Ivan Malkovych (Editor),
Oleksa Nehrebets'kyi (Editor),
Victor Morozov (Translator),
Sofia Andrukhovych (Translator),
Vladislav Erko (Illustrator),
and
Viktor Baryba (Illustrator)
Ivan Malkovych (Editor),
Oleksa Nehrebets'kyi (Editor),
Victor Morozov (Translator),
Sofia Andrukhovych (Translator),
Vladislav Erko (Illustrator),
and
Viktor Baryba (Illustrator)
***FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, I CANNOT CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THIS AUTHOR***
It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.
12/20/19: Undoubtedly my favourite of the series. This is where things really picked up and where Harry was forced to grow up by the shadow of Voldermort. A shadow that I as a reader had ignored in the first 3 books due to the novelty of the world before me.
Hard-headed though these characters may be, I'm on my way to book 5 now.
We finally finished the audiobook. We've only listened to this in the car so it takes a lot longer to finish a book. This has always been one of my favorite books in the Harry Potter series. I was excited to have my son finally get to hear the book vs. the movie. I've been telling him all along that this book had so much more to it than the movie could show. He loved it too. Now we are starting Book 5 audiobook. Jim Dale makes the listening of these books so much fun!
Out of all Harry Potter books, this one is the one I hold dearest to my heart because of the sole reason that it was the first book I’ve ever read (having finished watching the first three films) and with it began my love for reading.
───────────────────
The thing I’m enjoying the most in my reread of this series is taking the chance to look deeper into the characters and how they interact with each other. The Goblet of Fire will always be a special book to me for the above stated reasons, and given that it was my first ever book to read, I’m very glad to see that there are quite a few details that weren’t mentioned in the films, but I still remember them clearly from reading the book just once over a decade ago, there was 1 scene I rearranged the timing off differently, but other than that, it felt like coming home as always. To continue on to my previous point about the reread, given that I know exactly how the story unfolds in this book, I’m given the chance to really enjoy the characters and get to notice sides I might’ve not have seen before.
For example, Hermione Granger has always been my favourite character in the series, either through the books or the films, it never changed. This book only solidified that opinion and increased my appreciation of her as a character; she’s a flawed human being, but she makes up for it by other sides of her character and through helping Harry and Ron. In another instance, I get to see Ron in a deeper light as well and with a much older mindset than how I read it the first time and personally, although I think he’s a nice balancing individual to the brilliant two with him, I find the way he deals or rather, portrays his jealousy to be utterly disgusting and completely unjustified when you think about who he’s treating that way in the first place and why.
Of course, reading the book will give a very clear idea of what I’m talking about, but I guess it will ultimately depend on how certain people accept certain things. When it comes to Harry however, I find myself somewhat disappointed that most of his sarcastic replies or the things he had to go through in this book, weren’t portrayed as evidently in the film, but other than that, I enjoyed being in his head again. Others like Rita Skeeter were a joy as well, not because she’s that great of a person, but of the opposite, she’s such a horrible one that I found her interactions with the other characters very amusing, especially with Dumbledore.
Another thing I loved and so far continued to love in the books, is the bigger focus on the classes and the magic in this series. So many spells are mentioned, class activities and proceedings and how different some teachers are to others. I always wish for more when I read these, but so far, I’ve been really enjoying how I get to learn with the characters about these things when the chance arises. I do wish that some classes were more explored tbh, but hopefully I will get it from some place at some point.
The plot is really thickening now and I can’t wait to see how I will feel after reading the three remaining books; although, given my opinions so far, I’m more than happy with how it went so I really can’t wait for it!!
I just love all of the Harry Potter books. With The Goblet of Fire things get nastier and darker. You really get sucked into the story, again. When re-reading you discover new details, remember things you forgot. Love it!
Edit 20/08: I’ve been on a weekly vacation on the road with my sister these past days. We were in the middle of nowhere for the majority of the time, so there was no signal and no internet at all. We decided to listen to a book while driving and the only one I’ve got already downloaded on my phone was this one! Just perfect, as always. What I loved about it the most is that my sis has never read a HP book before, she just watched the movies but she fell in love with this one as well and now she wants to read them all!
I said in my re-read of The Prisoner of Azkaban that it was my favourite of the first three, but when it comes to the last four, I find it really difficult to choose. From The Goblet of Fire onwards, the excitement, danger and darkness levels are really upped. I love The Goblet of Fire, I love the whole Triwizard Tournament, I love Moody, and I love the climax when Voldemort returns.
I don't know if it's because I'm older or because different things are important to me now, but there were certain elements of this book that affected me differently. I was in completely awe of Hermione, her disgust at how House Elves are treated and her determination to do something about it. She doesn't actually make any difference in this book, but she won't let anyone sway her in her beliefs or put her off from standing up for what she thinks is right and trying to do something about it. And she's only 14. She is opinionated and she isn't afraid to use her voice to fight against injustice, and that's just so incredible and awe-inspiring. I suppose this has more of an impact on me now as I'm a feminist, but I wish her actions were inspiring to me when I was younger. At the time, I just thought she was annoying whenever S.P.E.W. came up.
I also really loved how Dobby was demanding wages and time off - he might not have accepted much money or time off, but he wasn't going to work for nothing any more. He was proud to be a free elf, proud to wear clothes and actually earn money, despite other House Elves thinking him a disgrace. Dobby and Hermione are two tiny ripples in a vast ocean, but they could lead to waves of change, eventually. They really are people to admire, and to emulate. And I think the issue of House Elves rights in this book and the way Lupin is treated as a werewolf in Prisoner of Azkaban say a lot about how we as society are prejudiced and discriminate against those we consider "other". I'm enjoying seeing these different sides to the books now that I'm older and more educated on such things.
I was also more deeply affected by hearing what happened to Neville's parents and by Cedric Diggory's death. I think because we never really know Neville's parents and we don't get a huge amount of Cedric in this book, I never really warmed to these characters, so what happened to them never used to affect me. But now... again, I don't know if I've become more emotional as I've got older, or if the horrific events that have been happening in the world lately are affecting how I read, but I just found it so horrific.
"Kill the spare." Cedric dismissed, not even considered a person, just an inconvenience who shouldn't be there, and killed without a second thought. It was so needless. He died because he was there, not because Voldemort had any real issue with him, like he did Harry. Not that murdering Harry would have been justified, but at least Voldemort hates Harry for a reason. There was no hate for Cedric. He was just there. And then he wasn't.
And when Dumbledore explained to Harry exactly what had happened to the Longbottom's, I felt sick. Tortured to the point where their minds broke, just because the Death Eaters thought they knew where Voldemort was after attempting to murder Harry. This happening when Neville was just a year old. his parents no longer knowing who he is. It's absolutely heartbreaking. I was really, really upset by what happened to the Longbottom's and Cedric, and felt Harry's sadness as the book came to a close. And poor Harry with his guilt - Cedric was only there because he suggested they take the Triwizard Cup together. To have to live with that... I was also completely dumbstruck with how Cornelius Fudge reacted to the news that Voldemort was back; his complete refusal to believe it and his denial leading him to doing nothing. I was so angry, and so scared for the future - even though I've read the books before. I don't know, it was just a completely different experience for me. I was really emotional on finishing The Goblet of Fire.
As I said at the start, I really love Moody (despite him not actually being Moody but Barty Crouch Jr, but we'll ignore that as he was imitating Moody and he fooled most people, so he must have been pretty spot on). However, there was a lot less of him in this book than I remember there being. I finished the book feeling like I actually hadn't seen that much of him. It was strange, I felt quite disappointed, yet there was no less than there has been in my other re-reads.
I also really enjoyed Voldemort's explanation to the Death Eaters about how his rebirth. I loved the hints about the Horcruxes; his experiments with magic to reach immortality, how he had gone further than any wizard has previously is his search for it. It was a little... unnerving, really.
I really feel that I'm going to find the rest of these books much more disturbing, upsetting, scary and emotional than I have previously. I'm reading with a different perspective, as a person with more experience, more education, and a greater awareness of what's happening in the world, and this is obviously affecting how my reading experience and how I feel about these books. We all say how we wish we could relive our first ever reading of certain books, but with how I've been reading the books recently, it almost feels like I am reading them for the first time. There's so much more I'm seeing now than I ever did before.
Have you ever re-read a book years after first reading it and found yourself more powerfully affected the second time round?
It's been a long time since I last read Goblet, and only my third time doing it. I remember having some pacing issues with this one before, but now that I know what to look for I found that I didn't have those problems anymore. I could see the moments of foreshadowing, the cute quips that hold a bit of truth in them, and how everything ties together. Moments in conversation that I never quite pulled together i my first read through now stand out. It was interesting to see how much the tension fought with that light-hearted HP feel, and to see that change that's coming happen slowly over the course of this rather long novel.
Harry enters his fourth year at wizarding school with Voldemort's power growing stronger and his return begins to seem more likely. Despite this Hogwarts is hosting the Tri-Wizard tournament and Harry's name mysteriously is entered into the running and after being chosen as a participate is forced to compete risking not only his but other teammate's lives in the process.
J.K. Rowling continues to draw toward two major themes, love and prejudice. Love, through Harry with those surrounding him with a strong desire to protect him. His mother giving her life to save him, Dumbledore through the stupidity of blind love consistently finds excuses to avoid telling him the true reason why Voldemort attacked thirteen years ago to spare him more pain to endure. A second being prejudice, the wizarding world has a myriad of races in the community and it appears that in every book Rowling chooses a new race to "pick on". In Goblet of Fire the choice is house elves, implying that they are slaves with one free elf, Dobby who was freed several years ago and while loving his new found freedom is finding it hard to make the transition. Strangely enough, I was also reminded of Susan B. Anthony or the Woman's Right movement, maybe it was Hermione's organization S.P.E.W. {Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare}. Lastly, and I believe this is more apparent in the movies due to the costumes but the Death Eaters, Voldemort's supporters have an uncanny resemblance to the KKK from the described garb to the groups torture and discrimination on certain races/species.
This is my favorite of the series probably because it is the climax of all seven books. The Goblet of Fire is kind of like Gone with the Wind, the first half of the book/movie shows the thriving comfortable land of the south, and in the second part war strikes demolishing everything they knew. I feel that this installment has similar features, the wizarding world working hard to maintain a peaceful secret life for the past thirteen years only to begin to crumble at Voldemort's return.