Every Harry Potter Book Ranked
Few franchises have managed to grab the hearts of millions of fans all around the world as much as the Harry Potter series. Whether it's through the books or the movies, nearly everyone you meet has had some experience with the now 20-year old phenomenon. Starting out as a simple dream in 1990, Harry Potter eventually met the world in 1997 with its first book, selling just over 500 copies. Twenty years later, it has now sold over 400 million books worldwide and is now a multi-billion dollar movie franchise. And the reason for that is quite simple: they're really, really good.
J.K. Rowling is a brilliant storyteller, creating an expansive world with intricate, highly characters. However, not all books are created equal, and especially not the movies. Don't get me wrong, all the movies are good and some are even great. All the books are great and some are even amazing (except Cursed Child, which I don't care what you say, it's not canon.) But there are definitely some that are a cut above the rest, ones which help elevate the series from great to phenomenal.
Here I'll be ranking all eight books from worst to best (in my own opinion, of course), with another article ranking all the movies that you can find right here.
After all, it's not everyday yer young series turns 20, now, is it?
Here I'll be ranking all eight books from worst to best (in my own opinion, of course), with another article ranking all the movies that you can find right here.
After all, it's not everyday yer young series turns 20, now, is it?
8. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
The play starts out with the premise of the adventures of a
young Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy (wow @ those names tho), best friends in the Slytherin house.
Albus is the titular "cursed child" because he always has to live
behind his father's shadow. But then the book just goes into some insane and
convoluted story about Albus needing to resolve his daddy issues with Harry by
going back in time on a time-turner they happened to have in order to save
Cedric Diggory like 30 years ago, thinking that if he does this, he'll be
better than his dad. Um... okay??? Not only does this make no sense, but it
completely messes up the established rules on time turners (1. They can only go
back a few hours, 2. Everything that happens is already predetermined and you
can't change the past, 3. Time is very delicate, and 4. ALL THE TIME TURNERS
HAD BEEN DESTROYED YEARS AGO).
Oh and they're supposed to be friends with Voldemort's
daughter, who reveals herself at the end because all this was her plan to...
revive her father. Because apparently Voldemort and Bellatrix had a thing going
on and she had given birth to a girl just before the end of Book 6. Whatever.
Nothing makes sense, all the characters from the original
series are either largely irrelevant (why is Harry Potter in the name when
Harry Potter has almost nothing to do in the story?) or are botched completely
(again. Voldemort. Having a daughter.) This is terrible fanfiction at best and
should largely be ignored.
If this had been a full review, I would have easily given
this an F.
The Best: Starts out with a promising premise, following the
adventures of best friends Albus and Scorpius. It would have been interesting to
see a Potter and a Malfoy as best friends and see the Slytherins portrayed in a
non-evil light.
The Worst: Literally everything else.
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Chamber of Secrets also establishes a surprising number of key plot points that are important in future books, like Polyjuice potion, house elves, and blood purity in wizards and witches. But these are largely simplified, again because it's still a children's book at the end of the day. Riddle's diary is just a really evil object made from dark magic. Racism against muggle-borns is simplified to "hunt down all the mudbloods". House elves are all slaves who wish for freedom.
The good thing is while the beginning and middle of the book can get a bit boring at times, the finale within the Chamber of Secrets as well as Harry's conversation with Dumbledore at the end are quite fantastic. This book also establishes the similarities between Harry and Voldemort, a recurring theme throughout the series that pays off in spades later on. And it also gives us Dumbledore's great quote about our choices that define us.
The Best: The finale in the Chamber of Secrets, and the amount of world-building and set-up that the book gives.
The Worst: The story can get a bit campy at times. J.K. Rowling has yet to find what really works in her books.
6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Philosopher's Stone is great because it's the first. It's the one that started it all--the one that has to introduce all the main characters as well as the brand new world we'd all grow to love. Its strengths are how naturally Rowling is able to introduce the world to us. While the Lord of the Rings spends blocks and blocks of text to tell us every single aspect of its fantasy world, Rowling prefers to do it step by step. We're in Harry's shoes as he learns more of this new world, and it's a wonderful journey.
But at the same time, it is quite short and a bit lacking, which is very understandable. Characters are very simple and don't have much nuance yet (which is fine. They're just kids after all). The plot is also very simple and surprisingly very typical for a children's fantasy story; the whole "we know what's going on but we're just kids so adults don't believe us so we'll just have to do it on our own" thing is a story we're all already familiar with.
The Best: Introducing so many characters and elements in the new world that we'll eventually grow to love.
The Worst: There just really isn't much going on, both because it's a children's book and because it has to spend so much introducing so many things.
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Most egregious was the whole convoluted new concept of wand ownership that is shoehorned in and really doesn't make any sense. I can understand the Elder Wand switching allegiance but why would regular wands so easily switch masters with something as simple as physically taking it from them? Are you saying every time someone performs a disarming spell, that wand switches masters?
Fortunately, the second half makes up for it enormously. The mystery behind Dumbledore's past was finally revealed. Snape's true intentions were shown. The final battle at Hogwarts was absolutely breathtaking, and brought a huge smile to my face to see all my favorite characters come together--Neville growing into a leader, Ginny and the rest of the DA growing into strong fighters, the army of house elves led by Kreacher, even small callbacks like students using Mandrakes from Chamber of Secrets as weapons against Death Eaters. And of course, hugely emotional moments like character deaths, Percy's redemption (still hate him though), and the ghost of Harry's family walking with him towards death.
I would have preferred the final battle between Harry and Voldemort to be a bit more exciting than it ultimately was, even though narratively I understand the reason behind his death being purposefully anticlimactic.
Some people really dislike the epilogue, but I have no problem with it. I don't always love simple happy endings, but I do feel like these characters deserve it.
The Best: The beautiful Battle of Hogwarts, with both the joy of seeing my favorite characters grow into strong fighters and the sadness of seeing some of them die.
The Worst: The unnecessary, convoluted mess of wand ownership.
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
At the same time, I was greatly disappointed at that we never get to see Snape's class. The past five books have all set up the fact that Snape desperately wants the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, and yet when he finally gets it we don't get to see what he does. I would have liked to think that despite the fact that everyone hates him, he actually is the best Defense Against the Dark Arts professor they've ever had.
The whole mystery behind the identity of the Half-Blood Prince also isn't played up as much as I'd like it to be. Despite being in the title of the book, it never feels like a central plot point in the story.
The book also does a fantastic job at fleshing out Draco Malfoy, allowing him to grow from a racist bully to a truly conflicted person. It's wonderful to see him stretched almost to the point of insanity, allowing us to see deep down that he is not a bad person after all.
Again, at the same time a good part of the book is wasted with a lot of petty dating drama. I don't mind it much because it makes sense for teenagers to date and have drama about it, but everything about the Ron-Lavender-Hermione subplot was distracting. Harry and Ginny's romance never seemed that genuine either, although the book sure does a better job than the movies.
The Best: Looking into Voldemort's past and uncovering the secrets of the horcruxes.
The Worst: Being substantially shorter than the other books, so that other subplots like the love triangle feel more like a waste of time.
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Finding out about James Potter's past is a joy for both Harry and for us, and learning of the betrayal that ultimately killed him and Lily was heartbreaking. Finally having a good DADA professor in Remus Lupin is a lot of fun, the mystery behind Lupin being a werewolf was handled well, and the whole idea behind Patronuses and Dementors were a great addition. And if the book wasn't good enough, Rowling adding that amazing time turner sequence that makes for one of the most exciting finales of any of the Harry Potter books.
And of course, I wouldn't be a true Harry Potter fan if I didn't mention the Gryffindors finally winning the Quidditch championship.
The Best: The Shrieking Shack scene where we find out the truth behind the Marauders' past, revealing depths and layers of generations of backstory that have been hiding just under our noses the whole time.
The Worst: I really, really don't know. It's just so good. I suppose if I'm going to nitpick, I would have liked more clues hinting on Lupin being a werewolf. But that's me actively trying to nitpick.
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Every moment has tension of some kind, whether Harry is performing a task in the Cup or even just preparing for a task. Each of the tasks was unique and exciting to read (even if the second and third tasks have that massive plot hole of the audience not being able to see the contestants).
What elevates this story a cut above the rest, however, is the main antagonist, Barty Crouch, Jr. His backstory with his father and Winky is a great mystery that adds quite a lot of depth the characters, painting them much more gray than we'd seen before. Also, this indirectly leads Hermione to form S.P.E.W., which adds so much more depth to her character than we see in other books.
Interestingly, this book is really the only truly standalone book in the series. While all the books are obviously part of a complete series, books 1-3 were like a trilogy chronicling Harry and gang's growth from children to maturing teenagers, each with common themes (they all have to do with Harry finding his place in the world) and common patterns (the climax of the first book has Harry by himself while the others are left behind, the second has Harry with Ron while Hermione is petrified, the third has Harry with Hermione while Ron is injured). Likewise, books 5-7 are also a trilogy chronicling the return and rise of Voldemort, Harry's relationship with Dumbledore, and Harry and gang's growth from teenagers to adults. But in the center of these two trilogies is Goblet of Fire, the perfect transition between both.
Like the beginning trilogy, this book is fantastical and still keeps that sense of magical awe. Not only is the universe expanded with the other wizarding schools, but each task also introduces us to some new aspect of the world that we've never seen before--dragons, merpeople, sphinxes, etc. But the book also gets much darker than than the series has gone before in order to set up for the ending trilogy. Cedric's death and Voldemort's return truly marks the beginning of the dark times, but there are also subtler moments that set up a darker tone. Barty Crouch, Jr.'s past is the darkest backstory we've yet to see. The concept of KKK-like Death Eaters from the very beginning already sets up a dark atmosphere. The faults of the media are introduced here, which leads to more mature themes in later books like censorship and government-controlled media. Hermione's resolution with S.P.E.W. isn't dark, but it sets up her growth as a maturing leader and adult.
The Best: The little details that expand the world: Hagrid's giant lineage, more insight on the house elves, Hermione's depth as a character with S.P.E.W., a look into other wizarding schools in Europe, etc.
The Worst: Has one of the most plot holes out of all the books, all minor enough to be overlooked but still don't make any sense when you think about it.
1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
There are also some highly emotional moments as well. The reveal of Hagrid's half-brother Grawp, the reveal of Neville's parents in St. Mungo's hospital, and of course the death of Sirius are some of the most heart-wrenching moments in the entire series. We also get a great look into the students' desperation to do well on the O.W.L.s, which--as a pre-med student currently studying for the MCAT--I can greatly relate to.
But what makes the book shine is that it's the first (and really the only) that allows Harry to really be a character--to really be a teenager. Past books have always shown Harry in almost a saint-like manner; he's good at everything and always makes the right choice, and in the few instances where he falls short, something or someone always comes to help him. He was still a child, where there are no real consequences because help will always be there.
This book deals with Harry now living in a world where Voldemort lives, and in response he is compelled by the need to be accepted by an adult. While the Order keep on reminding him that he's far too young to be dealing with this, he insists that he is an adult now and can make adult decisions. And as a result, he is constantly moody, quickly rises to anger for no reason and always gets frustrated when things don't go his way. Dumbledore suddenly distancing himself from Harry understandably makes him frustrated and irritable. And when Harry rashly makes adult decisions, he must deal with the consequences. This time, while the Order still comes to save him, it comes with a heavy cost.
All this leads to one of the most emotional and heartbreaking chapters in the entire series, where Harry lashes out at Dumbledore in his office just after Sirius's death.
The Best: The sheer level of emotion found in so many moments throughout the book.
The Worst: I wish we had spent a bit more time with Dumbledore's Army to see them train rather than just hear about it. Of all the things that the movie cuts out, its saving grace is that we get more screentime with the DA.
Comments
Post a Comment