Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Inhoud

It is the summer holidays and soon Harry Potter will be starting his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry is counting the days: there are new spells to be learnt, more Quidditch to be played, and Hogwarts castle to continue exploring. But Harry needs to be careful - there are unexpected dangers lurking...
J.K. Rowling continues to surprise and delight with the power of her rich, demanding and action-packed storytelling.

Bespreking

Harry Potter gets interested in girls

Another year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is about to start and Harry Potter is looking forward to his fourth year at this magical place. This year is going to be quite remarkable. Not only can Harry enjoy a premier sporting event at the Quidditch World Cup, he will also witness one of the most exciting events to occur in the history of any wizard school: the Triwizard Tournament. Three older students from different schools will partake in a series of challenges not at all without danger. Some even get killed! Hogwarts has the special honours of hosting the event and soon welcomes the students from the other two magicians' schools: the powerful Durmstrangs and the seductive Beauxbatons. When the selection procedure starts the excitement of the students reaches unseen heights. Of course Harry is too young to become a participant, which is ok because he would never volunteer for such a dangerous assignment.

Staying true to her original philosophy of making each instalment of the successful Harry Potter series a bit more adult and as such following the development of her readers, J. K. Rowling clearly introduces more darkness and realism into the story. The battles with evil become more vicious and the conflicts between the characters more authentic. In The Goblet of Fire Harry becomes for the first time aware of his feelings for girls and has to deal with the very recognisable challenges of growing-up. This is undoubtedly the strongest point of the book, because the main story lacks true spirit. Although the denouement is quite surprising, the build-up -being the Triwizard Tournament- seems to be thrown in without further consideration of the main plot. Although somewhat different from the nicely plotted previous episodes, it is doubtful that any Potter-fan will be bothered by this change. On the other hand, what might take a bit of the excitement away is the incredible size of the book. In my opinion the same story could have been told in a book that is about two hundred pages shorter and would have given the reader the same enjoyment or even more. Some chapters that somehow break the narrative pace could easily have been dropped. It seems to be a cliché, but bigger is not always better.

Nevertheless The Goblet of Fire is again a fantastic story that will delight people no matter what age they feel they are.