Is there truly a human in the world who can bring millions of people together-- people from all over the world, people of different races, nationalities, ages; a human who can change lives with nothing but sheets of paper and printer's ink; who can be wise and funny and sarcastic all at once; and who can touch hearts by spinning life-changing morals onto a page, disguised beneath a phenomenal plot and characters that so many would kill to be? You betcha!
You've heard her name whispered, screamed, idolized. You've seen the rage she has caused, this huge phenomenon thrown into the world that changes lives and tugs at heartstrings.
She's J. K. Rowling.
Maybe you think Harry Potter is overrated. Perhap
s you think all this passion and enthusiasm and obsession with her novels is poorly placed. Maybe you're just plain sick of hearing Harry-Potter-this-and-Harry-Potter-that.
Well, bear with me here, because I am going to "Harry-Potter-this-and-Harry-Potter-that" for a little while, and possibly I will change your mindset about J.K. Rowling and her books.
Many people have tried to decipher why the Harry Potter novels are so popular. Let me offer you my opinion.
First off: J.K. Rowling's style of writing. She has a way of connecting us to the story that is truly a work of art. This is due, of course, to her writing style. Let me put it this way: if a lesser writer, one who did not have her gif
t of writing style, came up with the idea of Harry Potter first-- the exact same plot-- and wrote the novels, they would not have been as big a hit. JK can make her readers cry, laugh, shake with fear-- all because of her words. Her novels are unpredictable, they leave us fascinated, they make us create lists of Horcruxes, for goodness sakes!
Second: her characters. This is obvious; I don't particularly need to expand. Her characters are lovable, we can relate to them, they are funny, they are sincere. Her imagination came up with these characters that so many people talk about as if they were real (I admit I am one of them!). It is simply beautiful to regard her characters, because they can error without decreasing our love for them.
Third: I do not know if there were many novels out before Harry Potter that had to do with magic (perhaps we simply didn't notice them until after Harry Potter came out.) The point is that magic has always been something humans are intrigued by. Because she gave magic substance; because she created a world that we would love to live in; because she found the one thing humans have never been able to, but always wanted to do-- that is why we love her plot. Take Quidditch, for example. Ingenious! A sport played on flying broomsticks! Wouldn't you just love to play it? Exactly. JK Rowling knew what humans wanted, she knew what were in our deepest fantasies. She played on that, she created this magic world, and she changed lives.
Finally: the morals. What a sensational writer she must be to still leave readers with a moral, after all her fiction and fantasy! Friendship, love, power, courage, what truly matters. Using lovable characters and stunning situations, JK gives us things to think about, things that leave us wondering whether our choices or our abilities define who we are. ;) JK manages to entertain us, and at the same time, instruct us.
Wow. Now do you agree with me?
Now, hopefully you have not read all of this not k
nowing what Harry Potter is about. But because this is (sort of) a book review, I will explain a little bit about the plot of the Harry Potter novels. Harry Potter is a wizard. Let's just get that out into the open. He is the only wizard known to survive the killing curse, uttered by Lord Voldemort, one of the most powerful and dangerous wizards of all time. What's even more amazing is that, besides surviving the curse, he has reduced Lord Voldemort's powers. And so begins the adventures of Harry Potter at the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, into which he was accepted at age eleven. Harry Potter continues to defy Lord Voldemort through seven books, with the plots becoming more complex and intriguing with each novel. I will save the rest of the story for you!
As I said previously, there are seven novels: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You probably know this, but Harry Potter has been created into movies, also. The sixth one just came out. Although I am in heavy support of the movies (I really do like them), of course I'd take the books over them any day. It's really too bad that the movies don't follow the plot of the books as closely as I would have liked...
As for ratings, I'm going to rate the entire series as a whole (on a scale of one through ten). This may sound ludicrous, but I'm rating it a ten. Honestly. If you don't believe me, read the novels yourself and then you'll get exactly why I gave the series a perfect score. They are outstanding and extraordinary.
I think that it was a year or two ago that JK Rowling came out with another book, entitled The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I just read it yesterday,
as a matter of fact, and was very pleased with it! I do however recommend reading the Harry Potter novels first, of course.
From horcruxes to hallows, friends to foes, loathing to love, Harry Potter touched my life (in both a fangirly and a notable way!). I guess this isn't much of a book review, more of a mark of how obsessed I am with the series. But whatever it is, Harry Potter reveals what really matters in life.
Harry Potter truly is magical. Thank you, JK Rowling.
