Book Review: Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire

Well I finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night. And I must say I really enjoyed it. Being that the movie version is my favorite, the book not only expanded on it, but blew it out of the water. I had no idea how much was left out! And because of this I would like to discuss a few key points and my thoughts:

I kinda like this artwork better than the artwork on my copy

S.P.E.W. - My memory sucks royally, so I don't remember what it stands for, but this was Hermionie's creation to help aid in better treatment of the house-elves. She hated that they were treated as servants, regardless of the fact that the elves quite enjoyed it. I saw myself being torn on how I felt about this, because I knew this was a direct correlation to slavery in reality of which I would never agree with. And at the same time as I'm reading I understood the stand point of everyone else in that the elves liked helping and being paid nothing for it. So who's to argue with that? Such a dilemma!

Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch - Nowhere in the movie do they bother to go into length on who these men are and how important they are to the story! This disappointed me a bit finding all this useful information left out of the movie. I understand that they can't put everything in there, but a little more depth would have been nice. It made so much more sense why Barty Crouch was such an integral part to Voldemort's attempt on Harry's demise yet again. Ludo Bagman I don't really remember being featured all that much in the movie, but his character was pretty important too, being that he was leading the tournament. Whatev's, the movies will never live up to the books.

Neville's parents - I have to admit when I was reading about what happened to his parents I teared up a bit. I actually did quite a few times during the last 200 pages of the book, but this one in particular got to me. Knowing that Neville's family story is just as tragic as Harry's and yet no one recognized this is a little heartbreaking.

All in all the book is definitely better than the movie which is not a surprise, but I do still love the movies and will continue to watch them.

Now I'm taking a break from the Harry Potter series to read the Steve Jobs Biography that I got for Christmas. I will then continue on my New Year's quest to finish reading the entire series this year. I hope I can accomplish this. Wish me luck!