The Book Series to Rule All Book Series
By Taran, Science and Environment Editor
Harry Potter was for many of us our child hood. It is the bestselling book series of all time. With 7 books and 8 movies it has a legacy that has been continued with Fantastic Beasts. A genre that reinvented books. What makes Harry Potter so special to me is that it was this series that got me into reading books. If not for them and my parents “encouragement”, I would not have become the person I am today. The books have a theme park and a whole area dedicated towards the film making of the movies.
It takes us on an emotional rollercoaster following Harry and his friends. It has become so popular that I don’t know someone who doesn’t know about it.
“There won’t be a child in our world who won’t know his name” said Professor McGonagall. This is surprisingly true. The books have made a reputation for JK Rowling and themselves. It sparked a fandom for books unlike anything we had seen before. I like many others grew up as Harry did to. It’s sad to say that we might know these characters better than we know ourselves. I remember reading the very last chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and just sitting there thinking “that’s the end.” Having grown up with Harry and they are now adults their childhood had ended and it felt like mine along with them.
Harry Potter was a book beyond its years. JK Rowling hid all sorts of little Easter eggs and goodies for the fans like the Latin spells.
For example: When Snape speaks to Harry for the first time. “What would I get if I added powered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood.” According to Victorian language of flowers Snape actually means “I bitterly regret Lily’s death.” As Harry’s mother, Lily died and Snape loved her.
Rowling had done many more wonders in her writing. How she built characters up like Albus Dumbledore that Harry and the reader trusted but only to have their opinion changed again and again. But Severus Snape is the best double-double-agent of all time. Playing both sides convincingly only to learn he is good as he dies. The reader doesn’t know how to feel. They’ve grown to hate Snape especially (spoiler alert but you know this anyway) when he killed Dumbledore. Many characters died and the reader who has grown up with them feels the pain. JK Rowling really transports the reader to “The Wizarding World”.
This one I did not know, Rowling may have even foreshadowed the end of the series in the first book. Hedwig, Harry’s pet owl is named after Saint Hedwig who was the patron saint of orphaned children just like Harry. But is she really the saint of dead children? Hedwig could symbolise that she was there to protect Harry from death or perhaps a clue to Harry’s sacrifice in the Deathly Hallows from the very beginning. If I had to criticise the books I would say when Sirius meets Harry for the first time couldn’t Harry say “You can’t be serious?”
On Twitter Rowling did say she is writing two new books. One is confirmed to be a detective story and the other could be a return to the books that started it all…