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A review by the_gandy_man
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
3.75
It's quite good. The characters are all really great, except Harry who is pretty generic. I like the evolution of Harry and Ron's relationship with Hermione. It contrasts really well with Harry and Ron's friendship, and creates a trio that is interesting no matter what they're doing. The book nails the magical whimsy vibe. Dumbledore, for instance, is this ultra powerful, old, wise wizard who is kinda goofy and likes lemon drops, chamber music, and bowling. The world is vibes over everything. Hogwarts has moving staircases and wacky passwords you have to tell to a living portrait and a forest full of spooky creatures. It's really evocative. All this book has to do to be interesting is have these characters doing stuff in this setting, and that's great.
The main issue is that the plot and the world often don't make sense. For instance, Gringotts is basically the only wizard bank. Hogwarts is the only wizard school. There's only one place to get your school supplies which has one store for each thing you might need. Students are sorted into brave, smart, evil, and everyone else? The way into the common room is reliant on a living portrait who can just go somewhere else and now nobody can get in.The sorcerer's stone is guarded by relatively easy puzzles and trials rather than actual attempts at stopping someone. Children are punished for being out at night by risking their lives in the dangerous forest. The only thing between a school full of children and a huge three-headed dog who likes to eat people is a locked door which even first-years are taught how to unlock. Quidditch is a terribly made sport. Wizards who can teleport (I guess we don't know that yet) deliver messages with owls. It goes on and on. It's a credit to the rest of the book that all of these things amount to no more than a distraction, and as a whole I still found the book to be quite good. It just feels like a bit more effort could've been made to at least make everything feel plausible.
Also I don't like the narrator of the audiobook version I listened to. Sorry Jim Dale. Every 10th or so dialogue line he reads in a really weirdly wrong tone/with a weirdly wrong intention. A character will be pleading with another and he'll make it sound like they're trying to seduce them or they're some kind of witch trying to cast a spell on them (not a Harry Potter witch, like an old green cackling gross kind of witch). I don't usually comment on the narrator, but this significantly lessened my enjoyment of the book.
The main issue is that the plot and the world often don't make sense. For instance, Gringotts is basically the only wizard bank. Hogwarts is the only wizard school. There's only one place to get your school supplies which has one store for each thing you might need. Students are sorted into brave, smart, evil, and everyone else? The way into the common room is reliant on a living portrait who can just go somewhere else and now nobody can get in.
Also I don't like the narrator of the audiobook version I listened to. Sorry Jim Dale. Every 10th or so dialogue line he reads in a really weirdly wrong tone/with a weirdly wrong intention. A character will be pleading with another and he'll make it sound like they're trying to seduce them or they're some kind of witch trying to cast a spell on them (not a Harry Potter witch, like an old green cackling gross kind of witch). I don't usually comment on the narrator, but this significantly lessened my enjoyment of the book.