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A review by claire_loves_books
James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper by G. Norman Lippert
2.0
It just didn't feel like this was even part of the potter universe, none of the characters from the Harry Potter series really resemble themselves, the school is completely changed (why would it even have an amphitheatre it's got the great hall which is where all entertainment happens, I don't know if schools have them in america but it's not something I've ever heard of in a british school.) and it felt more american than british in a lot of places, . I don't really understand the point to a lot of the changes made- yes Lippert might want to distinguish his work from that of Rowling's but tbh I'm reading this because I'm hoping for similarities.
I just didn't buy into the story, there were so many things that felt out of place- apparently witches and wizards in 10th century scotland spoke modern english (as opposed to old english or gaelic) which really annoyed me- it would have been so easy to just have merlin demonstrate a translation spell on James and say that he had used it too which is why he could apparently speak a language that he'd never heard perfectly. The pot was pretty predictable and felt a bit like a rip off of Chamber of Secrets (Voldemort's blood line, a horcrux controlling an apparently innocent gryffindor, kidnap of a female ect.) I was also grossed out by the 'romance' between a 12 year old and a 17 year old- wwwww! Yes it didn't go anywhere in the end but it did feel like it might in places, apparently in this version of Hogwarts the older years really like spending time with the first and second years- it just felt weird, 17 and 18 year old just don't think 11 and 12 year old are cool- they just don't.
I just found this whole thing a throughly frustrating read and I didn't really enjoy it that much, I probably will read the next because I really do miss Harry Potter
Spoiler
and killing off arthur weasley! even J K rowling decided not to do that! I didn't think it even added much to the story. I also don't like that Voldemort is sort of back- it was the whole point of the previous books that he was defeated and destroyed, that he is back in any form completely defeats the point.I just didn't buy into the story, there were so many things that felt out of place- apparently witches and wizards in 10th century scotland spoke modern english (as opposed to old english or gaelic) which really annoyed me- it would have been so easy to just have merlin demonstrate a translation spell on James and say that he had used it too which is why he could apparently speak a language that he'd never heard perfectly. The pot was pretty predictable and felt a bit like a rip off of Chamber of Secrets (Voldemort's blood line, a horcrux controlling an apparently innocent gryffindor, kidnap of a female ect.) I was also grossed out by the 'romance' between a 12 year old and a 17 year old- wwwww! Yes it didn't go anywhere in the end but it did feel like it might in places, apparently in this version of Hogwarts the older years really like spending time with the first and second years- it just felt weird, 17 and 18 year old just don't think 11 and 12 year old are cool- they just don't.
I just found this whole thing a throughly frustrating read and I didn't really enjoy it that much, I probably will read the next because I really do miss Harry Potter