Book Review: Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling

Hey Guys!

I'm back! I took a break from posting on here after Christmas to concentrate on handing in all my essays for university and then getting organised with my dissertation (third year is sooo much fun!!) so I took a back seat from blogging and concentrated on getting all my work done. Now that I'm not an uncoordinated mess I want to start uploading once a week again! Finding a balance with all my uni work, extra-curricular activities, freelance work and blogging is a challenge but I'm attempting to make it work!

This week I'm back with another book review, which is still quite new to my blog as I've never been one to post many book reviews before - however now that my love for reading has sparked again I want to share my thoughts and opinions with you guys, especially as I have a long TBR list! 

I read Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire back in September while I was on holiday in Lanzarote, but you know me - I'm late with everything! So I made sure to make some notes while I was reading it so that I could write a blog post later on - and here we are! ❤

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling

Blurb

Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, different can be deadly.

I fell in love with the Harry Potter books ever since I began reading them in my first year of university more than two years ago! Between each book, I've found myself picking up other books on my TBR list but I've always gone back to another Harry Potter book in the end. I've always been captured and pulled in by Harry Potter ever since I watched the films as I child, but now that I'm making my way through the books I'm even more drawn in by the charm of the characters, Hogwarts and the whole of the Wizarding World.  I know a lot about the Wizarding World and Harry Potter characters as I've seen every film at least a hundred times but reading the books has helped me dive even further into the lives of the characters and the challenges Harry has to face both with the Dursleys and in the classroom. It is so easy to lose yourself in The Goblet of Fire thanks to the imagery and narration. 

The highlight to The Goblet of Fire was the introduction of other wizarding schools from around the world - in the three previous book other wizarding schools aren't mentioned, so meeting characters from places not related to Hogwarts and seeing them all take part in the Triwizard Tournament was so capturing! I think because I'd already seen the film I already had the scenes and settings imagined in my bed but reading one chapter to the next made it come to life even more!

The characters explored were definitely the best part of the fourth instalment! Hearing more on the protagonists Harry, Ron and Hermoine were fun but getting to meet Victor Krum, Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, Cho Chang and Padma and Parvati Patil was so interesting. Two other characters that I wish were featured in the film was both Charlie and Bill Weasley! You get to hear more about the Weasley family and all the Weasley children which isn't featured in the film, especially the home life at The Burrow. Also, another fun character that was introduced in the book and not the film was Ludo Bagman. Now that I've read and seen The Goblet of Fire I really wished Ludo Bagman was included in the film. Obviously, other characters take over his parts such as Bartie Crouch and Cornelius Fudge but having the character Ludo Bagman in the film like his character in the book would have been great - especially his enthusiasm for the Quidditch World Cup! 

When the book goes into detail of the Quidditch World Cup and all that it encompasses it was an element to the story that made it so much more exciting - having wizard celebrities and the celebration of an event that is so close to our own football world cup was fun! Seeing a magical twist on a normally mundane event. 

One element of the book I was really taken in by was the story of Tom Riddle's childhood. In the film you don't get given an insight into Tom Riddle and his family like you do in the book. Especially the beginning chapter when it gave such extensive detail on the Riddle family house and how it's a location/setting is key to the story.  

There are so many elements to the book that made me fall in love with The Goblet of Fire all over again. Especially as the fourth part of the Harry Potter collection has always been one of my favourites due to J.K Rowling introducing so many new characters, wizarding schools which previously weren't mentioned and more of Voldermort's evil crimes and back story. This is when the story of Harry Potter and Hogwarts really takes off! 

If you haven't read the fourth book of the Harry Potter series then I highly recommend you pick it up. You won't be able to put it down and you'll be moving on to the next book straight away to continue escaping to the Wizarding World ❤

See you next week for another new blog post! I'm not sure what day I'll be uploading a new post as I'm still sorting out my week plans but there will be one! 

Amy x