It really ties everything together so nicely. And it’s really fun seeing everyone back together.

The battle of Hogwarts is the most epic.

FRED!!!

I don’t know why but the image of Professor Trelawney throwing crystal balls at Death Eaters has always been really funny to me.

I feel silly, but this is the first time when I actually realized the moment when Ron looks for Crookshanks to stop the whomping willow so they can get through to the shrieking shack and Hermione says “Are you a wizard or what?” is a callback to the moment when Hermione panics over the devil’s snare in the first book and looks for wood to start a fire and Ron says “Are you a witch or what?” I love it!

Lupin! Tonks! Nooo!

The sequence of Snape’s memories is probably one of my favorite sequences in the whole series. I know there’s a lot of debate around this. Snape is a horrible, abusive person to Harry, and he should in no way be forgiven for that. I don’t get behind the idea that he was a stalker to Lily. I read this chapter as he genuinely loved her. And it’s all just so sad!

Pause for a small anecdote: When these books were first coming out, it always took almost a month for the Braille version to be printed and shipped after the print version had come out. So I had the fourth, fifth, and sixth books spoiled for me (when I started the series, the first three had already been published). For the seventh book, National Braille Press was able to work things out with the publisher so they could have an advance copy and the Braille book was on my doorstep by 10:00 AM of release day. Still, my older brother got it at midnight, so by noon or 1:00 or something, he was already finished, and I was still in the beginning middle when he called me. Now we’d been having a longstanding debate about whether Harry was going to die or not. My older brother was positive Harry was going to die. I vehemently objected to the idea, and I used the fact that Voldemort took Harry’s blood as proof. So my older brother calls me up on Deathly Hallows release day, and he’s finished the book, and I haven’t, and all I want is to discover it myself and not be spoiled. And he says, “Jameyanne, we were both right.” And before he could say more I hung up. So I got through Deathly Hallows without being spoiled, and yes, we were both right.

Colin!

Actually I have something to say about Colin dying beyond just wailing. I’ve mentioned this before in other posts, but i feel like by the time we get to Colin, it’s just too much, and it doesn’t matter, and it should. I don’t know. Like this all should be messy and people should die, because otherwise it doesn’t mean anything, and it’s unrealistic if it’s all so clean and neat, but it just feels like too much death around this point (though admittedly that depends on the mood I’m in when I’m reading this particular sequence).

Harry’s walk into the forest is just so tense and full of feelings.

The quote “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” has always been one of my favorites in the series. But then again, I’m one of those people with whole worlds in my head, and I totally approve of the idea that they are still real.

There are just so many amazing epic moments after Harry comes back. Neville! Oh Neville is just great! And Molly is amazing!

Just one question though, how does Bellatrix know that Fred is dead? She wasn’t there. Is there like some running Death Eater score board or something we don’t know about?

The first time I read this, I wished for a more climactic duel between Harry and Voldemort. Now I think it’s perfect. Harry honestly doesn’t have the skill to battle Voldemort, Voldemort isn’t interested in  a protracted fight, and Harry taunting Voldemort with what he knows and Voldemort doesn’t understand is all amazing. Particularly when you contrast this with all Harry’s previous encounters with Voldemort, when he’s always been on the defensive and been terrified. It’s just a great moment of realizing the character development.

Voldemort referring to himself in the third person is always just kind of funny to me. Like it’s not a funny scene at all, but whenever Voldemort says something like “Lord Voldemort is happy,” or “Lord Voldemort is angry,” or “how can you dream of knowing more than Lord Voldemort” (these are not exact quotes), I crack up.

Oh I just love this ending! All of it! But especially Peeves!

I know a lot of people hate the epilogue. But I like it.

Every time I finish this series, I always need to take some time to mourn the fact that it’s over. But I’ll always be able to go back and reread them again next year.

Beartown Review

Cover of Beartown by Fredrik BackmanLast month, I read Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I read And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman at the end of last year, and I absolutely adored it, so when a book reviewer I like on YouTube recommended this one, I was excited to give it a try. And I was not disappointed. Beartown may be one of my favorites from the whole year so far, and since I’m inching up on the library waiting list for the sequel, I wanted to tell you about it.

Beartown is a dying town in the middle of the forest. The industry has moved away, and they’re slowly losing ground to the trees. Things aren’t developing. Their only hope of survival as a town is their junior hockey team, which is poised to win national semifinals. If they win the national finals, then the hockey league might invest in a school in their town and revitalize everything. But at the after party for the semifinals game, the star hockey player violently rapes the team manager’s fifteen-year-old daughter. We’re not talking about an iffy situation where there’s any question of consent here. It’s violent.

The book is told from the point of view of the town, or rather, all the key townspeople involved in hockey and this particular event, as they deal with the consequences of the rape. The reactions are what you would expect. Half the town villifies the girl, and the other half supports her. But the way this is written, and the focus on the consequences for the town of this one act, is so incredibly well-done.

A quick warning, which you’ve probably figured out, this book is pretty heavy. It deals with rape, and it doesn’t shy away from it. There are some graphic scenes. If that’s a problem, this might not be the book for you.

But this was an absolutely fabulous book. The writing was stellar and vivid and so real. And it dealt with these really difficult issues with sensitivity and realism. Things built up so well, and the tension got so thick it was oppressive. I won’t spoil anything, but the ending was exactly what I wanted it to be. I actually stayed up all night reading this one because once I hit the halfway point of the book, I couldn’t put it down. As I said, this is one of my favorites of 2019 so far, and even though I read it over a month ago, I can’t get it out of my head (in a good way).

The only quibble I have with this book, and only a law student or lawyer would take issue with this, is that it is totally unrealistic for the girl’s mother, who’s an attorney, to be representing her in the case against the hockey player. It just wouldn’t happen. But honestly that’s a small thing and I can ignore it because it lends so many feelings to the story.

Like I said, there is a sequel, and I am really excited to read it, but the book could stand alone quite well (and there’s a distinct possibility that it should. I’ll let you know.).

But really I can’t say enough good things about this book. I never thought I would love a book that is so centered on hockey, but I do. It’s an amazing story, and I feel like everyone should go get a copy and read it. Read it right now.

If you have read Beartown, I would love to know what you thought about it. And if you haven’t, seriously go read it now.

Caliban’s War Review

Cover of Caliban's War by James S. A. CoreyIt’s been more than a week, but I’m finally back with my thoughts on the second Expanse book, Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey. Because this is a review of the second book in a series, there will be spoilers for the first book. I can’t help that. So if you haven’t read the first book in the series and you think you might pick these up, read on at your own risk. You can also check out my review for the first book, Leviathan Wakes, over here.

Caliban’s War picks up a year and a half after the end of Leviathan Wakes. Earth and Mars are on the brink of war; Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are working for the Outer Planets Alliance; and everybody is watching Venus, which is doing some weird things. Then someone releases a human modified with the protomoleckle onto Ganymede, and everything explodes. Mars and Earth tip ever closer to war, and Ganymede, the breadbasket of the solar system, swings toward a total chaotic collapse. Holden quits working for the OPA and instead joins forces with a botanist from Ganymede whose five-year-old daughter was kidnapped at the same time the protomolecule was released on Ganymede.

At the same time, Bobbie Draper, a Martian marine who witnessed the first attack on Ganymede, joins forces with a high-level U.N. operative, Avasarala, to try and stop imminent war between Earth and Mars.

This book is really fast and exciting. As with the first book in the series, I loved the world building, but in this book Holden finally got some good character development, and the plot really pulled me in. It had both the personal stakes, the missing child, and the galactic stakes, the protomolecule threatening to destroy all of the everything. Also, there was a ton of political intrigue, and I loved watching Avasarala and Bobbie moving through that world and pretty much just kicking butt all the time.

In short, this was the book that really drew me into the series, and now I’m really excited to get the next one and see what happens.

April Reading Roundup

Collage of the covers of the seven books I read in April: The Bane Chronicles, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Street, When Dimple Met Rishi, A Man for All Seasons, City of Ghosts, and The GrownupApril has come to an end, and so has the semester. Hurray!

Do to a number of circumstances—classes wrapping up, finals, getting sick again, applying for the bar, and of course revising my book—I only read seven books in April. All in all, it was a pretty good mix of books. I’ve posted full reviews for all but one of them, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here.

Speaking of which, I’ve really enjoyed writing longer, individual reviews for the books I’m reading, and I’m planning to keep it up. But I’d love to know if you’re enjoying them too, if there’s anything I can do to make them better or more helpful, or if you absolutely hate them. Please give me some feedback.

Onto the books.

I started April with The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson. This is a short story collection focusing on Magnus Bane, an important character in Cassandra Care’s Mortal Instruments books, and one who recurs across her other shadowhunter series. This book was a ton of fun, and if you like Clare’s shadowhunter stuff, I’d definitely recommend this. If you’re thinking of trying out Clare’s work for the first time, this probably isn’t the place to start. It might be confusing. But up to you. My full review is here.

Next, I read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling. I love how every time I reread these books my favorites shift. I used to really like this book, but now feel it isn’t as strong as some of the others. That being said, it’s still Harry Potter, and it will always be close to my heart, so don’t you dare criticize it. I didn’t finish Deathly Hallows in April, but I did finish it May 1, so keep an eye out for my thoughts on these last two books. In the meantime, I finally posted my random thoughts on Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets here and Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix here. Be warned, there are spoilers.

Next I read The Street by Ann Petry. This was our April book club selection. It’s the story of a single mother trying to raise her son and better her life in 1940s Harlem. It’s so powerful and heartbreaking, and I loved it. Everyone should absolutely read this book. Go read it now!

After that, I read When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. This is a YA contemporary romance book, about two Indian-American kids at a pre-college app-development summer program, and their parents are trying to set them up to get married. I really liked the first half of this, and then it kind of fell flat for me, but it was still definitely an enjoyable read. My half-gushy, half-ranty thoughts are here, and if you’ve read this I would love to know what you think of it.

Next, I took an evening to read A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. I had to read this for my legal profession class, and so I’m not going to write a full review of it, because you don’t want to hear about whether Sir Thomas Moore was a good or ethical lawyer c(I personally think he was pretty stupid, actually). But it was a really interesting play, and I’m glad I read it. I hear the movie is good, too, but it cuts out the character of the Common Man, which strikes me as sad because he was such a great character.

Next, I read City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab. I loved her Shades of Magic series, so when I found out she was writing a middle grade series I was all over this. Cass’s parenss are TV ghost hunters. But Cass can actually see ghosts. Adventures ensue. It is great fun, and just my level of creepy. I definitely recommend.

And I finished off April with The Grownup by Gillian Flynn. This was our last book club selection for the school year, but I hope not our last book club book ever. I think we’ve decided to go on over skype or something, and I am very glad. I’ve read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and it wasn’t my type of fiction. I like to have at least one character in a book that I can cheer for, and Gone Girl did not have that. The Grown-Up was so short that I didn’t have time to really dislike anybody, which was a definite advantage. It was also so short that it was easy to fit into finals studying—I think I read it in an hour. I was surprised, but I actually really liked it.

And that’s it for April. Please do let me know what you think of the individual book reviews I’ve been doing, and if you’ve read any of these books, I’d be happy to talk about them in more detail.

The Grownup Review

Cover of The Grownup by Gillian FlynnMy last book of April was another fast and furious read, easy to squeeze in as a study break. Our final law school book club selection was The Grownup by Gillian Flynn. I say final book club pick, but we’ve actually decided to continue on using skype or google hangouts after law school ends, which I am very happy about. I will wax poetical about how much I love this book club at a later date.

The Grownup definitely fell into the category of books that I was surprised that I liked. I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn a few years ago, and I wasn’t a huge fan for a number of reasons. But I really enjoyed The Grownup.

This book was originally published as a short story in an anthology, but was republished later as its own book. So it was really short, and really easy to read in one sitting in between studying for copyright and legal profession.

Because it’s so short, it’s hard to give a good description without spoiling the whole thing, but I’ll do my best. Our main character is basically a con artist, and her current occupation is being a psychic, among other things. So when Susan comes into the shop complaining of a troubled teenaged stepson that may be caused by a haunted house, our protagonist (whose name I am totally forgetting) goes to “cleanse” the house, make some money, whatever. Then she sees the house, meets the exceptionally creepy teenage boy, and is faced with the very real possibility that he may indeed be possessed by the house. And I can’t say more than this.

I liked how short this was. The writing was really good, and the characters were sharp and vivid and quirky. The twists, because of course there are twists, were all really twisty.

I will say the ending wasn’t entirely satisfying. It was open-ended, which wasn’t the problem, but it just dicn’t make a ton of sense given the circumstances. I wish one of three things had been the case: (1) the book had ended a few pages earlier than it did, (2) the current ending was set up a bit more in the earlier part of the story, or (3) the current ending was stretched out just a bit more to allow the readers to settle into it a bit more.

One of the things that we talked about in book club this week is how Gillian Flynn plays with genres and tropes in this book. We get like supernatural gothic, creepy child, evil stepmother, and a whole bunch more. It was really fun to see all of them turned on their head.

On the whole, this was a fast and creepy book, and I’m still thinking about it even though I read it a week ago. It’s haunting, but in a good way. If you like genre-bendy mysteries and particularly short ones, this may be the book for you.

I’ll be back soon with a rundown of everything I read in April and more fun Harry Potter notes, but in the meantime, have you read The Grownup? Do you agree with my assessment?

City of Ghosts Review

Hello from the other side of finals. Almost. I still have a final project for my governing virtual worlds class to finish up, but the exams are done, and they’re always the roughest.

Cover of City of Ghosts by Victoria SchwabLast week, I read City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab. I read her Shades of Magic series two summers ago, and I loved it, so when I found out she’s working on a middle grade series I was so excited, and I was not disappointed.

Cassidy Blake’s parents co-write books that are half history, half ghost story, and now they’re taking Cassidy on a whirlwind summer of the world’s most haunted cities for a TV show. Cassidy’s parents don’t really believe in ghosts, but Cassidy does. Because a year ago, she was in an accident where she nearly drowngh, and a ghost saved her. That ghost is name Jacob, and he’s now Cass’s best friend. So Cass, her parents, her ghost friend, and their cranky cat are off to Edinburgh Scotland for some good old-fashioned haunted city fun times. Cass explores the city, getting to see the birthplace of Harry Potter (I’m jealous), and all the creepy graveyards and catacombs (less jealous because they are sooo creepy). But she gets more than that. She meets a new friend who tells her what she is now that she can see ghosts and what she’s supposed to do with that power. And there’s an evil child-kidnapping ghost after her. Cassidy has to confront the ghost with her new powers or her own life might be in danger. Again.

This was a great read. It was fast and fun, and just my right level of creepy. I really loved Cass and Jacob and all the new friends they make in their adventures. The villain was just so deeply creepy and powerful, and I loved watching Cass learn how to use her power and get stronger and more confident with it. The dynamic between Cass and Jacob is also amazing, but Jacob doesn’t want Cass to learn to use her powers. He’s worried that learning what she is and what she can do will cause her to send him on so he can’t “haunt” her anymore. Also, everything was described so well that I felt like I was really there experiencing it all with Cass.

It was a short book too, which was nice as a mid-finals read. But a lot is packed into that short book, so it didn’t feel short at all, and it moves at a great clip.

I have one complaint, and it is so nitpicky and says a lot more about me than the book. There’s a point in the beginning when Cass describes something as that time in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when they’re in the square in Grimauld Place and someone taps the wall with their wand and the headquarters of the Order appears and so other houses slide out of the way. AND THAT IS NOT HOW IT HAPPENS!

Sorry. I’m good.

But really there is no wand tapping in Grimauld Place. That’s Diagon Alley. In Grimauld Place they show Harry the note from Dumbledore telling him where the headquarters is and it just appears.

Okay so yeah this irked me. But I’m good now I swear.

But other than the fact that I get way too upset about incorrect Harry Potter references, City of Ghosts was a really great book. Also the next book in the series is coming out in September, and I can’t wait. If you’re looking for a fast, fun, only slightly creepy read, this is the book for you. If you’ve already read this book, what did you think? Let’s chat in the comments.

When Dimple Met Rishi Review

Hello all. Sorry for the slight delay since my last post. The end of the semester hit, and with it came not only finals but yet another awful cold. I’m on the mend now, and one final is finished, so it’s back to business as usual. Mostly. I still have two exams and a project to finish up before this weekend, so if I drop off the face of the Earth again for a bit that’s why.

Cover for When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya MenonLast week, I read When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. It took me a bit to get my thoughts together on this one, because I am so conflicted.

When Dimple Met Rishi follows Dimple and Rishi the summer before they go off to college. Both are the children of Indian immigrants to America. Dimple is pretty rebellious. She is totally uninterested in her parents’ traditions, styles, and desires. She just got into Stanford, and all she cares about is coding. She is certainly not interested in snagging an ideal Indian husband. Rishi is pretty much the exact opposite. He is pretty traditional, and he follows his parents’ wishes even when they conflict with his own. He takes being the eldest son of the family very seriously. At the start of the novel, Dimpble and Rishi have never met. But their parents are old friends, and they’re hoping to set up an arranged marriage between Dimple and Rishi. Dimple wants to go to this pre-college coding program for the summer, and to her surprise, her parents let her go. When she gets there, she meets Rishi, who is like “hi future wife,” because he knows what’s going on, and Dimple is like “WHAT?!” And that’s the start of the book.

Full disclosure, I picked this book up after watching a negative review on YouTube and thinking, “This book sounds cool. What is this person talking about?”

So I really, really wanted to like this book. I mean it’s about an Indian-American girl who loves coding and is designing her own app. Like how cool is that? Throw in parents trying and failing to arrange her marriage and this was just set up for a lot of fun. And I did like the first half of the book a lot. It was a lot of fun and so much cute. Dimple and Rishi are made partners for this summer program to design their app, because of course they are. So they have to work together, and they become nerdy friends, and they’re designing their app and having fun and facing down bullies at the summer program. And then Dimple starts falling for Rishi—Rishi fell for her a long time ago—but she’s honest about not wanting a serious relationship because she wants to focus on her coding career, and Rishi listens to her. So they go on a really cute not-date. And I’m still okay with this.

But after this point things fell apart for me, much to my chagrin. For one thing, we lost the cool coding stuff and app design part of the summer program. Everything became focused on them trying to win this talent show which, admittedly, would give them additional money to design their app, but Bollywood dancing has nothing to do with coding. And okay this is a small quibble, but around the halfway point of the book we really do lose the coding stuff, and this book could be happening at any pre-college program. Second, for someone who insists over and over and over again that she doesn’t want to be one of those girls who gives up everything she wants for a guy, well she kind of does just that. And okay she’s not totally okay with it, but she does it. And for a guy who is so great at sticking up for himself and for Dimple when it comes to the other kids in the program, Rishi lets Dimple bulldoze over him all the time. Which brings me to my next concern about consent. I don’t want to go into details, but there’s a scene, and if the gender roles were reversed in that scene, everybody would be shouting about consent.

I admit that these are all relatively small quibbles, and for me, the book could have been saved by a strong ending. I don’t want to give spoilers, but the ending was  way too neat for me. My vaguest possible description is everybody gets what they want and realizes the other one was right and they all live happily ever after. Honestly, the way things were going in the book, I wanted an ending where everything blew up in their faces at the end of the summer program, they broke up, and they walked away having learned something about themselves. This would have been a good ending and made all my other problems with the book totally acceptable, if not strong plot points. But this is not the ending, and the ending that was… it just solved all the problems too neatly and made everything too okay for me.

One last thing I’ll say is that I saw a few book reviews on YouTube expressing that this book was inaccurate to the experience of growing up in the United States as the child of Indian immigrants. The author grew up in India herself, so this isn’t really an #OwnVoices story. I don’t know what it’s like to grow up the child of Indian immigrants in the United States—that’s not part of my own life experience or any research I’ve done—so I’m not going to chime in on that particular commentary about this book. If it’s true, though, I find it troubling.

All in all, as much as I loved the first half of this book, and as much as I wanted to love the second half of this book, it just didn’t work for me. I will say that my perusal of Goodreads reviews shows that a lot of people absolutely adore this book, and a lot of people hate it. I fall somewhere in the middle. It could have been so great, but for me, it just wasn’t. It wasn’t absolutely terrible, but it did have some serious problems, and overall the biggest reason it didn’t work for me is the ending.

If you haven’t read When Dimple Met Rishi, I hope my review is helpful for you to decide if you want to read it. Do keep in mind that opinions are widely spread on this one, so my opinion is certainly not the end-all-be-all on whether this is a good book (actually my opinion is never the end-all-be-all. That’s what opinion means). But since opinions are so divided on this one, I’m also really curious what others who have read this think. Do you agree with my opinion? Do you think I’m totally crazy? Let’s chat in the comments.

Leviathan Wakes Review

Cover of the book Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. CoreyLast year, when I was working at NIST, one of my roommates was reading the Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. He recommended it to me as some of the best science fiction he’s ever read, so I got myself onto the waiting list at the library for the first book. Yes I know that there’s an Amazon show, and one day when I’m not in law school I will watch it, but I’ve always been a book first kind of girl.  In late 2018, I finally got the first book of the series, Leviathan Wakes, out were the library and read it. I read the second book in January, and I’m waiting on the third. Since I’m continuing this series, I wanted to write full reviews for the first two books. This week, I’ll talk about Leviathan Wakes, and I’ll talk about the second book, Caliban’s War, next week.

Leviathan Wakes is set in the far future, where interplanetary space travel is common, and it follows two main characters. Jim Holden is the XO on a big ship that hauls ice from Saturn’s rings back to the asteroid belt and the inner planets. When the ship receives a distress call, Holden takes a small crew and a small ship and goes to help. They find a derelict ship full of dead bodies. And while Holden and his crew are investigating, someone nukes the whole ice hauler. So Holden and his team, the only survivors of the original ice hauler crew, set out to figure out who destroyed their ship and what it has to do with the derelict they were investigating. Meanwhile, Detective Miller is hired by a rich family to find their missing daughter, who ran away to join the revolutionaries in the asteroid belt. Miller’s investigation leads him to the derelict ship Holden and his crew discovered. And so now they’re investigating together. But as they draw closer to the truth, things become more and more dangerous. They’re moving in on a secret that could destroy the solar system and that someone is willing to kill for. At the same time, we have a war brewing between Earth and Mars, and the asteroid belt is preparing to fight for its independence, and all of this is connected.

I liked this book. In general, I really like anything to do with space, so right off the bat I’m in a good place. I did have some problems with it though. Let’s start with what I liked.

For me, the world building in this book was by far its strongest point. It was very detailed and intricate, and all the pieces that we learned about this futuristic solar system became relevant later. I don’t know if the science is accurate, but it’s portrayed with such authority that I believe it, whether it’s accurate science or not.

The plot was pretty strong too. Once I got into the book, there was no putting it down, and the plot and the setting work so well together.

I was less enthusiastic about the characters in this book. I felt like their motivations either weren’t fully explored or weren’t fully articulated to the reader. At least from my perspective, we pretty quickly  pass the point where Holden’s quest for revenge against the people who blew up his ship and Miller’s quest to find the missing girl are the only motivating factors. Too much else is going on. Over and over again, Holden and Miller would make these decisions that just didn’t make any sense to me. Like if there’s some sort of nuclear event on the asteroid and everyone’s being ordered into shelters, but you’re pretty sure that something else is going on, YOU DO NOT GO OPEN A SHELTER TO SEE WHAT’S GOING ON! You get out of there!

Along the same lines, I felt like the characters didn’t develop over the course of the story. They keep making these same types of bad choices for bad reasons, and they just don’t learn from them.

Finally, and this is entirely a personal preference, this book managed to hit all my sci fi squik buttons, from people being thrown out of airlocks to nuclear meltdowns. Things are generally pretty grim. So if you’re looking for a light fluffy space adventure, this is not it.

Overall, as I said,I really liked the plot and the world building of this book, and while the characters got under my skin a little bit, it wasn’t enough to ruin my enjoyment in the book. It struck me as a very foundational book, and it’s the sort of book that I don’t feel like I can form a good opinion about without reading the rest of the series. If the rest of the series is excellent, I will forgive Leviathan Wakes its flaws. If the rest of the series continues to have these same flaws, we’l, then I won’t forgive Leviathan Wakes. I did go on to read the second book in the series, and as I said, I’ll talk about that more next week. But spoiler alert, I liked it a lot more than this one.

In the meantime, have you read Leviathan Wakes? What did you think?

The Street Review

Cover of The Street by Ann PetryLast week, I read The Street by Ann Petry. It was this month’s law school book club selection, and it may have been the most positively rated book of any we’ve read in the last three years. We had such a great discussion this weekend, and I’ve been dying to talk about it with you. Before it was picked for book club, I’d never heard of this book. Now that I’ve read it, I feel like this should be required reading for everyone.

Lutie Johnson, an African American woman, is a single mother during World War II. At the start of the novel, she’s living with her father and his latest girlfriend, because she and her husband are separated after she took a job as a live-in maid to support the family and he had an affair. Lutie is worried about the influence her alcoholic father and his girlfriend are having on her eight-year-old son, so she sets out to find an apartment of her own. She rents a place on the fifth floor of a building in Harlem, on 116th street, between 7th and 8th to be exact. The super is extremely creepy and is obviously attracted to her in a really creepy way, one of her neighbors is running a quasi-brothel, and the white man who owns the building is also attempting to entice Lutie to sleep with him. Actually everyone is trying to entice Lutie to sleep with them, and Lutie is trying to raise her son as best she can and keep her dignity and take the next small step in the American dream.

We follow Lutie as she struggles to find a way to save more money so they can move to a better apartment where she and her son will feel safer, but we also follow the super’s point of view, the super’s girlfriend’s point of view, the downstairs neighbor’s point of view, and more. Lutie is definitely the main character of the book, but it’s told in an omniscient style. We even get some of the point of view of the street they live on. The street is as much a character as everyone else.

This book was so good! Like I said, it should be required reading for everybody.

First of all, the writing is fabulous, the story is solid, and it is a fast, easy read. The setting was described so well too, and it was so easy to get immersed in the world. I found myself trying to tell Lutie out loud “no, don’t do that! Don’t do it! It’s a bad decision!” But the world and the situation are depicted so well that it is entirely believable that she makes those decisions, because there are no other decisions she can make.

Second, I believe this is the first book by a woman of color that sold more than a million copies. You should read it just for that.

Third, this book takes place during World War II, but honestly it could take place today. It was such a timeless book, and while it’s depressing that we haven’t come all that far since the 1940s when it comes to race and poverty and gender, it also makes this book all the more relevant and important to read.

I would not recommend listening to the audiobook for this one, because it has bad sound effects. The other thing I will say about this book is that it is pretty heavy-handed with the theme. You don’t have to work to figure it out. It hammers it home, sometimes a little too much.

But all in all, I loved this book. It was so poignant and heartbreaking. It had this relentless, driving momentum that made everything seem inevitable and awful in its inevitability, even as I personally couldn’t predict what would happen next. All along, there really are no good decisions. There is only one decision.

For you, that one decision is to read this book.

I one hundred percent recommend you read The Street, whoever you are, whatever you normally like to read. Go read it. Go read it now.

And if you’ve already read it, tell me your thoughts. Do you agree with my assessment? Disagree? Have anything to add?

Jameyanne Rereads Harry Potter, 2019 Edition: Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix

Last week, I talked about my thoughts as I reread the first two Harry Potter books. This week, I’m going to share my thoughts on the next three books in the series, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix, which I reread in January and February.

Quick reminder, there will be spoilers in these posts, and if you don’t want to be spoiled for whatever reason, you shouldn’t read this.

I love all the different ways you can group the Harry Potter books. For example, my initial plan for these posts was to talk about the first three books in one post, then books four and five, then books six and seven. This would group the three shorter books, which are commonly thought of as middle grade books together. Things get darker in books four and five, but in some sense they’re sort of transition books as Voldemort gains strength and returns to power but stays hidden in the shadows. And then I would talk about the sixth and seventh book as the climax and wrap-up of the series with the wizarding world’s second war. I changed this plan because my post for the first three books would have been really long. But once I rethought where I split the books, this also seemed a natural split. The first two books introduce us to the wizarding world, the characters, the villain, the plot (including details that will definitely come back in the later books). In the third book, we really dive into the circumstances around Harry’s parents’ murder and the fall of Voldemort, and of course Wormtail escaping at the end paves the way for the fourth book. In the fourth book, Harry is kind of a puppet in Voldemort’s plan, which succeeds. And in the fifth book, Harry is fighting to get people to believe what happened. These three books also follow Harry’s relationship with Sirius, and Prisoner of Azkaban is the first book in which Harry’s victory is not absolute (and it only goes downhill from there). There are certainly other ways you could group the books: 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and then 5 6 and 7; or 1 2 3 4 and then 5 6 7; or 1 2 3 and then 4 5 6 7; or anything else you can think of. You could even group 2 and 6 together, or 1 and 5. There’s so much in these books I’m sure you could find all manner of reasons to group them any way you want. I chose my organization scheme because it fit well with three mid-length posts.

So let’s dive in.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I’ll say from the get-go that this may be one of my favorite books in the series. It goes back and forth between this book and the fourth book. I love this one so much! It’s so tightly plotted (everything is important to the plot here). It deals with the larger plot of the series with all the Voldemort stuff and yet it’s still really fun and innocent (compared to what comes next). And there are just so many feelings everywhere. This book really feels like the time when Harry is starting to grow up more, and I love it. If people were to ask me what’s the sort of book you would want to write, I would say Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Also fair warning, last time I read this I was taking notes to write a paper on multiparty negotiations in this book for my multiparty negotiations course. The thesis boils down to Lupin is awesome. But don’t be surprised if some of that theory pops up in these comments.

Re: my comment last week about a whole bunch of characters missing big chunks of the school year in Chamber of Secrets, I think it’s possible the professors give them summer  homework to catch everybody up. I’m almost positive the only other time homework is mentioned over the summer is in Chamber of Secrets, when Hermione tells Ron and Harry she’s been busy with schoolwork, and Ron is horrified because it’s the summer.

As Harry opens his first ever birthday cards and presents from his friends at the start of this book, I do wonder about everybody else’s birthdays. I know we can’t be celebrating birthdays constantly, and Ron’s comes up in the sixth book when he’s poisoned, and Hermione buys Crookshanks as an early birthday present for herself, but it would be nice to see Ron’s and Hermione’s birthdays recognized for fun, or to see how birthdays are handled at Hogwarts.

Aunt Marge is an awful person and she totally deserved to get blown up.

Interesting thing that I knew subliminally but just put into words as I’m reading today: Lupin knows that dementors make you relive your worst memories, so when Harry says that he heard someone screaming on the train, Lupin probably has a good idea of what’s going on. I love Lupin.

Trelawney may be a fraud, but almost everything that is predicted in the first divination class comes true, even the things that Harry and Ron predict about each other. Also, why doesn’t Trelawney repair Neville’s broken teacup with magic?

Hermione is a really good liar. Like when Ron is questioning her about her wacky schedule, she is totally cool about it. I could not do this.

I don’t  quite get why Malfoy is able to get away with faking his injury for so long. We all know Madam Pomfrey can mend cuts really easily, so I don’t see how he could get away with it for so long. Like okay the ministry could still have gone after Buckbeak even without Malfoy having his arm in a sling for months, but why do the Hogwarts teachers put up with it?

Something else I have always wondered, when Sirius Black is sighted not far from Hogwars, I really want to know why he let himself be seen. Like why be a human at all? It’s not a big deal but I’m curious.

I really like the reading of the scene where Harry asks McGonagall for permission to go into Hogsmeade that McGonagall would have let him go if not for Sirius Black. She did some spying on the Dursleys back in Sorcerer’s Stone and probably has a decent sense of what Harry’s up against with them.

I just want to pause to note that Harry is just having a really bad year. Maybe that’s why I like this book so much: the tension keeps building and things go from bad to worse for everything that Harry cares about and he has so many feelings I just love it. Also Lupin is the best.

Is it me or is Harry’s schedule really inconsistent in this book? Unless I was wrong in my earlier comment that September 1 is always a Sunday because classes always start on a Monday. Right now, I’m pretty sure at first Harry was going to divination, transfiguration, and care of magical creatures on Mondays, but in November he also has defense against the dark arts on Mondays. I recognize that now I’m just being really nitpicky.

Okay, I feel stupid. It took me two and a half years of law school to realize that when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are helping Hagrid build a defense for Buckbeak, they’re doing legal research. They’re looking up precedent and building arguments around that precedent. I am once again impressed by Hermione’s brains—I doubt it was Harry and Ron’s idea. I definitely did not know how to do this at thirteen. Sometimes I doubt I know how to do it now (just kidding).

I’ve always wished that Harry took arithmancy, because I really want to know what it is and how it works and what it does in the real world. Like we never actually find out in any of the books.

Every time I read this I always tear up when Harry and the team finally win the Quidditch Cup. There’s just something so great about that whole sequence in the books.

I always have a lot of fun with the climax of this book. It is so great in so many ways, but it’s also one of those sequences that has so many moving parts that it’s really fun to imagine how it would all change if one part changed. For example, what if they stayed at Hagrid’s to argue for Buckbeak? What if Dumbledore came with them to the Shrieking Shack? Or what if Harry, Ron, and Hermione made it back to the castle with Scabbers before Sirius caught up with them, but they met Lupin instead? How would it have played out if, instead of Lupin transforming and Pettigrew escaping, the whole group made it back to the castle to talk to Dumbledore? None of these scenarios, on their face, are as climactic as the scene in the Shrieking Shack, that fight with the dementors, and the  sequence with the Time Turner, so obviously that all wins, but it’s a lot of fun to imagine how those scenes would go and how, as a writer, I might craft those alternate climaxes for maximum effect.

Why didn’t Lupin see the second Harry and Hermione on the map? Okay, I can see if he’s paying attention to Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they go down to Hagrid’s he might not notice any of the other hundred or so dots moving around, but Harry and Hermione from the future are retracing past Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s steps, so I feel like he would notice them. Of course, two Harry Potters could just break the map’s brain.

I know that there are all sorts of rules about not being seen when you go back in time with the Time Turner, but Hermione knows that she has a Time Turner, so I can imagine that she wouldn’t necessarily freak out and think there was dark magic afoot, which would allow Hermione to team up with her future self to do cool things. Or anyone with a Time Turner really. It kind of makes my head hurt to think about the logistics, but it seems like it would be a cool way to double your manpower.

Ugh the ending of this book gives me so many feelings and I love it. It’s the sort of book I’m sad to close, because I don’t want it to end, which is one of the highest compliments I can give a book.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This is a close second to Prisoner of Azkaban for my favorite. They’re so close that sometimes this one edges out Prisoner of Azkaban. Sometimes.

The thing that I really like about all the Harry Potter books, but Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire in particular, is how you can use them as examples for so many different aspects of writing a story. For example, I’m a big fan of how Goblet of Fire is put together—how much is going on and how it is orchestrated. Specifically, right now I’m looking at the first chapter. It’s practically a prologue, along the same lines as the first chapters of Sorcerer’s Stone and Deathly Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood Prince. The first chapter of Goblet of Fire is masterful at this. It’s specific enough to tell a story, but it’s vague enough to leave you guessing for the rest of the book. At the same time, the vagueness feels natural. Voldemort and Wormtail’s conversation doesn’t feel like they’re deliberately skating the issue so the reader won’t know what’s coming. It feels like they’re having a normal conversation—or at least as normal a conversation as you can have with Lord Voldemort.

Another thing that I like about Goblet of Fire is that you dive right into the plot with that first chapter and then with Harry’s scar hurting and the Death Eater activity at the quidditch world cup. It takes a long time for them to get back to Hogwarts and for Harry’s name to come out of the goblet—about half the book actually—but it’s not wasted time.

Look, if you’re going to eat grapefruit as a means of dieting, you should just eat the whole grapefruit. Eating a quarter of a grapefruit is an awful lot of work for like twenty calories. That is not a sufficient breakfast, whatever kind of diet you’re trying. Note that I love grapefruit and carrot sticks and everything Uncle Vernon calls rabit food, and as much as I had fun reading The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook last year, I was pretty horrified by the way the characters regularly ate. But I am getting very sidetracked. My point is grapefruit is good; you should eat all of it.

Okay so the scene with the Weaselys and the Dursleys continues to be laugh-out-loud funny. But also a little horrifying, because if Mr. Weasley hadn’t held Harry back to get the Dursleys to say goodbye to him, they might have all been gone before Dudley ate the toffee.

I wonder what Charlie, who works with dragons, thinks about Bill wearing dragon-skin boots.

I’ve always wondered about Ron’s frog. Does it have a name? What happened to it?

Amos Digory mentions the Lovegoods going to the world cup, and I have a really hard time imagining Luna and her father at the world cup. Not that they don’t like Quidditch or anything, but it seems so normal, and they’re… the Lovegoods.

Okay, I lied earlier when I said September first is always a sunday. September 1 is a Monday in Goblet of Fire. But it’s definitely a Sunday in Order of the Phoenix, so the point still stands. And when they get to Hogwarts in Goblet of Fire they start classes on a Monday, even though two days ago it was Sunday. This is obviously not an important thing but it bugs me so much guys.

Did Dumbledore also mention that they don’t use charms, potions, or herbology as a punishment? It seems oddly specific that he would just tell Moody they don’t use transfiguration as a punishment. “Draco Malfoy the incredible bouncing ferret” is such a great scene, and I just like to imagine the conversation between Moody and Dumbledore when Dumbledore tells him specifically that they can’t use transfiguration as a punishment. Maybe Moody has a history of this sort of thing.

The tension leading up to the announcement of the champions is fantastic. I don’t know how many times I’ve read this book, but the scene in the great hall with the goblet spitting out the names gets me every time. It’s so powerful that every time I think maybe this time it will go differently. Of course it doesn’t.

The one thing about this book that I really don’t like is that it’s never really explained why Harry has to compete in the tournament once his name comes out of the goblet. What does a binding magical contract mean? What are the consequences if you break it? Is it like the unbreakable vow and you die? Or do you go to wizarding contracts court and argue that it isn’t a contract because there was no offer, acceptance, and consideration between the goblet and Harry, and anyway it would be unconscionable to force Harry to compete? (Huh, I guess I did learn something in contracts after all.) The point is, everybody keeps saying he has to compete, hee has to compete, they can’t get him out of it even though no one wants him to compete, and this would feel more realistic and more tense if the consequences of him just saying “no way” were clear.

Basically everything from Harry’s name coming out of the goblet up through the first task is so great. I love how the tension is so thick you can taste it. I always get super worked up about what’s going on. And then we get a well-timed break before things get crazy again with preparation for the second task onward. Not that the stuff that happens between the first and second tasks isn’t important, it’s just much less stressful.

I really love the casual way Neville just turns into a canary after the first task. It’s great.

DOBBY!!!

I always wonder how much information sharing is going on between Sirius and Dumbledore at this point in the book. Does Sirius tell Dumbledore that Harry saw Crouch on the map? It would explain how Dumbledore figured out Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr. (I’ll come back to my forever confusion on that point later on), but I don’t think Sirius told Dumbledore about the map, because when Barty Jr. mentions the map later on, Dumbledore doesn’t know about it. Also, we learn later on (from Snape’s memories that we see in Deathly Hallows), that Dumbledore knows about the Dark Marks on the Death Eaters’ forearms and they’re getting stronger, but when Harry tells Sirius about Karkaroff showing Snape something on his arm, Sirius has no idea what that’s about. I’m not sure if the characters could have put everything together before all the bad stuff goes down if they’d sat down and had a good info sharing and brainstorming session, but they might have gotten closer.

So Dumbledore figures out that Moody isn’t Moody. Okay, I’m with him so far. But before Moody transforms into Barty Crouch Jr., Dumbledore has Snape go down to the kitchens to get Winky. It’s possible that he just thought whoever Moody was would tell them what happened to Mr. Crouch, but it’s almost like he knows who fake Moody really is before the Polyjuice potion wears off. He certainly doesn’t show surprise at fake Moody’s identity or even that Barty Jr. is still alive. But I just don’t get how he figured it out.

And then I just took a day to finish the whole book and had all the feelings. Oh god this book makes me cry. Every. Single. Time.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This, like Chamber of Secrets, is one of those books that I appreciate a lot more now than I did when I first read it. Harry is so angsty this book, and it’s annoying. But when you read it right after Goblet of Fire, instead of waiting the years we did for it to come out when we were kids, it’s a lot more understandable. It’s only been a month since Voldemort killed Cedric in front of Harry and tried to kill him. In that month, he’s pretty much been totally isolated from the wizarding world—even his friends haven’t been telling him much—and when he comes back to the wizarding world, he’s still being kept in the dark and he’s facing most people not believing him. Not only not believing him, but actively attacking him. And he has serious PTSD, which was illustrated really well by the fact that when he’s attacked by the Dementors, he doesn’t hear his parents’ deaths anymore. He hears Voldemort taunting him in the graveyard. What happened at the end of Goblet of Fire is now Harry’s worst memory.

I have always wondered what a Budgerigar is, but it’s not important to the story, so I usually just keep reading. This time around, I finally googled it. It’s an Australian parakeet. Huh. Now I know why it’s news that a budgerigar learned to water-ski. That’s very important news indeed. Moving on.

Why do some people apparate with a pop and some people apparate with a loud crack? I’m pretty sure this is never explained.

I love how Mrs. Figg uses all the wizard idioms in the one conversation we have with her. It’s great.

This is the first book we don’t get a full summary of how Harry’s parents died and why he’s famous and that he’s a wizard and everything. We get information about the past books, but it’s woven into the action much more seamlessly. I think it makes sense. Up to book 4, you probably could pick up any of the books in the series and follow along reasonably well without having read the other books. But past the point when Voldemort returns, if you don’t already know the story you’re kind of lost anyway.

It always astounds me that characters like Tonks and Luna, who become so important to the series, are only introduced in book 5. I always think they must have come up sooner, but nope. They join the plot in Order of the Phoenix.

So if they can’t take down the screaming picture of Sirius’s mother, have they tried ways to keep the curtains permanently shut so she won’t scream at them constantly? Just my random thought.

Also, I would love to see the scene where Mrs. Weasley finds out that Harry, Ron, and Hermione have been communicating with Sirius in secret for a year. She handled it pretty well when he appeared at the end of Goblet of Fire, as in she stopped screaming when Ron said it was okay, but I imagine that was not the end of that discussion.

It struck me in this book that Dean Thomas is the only one of the students we meet who was raised by muggles but who also holds on to some of his muggle identity. Every year he puts up muggle soccer posters around his bed and in this book it mentions he has pajamas in his soccer team’s colors. Harry, Hermione, and Colin Creevey all pretty much abandon their muggle identities—understandable for Harry, at least, but interesting to think about for the other characters. And it makes me really curious about Dean.

Umbridge is such a great villain. I often rate her higher than Voldemort on my favorite villains list (yes, I have one of those), because while Voldemort is scary, he’s kind of generically scary. Umbridge is the kind of villain you just love to hate. I still remember how viscerally I reacted to her making Harry cut open his own hand and write “I must not tell lies” in his own blood the first time I read the book, and I still have that reaction. It’s smaller, but somehow more sadistic, than Voldemort’s torture.

I think everything with Dumbledore’s Army might just be my favorite part of this book.

Umbridge says the ministry would want Snape to remove the strengthening solution from the potions syllabus. What in the world does that potion strengthen?

I really appreciate how thoughtful and emotionally intelligent Hermione is in this book. It really shows as they’re planning Dumbledore’s Army and talking about Sirius and Harry and Cho. I’m not saying she wasn’t those things in the previous books, but I think it comes out a lot more in this book and shows how she’s matured as a character, especially since the fourth book.

Taking notes like this as I read, I’m noticing just how much changes in the fifth book. I already mentioned we don’t get the “previously on Harry Potter…” bit at the beginning. This is also the first book where nothing happens on Halloween, and we lose Quidditch as an important part of the plot as well (more on that in a second). And these changes persist into the later books. You can definitely tell things are getting darker.

DOBBY!!!

The thing with Harry beating up Malfoy and getting banned from playing quidditch always really bugged me. I wish there had been more internal build-up with Harry’s thoughts and feelings in the moments leading up to him snapping like that. Intellectually, I know it’s probably all the things boiling over at this moment, but we don’t see it, and in the past Malfoy has definitely said worse and Harry’s just brushed it off. I think this is the moment, during this reread of the book, when I lose a lot of sympathy for Harry’s feelings. It’s definitely a good plot point, and Umbridge continues to be the worst—really, the worst—but also, come on Harry, show a little restraint, please. No? No? Okay fine no more Quidditch for you.

I really want to know how Hagrid and Madame Maxime carried a branch of everlasting fire across two countries to bring it to the giants. I know, the answer is probably “magic,” but I want to know how.

So J. K. Rowling does this great thing where she brings something up early in the book and then it comes back in a way that has nothing to do with how it first came up. I particularly love it when she does it for a chapter title. A small amount of explanation before I clarify what I’m talking about. I’m the sort of person who likes to read the table of contents before I jump into a book, because I like chapter titles. I remember, when my older brother got Goblet of Fire the day it came out, and I had to wait a few weeks to get it in Braille, I got him to read me the table of contents out loud. That was what I asked for. Another importans fact is that the Braille editions of Harry Potter are broken into volumes, because Braille is so much bigger than print. The fifth book is thirteen volumes (I have a whole wall of Harry Potter in my bedroom). So at the start of each volume is the table of contents for that volume, so I usually read that before I start on that volume. So earlier in the fifth book, Malfoy brings up St. Mungo’s and the closed ward. And so the chapter titles “St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries” and “Christmas on the Closed Ward” always made me think that Harry was going to be sent to St. Mungo’s. Obviously, that’s not what happened, but I loved the effect Malfoy’s reference to St. Mungo’s and then reading the chapter titles again when I got to them two or three volumes later had on me. This is probably entirely a Jameyanne phenomenon, but it happens a couple other times in the books (can’t think of them right now), so I wanted to share.

Oh wow Harry’s date with Cho is so awkward. So awkward. He isn’t as emotionally stupid as Ron, but he really makes a mess of things. Cho is pretty awful though as well, to be fair. I mean, it’s so obvious that Harry doesn’t like what’s going on and she’s pulling all this on him. It definitely feels realistic to me, but it’s still a painful scene to read.

I will forever love the whole sequence in the Department of Mysteries. It is epic!

I will also forever be mad about the two-way mirror. I know it’s important later, and I guess it makes sense why Harry didn’t open it before, but this is definitely one of those times when a character does something totally stupid and that’s what caused everything to go horribly wrong. And I kind of hate it when authors do that. In this case, it’s not even an important stupid thing. He just never opened it and forgot about it.

All in all, this is a book I appreciate more and more as I get older. It’s not one of my favorites of the series, but it is a good book, and so much great stuff happens.

And that’s it for these three books. I haven’t finished rereading Deathly Hallows yet, but I’ll be back soon with my thoughts on Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows.