Why Harry Potter Isn’t My Favorite Story

I adore fantasy. It’s one of my favorite genres, if not my most favorite, to write about as well as read about—mainly because you can make just about anything happen. Really, if you can dream it, you can do it, and you never have to bother with all those silly, stuffy laws of logic.

Now, I can’t think of a single person in the world who hasn’t, at the very least, heard of Harry Potter, easily one of the most beloved fantasy stories of all-time. There’s no doubt in my mind that J.K. Rowling, for all the books she dishes out, will always be remembered best for her books about Harry Potter.

I will be the first to say that this is a solid, creative, well-thought-out story; Rowling truly knows how to keep you turning page after page until you get to the end, and that’s all any author can hope for. It sure got kids excited about reading, which is something I appreciate a great deal.

That said, I consider myself one of the precious few who (gasp!) doesn’t think Harry Potter is all that great. While I do like it, I’ve never been too crazy about it, either. It has never ranked too high on my list of favorite books and movies, and I think it’s a safe bet that my sister is a much bigger HP fan than I’ll ever be.

Why?

Well, I can give you ten reasons why, right now. They may not be reasons that you personally agree with, but hopefully they’re at least adequate.

Starting from the bottom:

10. Too many adverbs.

Now, this isn’t something that bothers me all that much. But when you browse through each book, if you had a dollar or even a nickel for every time Rowling used a word that ended in “ly,” like “heatedly,” “enthusiastically,” “hysterically,” “sanctimoniously,” or “waspishly,” you’d have a rather good-sized fortune when you got to the end, and that’d just be for one book alone.

While adverbs do have their time and place, I also notice the overuse of them and it never takes long for them to become an annoying distraction, like the buzzing of a fly in your ear, or the loud snoring of your brother in the next room when you’re trying to sleep.

Again, I’m not really raking Rowling across the coals for this. The fact that this was her first published work makes such a mistake more forgivable. All the same, I’d like to see how much her books would shrink if we took every last one of those adverbs away.

I think Order of the Phoenix would be almost half the book it is now.

9. The Cursed Child.

I, for one, was more than happy to let Harry Potter’s whole story end with Deathly Hallows. Contrary to popular belief, I not only liked the epilogue but felt it tied up those remaining loose ends nicely.

It felt like we had come full circle, and there was nothing more to say.

“All was well” was about as perfect an ending as any I’d ever read or could have penned myself.

But then somebody had the bright idea of bringing about The Cursed Child, which Rowling didn’t even write herself though she still granted her permission, so it comes off as more of an approved fan fiction.

I won’t waste your time with further details about the story and why I think it just doesn’t work, but suffice it to say that I will not consider such a story “canon,” as they say.

I will stick to the epilogue of Deathly Hallows as it is, thank you very much.

8. Unnecessary details.

While I don’t object to authors telling us a few things here and there about the stories that the books didn’t include, I feel Rowling gets a little too carried away.

She has told us things that make me wonder, “What have they even got to do with the story? What difference would it have made to the story had we known that fact earlier?”

Did we really need to know about Dumbledore’s love life or that Nagini was a woman all along? How necessary was it to know that Albus Severus Potter winds up in Slytherin after all, that Charlie Weasley never marries, or that Amos Diggory does hold a grudge against Harry for Cedric’s death?

Yeah…like I said before, details that are plain unnecessary.

Furthermore, Rowling can say what she wants about her books and what really happens, but there are still going to be some people out there who interpret certain parts of the story and the characters their own way. So, I appreciate it when authors let us figure some things out for ourselves and not feel the need to shove more information in our faces.

That’s one of the reasons I love C.S. Lewis and the Narnia books more. Lewis tells you what you truly need to know while letting you fill in the remaining blanks the way you like, and also letting you know that your own interpretation isn’t wrong.

7. The Order of the Phoenix.

By far my least favorite of the series. I almost quit the series altogether after reading it.

It’s still well-written but it’s just too long and far too bleak for my comfort. I didn’t like Harry as much as I had in the previous books (yes, I know his reasons for his behavior but he still rubbed me the wrong way and I could only feel so sorry for him), and worst of all, Rowling killed off my all-time favorite character. You probably know who that character is by now, but man, I just had to put the book down and walk away…and it was a long time before I could summon the courage to pick the book up again.

I believe that was the first time a book made me outright depressed, and Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men were the only other books I wanted to throw against the wall.

6. Percy Weasley.

He was never Harry’s favorite member of the Weasley family, nor was he ever mine.

Sure, he has his moments and I like the whole “Prodigal Son” vibe, but yeah, not the most endearing character in my book.

I could almost tolerate Malfoy more…almost.

5. Severus and Lily.

When it comes to Severus Snape and Lily Evans Potter, I think they did a far better job in the movie than in the book. Alan Rickman truly did the scene justice and he even made Snape a bit more heroic when he pleaded with Dumbledore, “Hide them all, I beg you.”

Whereas in the book, he only cared about Lily’s safety (which put Dumbledore well in the right to be absolutely disgusted), and even Rowling herself admitted that Snape only did what he did for Lily’s sake; he couldn’t have given a rat’s tail about anyone else. He would have been perfectly willing to let Harry kick the bucket if Harry weren’t Lily’s offspring.

I prefer characters who go more out of their way for the sake of other people instead of just one. That’s what my Beowulf does; he helps everybody who needs help to the best of his ability, and such deeds serve as their own reward. He does what he does because his moral compass is one of the few things he still has perfect control over, and while he also does horrible things, he nevertheless makes the most of what he has with the knowledge, resources, and options he has at that time.

4. Dolores Umbridge.

Just Dolores Umbridge. ‘Nuff said, ladies and gentlemen.

3. Bellatrix Lestrange.

Yep…all I’m gonna say about Lady Lestrange is that she and Umbridge were the two people you wanted to see dead more than Lord Voldemort, and that’s saying a lot.

2. Too many deaths. 

It’s become a little joke of mine: “When reading Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, don’t get attached to the characters!”

In all fairness, we are talking about a full-scale war here, and nobody is safe in war. Good people suffer along with the evil people. I don’t object to an occasional death; not all of my own characters make it out alive.

It’s also a sign of top-notch writing when you can literally feel the character’s absence and their death hits you where it hurts.

That said, I believe Rowling gets a little too axe-crazy.

I never cared much for stories in which half the cast, if not most of it, bites the dust; it’s simply too big an emotional investment for me. And more than once, Rowling gets to the point where I have to tell her, “Okay, now you’re just being mean.”

And my number one reason for not singing Harry Potter’s praises along with the rest is:

1. The insane fans.

This is the same reason I’m not so fond of Frozen, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or the live-action Disney remakes.

It’s also the reason why I’ve completely turned my back on Twilight and Star Wars.

While I’m well aware that not all fans are this way, there are plenty of fans who are absolute nutcases, and you’d be amazed at how toxic the fandoms can be on social media.

I’ve seen some people treat the HP books like they’re Holy Scripture, and anyone who dares disagree with them is an intolerable blasphemer. I’m amazed at the ruckus people have raised over the epilogue of Deathly Hallows alone, as well as The Cursed Child. I can only think, “Sheesh, people, take a Chill Pill!”

It also goes without saying: this is why we can’t have nice things, kids. You’re worse than a vacuum at sucking all the fun out of the reading and the watching.

Sure, I’m also aware that we don’t have to pay those crazy fans any mind. We can still enjoy the books and movies without their input.

And I do enjoy them, but at my own pace, on my own little scale.

All the same, the nasty fans leave me with a nasty taste in my mouth, and constant promotion only pushes me further away.

I like Frozen but I have no desire to see Frozen II anytime soon, if ever, and the only times I’ll watch Avatar or Korra from this point on will be through my own laptop or my personal DVDs. And I’d like to see how many more Star Wars movies they’ll crank out in the coming years, how many more classic Disney movies they’ll recycle until even the die-hard fans draw the line.

So, one last time, don’t get me wrong; Harry Potter is indeed a great story. All flaws aside, it has every element of a great story.

But for me, it’s not fabulous.

Great by all means, not fabulous by any means.

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