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readwithkiekie's review against another edition
3.0
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
The world of Harry Potter will forever live with me, but I think I read these books a little too late. I couldn't appreciate it as much as I could've if I were a 10 - 12 year old.
The writing was decent, the characters were great, but there wasn't much development and the pacing was very slow.
“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”
The world of Harry Potter will forever live with me, but I think I read these books a little too late. I couldn't appreciate it as much as I could've if I were a 10 - 12 year old.
The writing was decent, the characters were great, but there wasn't much development and the pacing was very slow.
“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”
sarahp85's review against another edition
5.0
The first one always and forever stays the special one, the most magical one ❤️
abiwalsh's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
cele3222's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
5.0
Listening to this series AGAIN to fall asleep
shaded's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
anna_og23's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
bekzzzzzz's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Absolutely love Stephen Fry's narration of this book. It was enjoyable and his voice so entertaining. This was the first time I read an audio book but I have read harry potter before.
drridareads's review against another edition
1.0
I'm going to change my ratings for the Harry Potter books from 5 to 1 and here's why:
Recently I've learnt about some problematic writers and then I changed my ratings for the books. I did not do these for the Harry Potter mainly because of nostalgic reasons. But let's change that.
My thoughts on J K Rowling's comments
I'm extremely for the hurt caused to her and all women by men. This however is no excuse to be a TERF (Trans Exclusive Radial Feminist).
First and foremost let's talk about what Gender and Sex mean. Sex is biological made up of chromosomes, genitalia and hormones. On the other hand Gender is socially construct way of enacted roles and behaviors. The two are often used interchangeably but are not in fact the same.
Since she talks about biology let's talk about sex. Unlike popular belief it is not binary. There are many intersex states; some more obvious; but all equally deserving of our love and respect. Some people with an intersex state may not know until later in life about it.
(Transgender: not conforming with your sex (assigned gender) and changing it)
(Intersex: biologically (chromosomes/genitalia/endocrine hormones) not falling on the male or female spectrum. They may conform to a particular gender)
Since she talks about menstruation let's mention a few women who do not menstruate: intersex women, women after menopause, and trans women. Menstruation is associated with females but does not equal to womanhood and not menstruating does not does decrease your femininity.
If you live in South Asia; chances are you've seen so many abandoned trans woman and have heard harmful stereotypes about them.
Trans Women are not a danger to cis women any more than the other cis woman. Which is of course possible any one can be dangerous but the trans part has nothing to do with it.
When a publishing industry called her out. She threatened to sue and they issued an apology. She is a rich and powerful lady and she's using that privilege to silence people. You can't say you're for freedom of speech and then use your money and power to silence. This is the move that made me do this.
Everything I have found to be problematic with the Harry Potter franchise
Let me start by telling you that I absolutely love Harry Potter (I gave it 5 stars) but that doesn't mean there isn't anything wrong with it. I appreciate how it taught so many people about love. Most of these things were not obvious to me the first time I had read it.
Token characters of colour and diversity points:
Harry Potter like most popular franchises is mostly white.
All characters of colour are minor characters. You might not even remember them I'm going to talk about some of them:
The Patil sisters.
The only South Asian characters and We barely see them. The most we see of them is them being Harry and Ron's last resort. But of course these South Asian girls are not good enough for our white boys. Harry and Ron should be grateful for getting any dates at all but no they are jerks to them. Parvati is the vain girl (like a lot of girls with more traditional femininity. Also the movies gave them ugly cultural dresses; how would they know? If they did more research they would. The Harry Potter movie makers have put so much thought into such little details but here they just went with ugly choices. But their just dresses? The whole world was watching them and when you are representing something you put the best out there.
Cho Chang.
The only East Asian character and we see her mostly as an object of attraction for boys around (cedric diggory, dean thomas and of course our harry potter). In the 5th book; Harry treats her like shit and does not acknowledge the trauma of her loosing her boyfriend like that. The movies take it up a notch and make the only East Asian character a sort of villain. She's a ravenclaw in the books which means she's supposed to be very smart but somehow we never get to see that side of her. Her name itself is racist.
Dean Thomas.
Of course it's not racist if our main white guy is friends with a black guy right. We don't really get to see that much of him and he eventually becomes Harry's romantic rival for Ginny. Also I'm not sure if I remember correctly but I think he was a toxic boyfriend to Ginny (correct me if I'm wrong). A black guy shown as a toxic boyfriend? You see what's wrong here don't you.
Lee Jordan.
Fred and George's black sidekick and commentator for the Quidditch games. That's his only character.
Nagini.
I can't tell you much about her since after hearing how problematic Crime of Grindelwald were I never watched it. Here is what I know: An Asian character is a snake and servant to Voldemort.
Leta Lestrange.
I can't tell you much about her since after hearing how problematic Crime of Grindelwald were I never watched it. Here is what I know: Black character dies to save white men and advance the plot.
HERMIONE
You want to make a main character black you actually go ahead and say it in the books. If she could make minor characters black in the book she could've done so with Hermione too. You can't just look at social media learn about diversity points and change your white character to black.
Fat-phobia
Some fat villainous characters: Crabbe, Goyle, Uncle Vernon, Dudley. The writer loves talking about fat roles of bullies. Characters that are considered cool villains however do not have these: Draco, Snape, Voldemort.
House elves and Slavery
All except one house elf is happy to serve their master. The house elves have no sense of self worth. Even Dobby who has some self worth and wants to be free does not think it's right to ask for more pay and has it reduced to a minimum. No character; literally none at all care about this; getting freedom for them is not on their's or the wizard's agenda. Except for our white saviour in Hermione; but even she can't do much about it since she's called stupid for caring about such useless things. The "Happy slave" trope is used by white people to feel good about their atrocities; they feel good about just treating the slave with basic human decency and forget basic human decency is the opposite of slavery; no person serving without getting anything in return is happy. Any movie/book you've seen this trope in is by a white person and is possible based on the white perspective too.
Anti-Semitic and the the goblins
Here is something that I never realised on my own. And thank you for people on social media for teaching me about it. And I cannot explain this very well. But the goblins here are Jewish stereotypes. The Jewish economic myth makes Jews look like villains who are greedy and big nosed and horde wealth. This is how the goblins here are portrayed.
Queerphobic
Whether you acknowledge it or not Queer people exist. And their not fairies so will not die if you just stopped believing in them.
Queerbaiting.
I read the Harry Potter books and never knew Dumbledore was gay because he's not in the books. But she said he is on twitter. Then the Fantastic Beasts movies were coming out and he was not gay in the movies either. This my friends is queer-baiting.
Lycanthropy.
This again I learnt from social media and I'm not very good at explaining this
She said in one of her interviews this condition of being a werewolf was a metaphor for HIV/ AIDS. Fenrir Greyback is known to attack kids in the books. There are harmful stereotypes of gay people being pedophiles and this goes to encourage that stereotype. Now if Fenrir Greyback was just a metaphor for pedophiles being monsters that would've been good.
All of this is not to guilt shame you for liking Harry Potter. It's to show you how something so beloved can also be problematic. It's also ironically beautiful that something with so many hateful tropes gave people the message of love.
Love Potions ≠ Consent
Do I even have to elaborate this?
Advice:
If you really must buy second hand books and unofficial merch for your fandom feels. And lower your ratings.
I hope you read this whole thing. You might even have learnt something. I actually wrote this in a very sarcastic tone first then fixed it. I'm still learning and if you find any language here to be hurtful let me know and I'll change it.
Recently I've learnt about some problematic writers and then I changed my ratings for the books. I did not do these for the Harry Potter mainly because of nostalgic reasons. But let's change that.
My thoughts on J K Rowling's comments
I'm extremely for the hurt caused to her and all women by men. This however is no excuse to be a TERF (Trans Exclusive Radial Feminist).
First and foremost let's talk about what Gender and Sex mean. Sex is biological made up of chromosomes, genitalia and hormones. On the other hand Gender is socially construct way of enacted roles and behaviors. The two are often used interchangeably but are not in fact the same.
Since she talks about biology let's talk about sex. Unlike popular belief it is not binary. There are many intersex states; some more obvious; but all equally deserving of our love and respect. Some people with an intersex state may not know until later in life about it.
(Transgender: not conforming with your sex (assigned gender) and changing it)
(Intersex: biologically (chromosomes/genitalia/endocrine hormones) not falling on the male or female spectrum. They may conform to a particular gender)
Since she talks about menstruation let's mention a few women who do not menstruate: intersex women, women after menopause, and trans women. Menstruation is associated with females but does not equal to womanhood and not menstruating does not does decrease your femininity.
If you live in South Asia; chances are you've seen so many abandoned trans woman and have heard harmful stereotypes about them.
Trans Women are not a danger to cis women any more than the other cis woman. Which is of course possible any one can be dangerous but the trans part has nothing to do with it.
When a publishing industry called her out. She threatened to sue and they issued an apology. She is a rich and powerful lady and she's using that privilege to silence people. You can't say you're for freedom of speech and then use your money and power to silence. This is the move that made me do this.
Everything I have found to be problematic with the Harry Potter franchise
Let me start by telling you that I absolutely love Harry Potter (I gave it 5 stars) but that doesn't mean there isn't anything wrong with it. I appreciate how it taught so many people about love. Most of these things were not obvious to me the first time I had read it.
Token characters of colour and diversity points:
Harry Potter like most popular franchises is mostly white.
All characters of colour are minor characters. You might not even remember them I'm going to talk about some of them:
The Patil sisters.
The only South Asian characters and We barely see them. The most we see of them is them being Harry and Ron's last resort. But of course these South Asian girls are not good enough for our white boys. Harry and Ron should be grateful for getting any dates at all but no they are jerks to them. Parvati is the vain girl (like a lot of girls with more traditional femininity. Also the movies gave them ugly cultural dresses; how would they know? If they did more research they would. The Harry Potter movie makers have put so much thought into such little details but here they just went with ugly choices. But their just dresses? The whole world was watching them and when you are representing something you put the best out there.
Cho Chang.
The only East Asian character and we see her mostly as an object of attraction for boys around (cedric diggory, dean thomas and of course our harry potter). In the 5th book; Harry treats her like shit and does not acknowledge the trauma of her loosing her boyfriend like that. The movies take it up a notch and make the only East Asian character a sort of villain. She's a ravenclaw in the books which means she's supposed to be very smart but somehow we never get to see that side of her. Her name itself is racist.
Dean Thomas.
Of course it's not racist if our main white guy is friends with a black guy right. We don't really get to see that much of him and he eventually becomes Harry's romantic rival for Ginny. Also I'm not sure if I remember correctly but I think he was a toxic boyfriend to Ginny (correct me if I'm wrong). A black guy shown as a toxic boyfriend? You see what's wrong here don't you.
Lee Jordan.
Fred and George's black sidekick and commentator for the Quidditch games. That's his only character.
Nagini.
I can't tell you much about her since after hearing how problematic Crime of Grindelwald were I never watched it. Here is what I know: An Asian character is a snake and servant to Voldemort.
Leta Lestrange.
I can't tell you much about her since after hearing how problematic Crime of Grindelwald were I never watched it. Here is what I know: Black character dies to save white men and advance the plot.
HERMIONE
You want to make a main character black you actually go ahead and say it in the books. If she could make minor characters black in the book she could've done so with Hermione too. You can't just look at social media learn about diversity points and change your white character to black.
Fat-phobia
Some fat villainous characters: Crabbe, Goyle, Uncle Vernon, Dudley. The writer loves talking about fat roles of bullies. Characters that are considered cool villains however do not have these: Draco, Snape, Voldemort.
House elves and Slavery
All except one house elf is happy to serve their master. The house elves have no sense of self worth. Even Dobby who has some self worth and wants to be free does not think it's right to ask for more pay and has it reduced to a minimum. No character; literally none at all care about this; getting freedom for them is not on their's or the wizard's agenda. Except for our white saviour in Hermione; but even she can't do much about it since she's called stupid for caring about such useless things. The "Happy slave" trope is used by white people to feel good about their atrocities; they feel good about just treating the slave with basic human decency and forget basic human decency is the opposite of slavery; no person serving without getting anything in return is happy. Any movie/book you've seen this trope in is by a white person and is possible based on the white perspective too.
Anti-Semitic and the the goblins
Here is something that I never realised on my own. And thank you for people on social media for teaching me about it. And I cannot explain this very well. But the goblins here are Jewish stereotypes. The Jewish economic myth makes Jews look like villains who are greedy and big nosed and horde wealth. This is how the goblins here are portrayed.
Queerphobic
Whether you acknowledge it or not Queer people exist. And their not fairies so will not die if you just stopped believing in them.
Queerbaiting.
I read the Harry Potter books and never knew Dumbledore was gay because he's not in the books. But she said he is on twitter. Then the Fantastic Beasts movies were coming out and he was not gay in the movies either. This my friends is queer-baiting.
Lycanthropy.
This again I learnt from social media and I'm not very good at explaining this
She said in one of her interviews this condition of being a werewolf was a metaphor for HIV/ AIDS. Fenrir Greyback is known to attack kids in the books. There are harmful stereotypes of gay people being pedophiles and this goes to encourage that stereotype. Now if Fenrir Greyback was just a metaphor for pedophiles being monsters that would've been good.
All of this is not to guilt shame you for liking Harry Potter. It's to show you how something so beloved can also be problematic. It's also ironically beautiful that something with so many hateful tropes gave people the message of love.
Love Potions ≠ Consent
Do I even have to elaborate this?
Advice:
If you really must buy second hand books and unofficial merch for your fandom feels. And lower your ratings.
I hope you read this whole thing. You might even have learnt something. I actually wrote this in a very sarcastic tone first then fixed it. I'm still learning and if you find any language here to be hurtful let me know and I'll change it.