Book Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc on January 29, 2015
ISBN: 9781408866191
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
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Harry Potter's life is miserable. His parents are dead and he's stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he's a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.

Though Harry's first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it's his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.

Why on earth has it taken me so long to read the massively hyped Harry Potter books? Well, when they were released I was older than its target audience and being the stroppy teenager, I was – refused to read them…After all I was capable of reading more grown-up literature, but, I was a fool! I really missed out on an awesome adventure because this thirty-two-year-old grown ass woman has loved the first book in the series. My dilemma is though, what can I add in this review that hundreds of wonderful readers haven’t already?

“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”

The appeal is intrinsic. It’s a story that is an easy read and the dive into the plot is smooth and complete. You are transported into the magical world and in that moment, also, you can fully appreciate how this series’ changed children’s lives. it is magical. It is pure and simple escapism.

Childhood can be brutal and traumatic experience and the magical world of Hogwarts allows a child to not feel so alone. The experience of reading these novels has become something like an old friend, a safety blanket that reminds them that good things can prevail. It’s a depressing existence of living under a cupboard under the stairs however, he found his tribe. Feeling like you belong – I think a lot of children understand the journey to finding their place in the world. J.K. Rowling’s writing is brilliant, she has the direct switch to my imagination and she turned it on in glorious technicolour.

I read the book in a matter of hours, the pull to carry on was too strong. My eyelids were drooping with Christmas fatigue – I had to finish it. Its obvious that you don’t need to be a child to enjoy this series – it transcends age groups/genres etc. I am hoping I see deeper characterisation as the book series progresses.

“There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.”

I’m not going to do a full-blown review like normal. Who doesn’t know the story of Harry Potter- The Boy Who lived, instead some miniscule observations, I have picked up along the way. At points I wanted to jump into the author’s head and pick apart her thoughts. I wanted to find out the answers. But, alas, I have to read the book like everyone else.

Observations

Snape – wow, some deep stuff going on in this guy’s head. I think there is more to him than just the evil guy persona he’s putting forward. Probably one of my favourite characters.

Hagrid is awesome. Soft and gentle. Fiercely protective of his tribe.

If I was a parent of these children, I would majorly be concerned with the activities they get up to – mainly fighting trolls and coming face to face with a three headed dog.

Currently at odds with book Dumbledore in the book and the movie one.

Coral

Author: Sara Ella

Publish Date: November 12th 2019

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: ⭐⭐

Book Depository| Waterstones| Wordery|

synopsis - ARC Review: Coral by Sara Ella

There is more than one way to drown.

Coral has always been different, standing out from her mermaid sisters in a society where blending in is key. Worse yet, she fears she has been afflicted with the dreaded Disease, said to be carried by humans—emotions. Can she face the darkness long enough to surface in the light?

Above the sea, Brooke has nothing left to give. Depression and anxiety have left her feeling isolated. Forgotten. The only thing she can rely on is the numbness she finds within the cool and comforting ocean waves. If only she weren’t stuck at Fathoms—a new group therapy home that promises a second chance at life. But what’s the point of living if her soul is destined to bleed?

Merrick may be San Francisco’s golden boy, but he wants nothing more than to escape his controlling father. When his younger sister’s suicide attempt sends Merrick to his breaking point, escape becomes the only option. If he can find their mom, everything will be made right again—right?

When their worlds collide, all three will do whatever it takes to survive, and Coral might even catch a prince in the process. But what—and who—must they leave behind for life to finally begin?

Taking a new twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved—yet tragic—fairy tale, Coral explores mental health from multiple perspectives, questioning what it means to be human in a world where humanity often seems lost.

synopsis 1 - ARC Review: Coral by Sara Ella

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Oh, how I wanted to enjoy this book. I had been saving this one for a while, waiting until the right mood took me, waiting until I was ready to fully immerse myself in the world of a very special retelling…essentially A Little Mermaid retelling. I love a retelling, but this just fell flat for me and I can’t tell you just how disappointed I am that this was the case. I was grateful that the author/publisher inserted a trigger warning at the front of the book, but I didn’t fully appreciate just how apt inserting that proviso was going to be.

Before I try to wade through this review, I will give credit where credit is due. Sara Ellis had a monumental task of giving representation to sufferers of mental health. It is a beomoth of a topic. It varies so much from person to person and there isn’t enough representation in Young Adult fiction. Ellis chose the most complex of topics to write about and for that she needs to be commended. This book is just so sad though. It does wrench emotions from you and depending on whether that impacts upon you negatively or positively it could be a good or bad thing. I have a history of mental health problems, mainly PND after the birth of my babies so this did resonate with me. I deal with social anxiety and in that regard, I use books as an escape, a way for me to just forget about real life for a couple of hours. Life is seriously tough and yes that’s what you expect and deal with, but this book just didn’t even give me a glimmer of hope that things were going to get better and I just NEED that. The end result of finishing this book was that I was just damned confused way too much.

The multiple POVs were extremely difficult for me to follow and I did find myself flicking back and forth to try and make sense of what was happening with each character. At points it felt like I was reading three different stories rather than it flowing as one. The writing style was awkward also and it read in a jittery fashion.

The Story complexity just didn’t fit the characters. The internal voices of each character just left me feeling meh. I didn’t particularly care much for any of them and it really shouldn’t have been that way. Corals voice just faded away into the nothingness for me and I got quite confused with sections of dialogue because she wasn’t memorable for me and I wasted time going back to read certain pages again. She should have been the strongest character but instead nothing warmed me to her. I think the storytelling between modern day humans and the life underwater with the merfolk just didn’t gel well for me. It had incredible potential but it’s a no from me.

The thing that has knocked the rating down to 2 stars from me is the fact that the theme of mental health was far bigger than the story. The characters seem to have been written so that the mental health seemed to define who they were, and that FUCKING pissed me off. Mental health doesn’t define me and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t for others either. You didn’t really get to find out more about their personalities, what makes them tick, what they loved, what they hated outside of being a mental health sufferer. There were no complexities to their characters just mental health.

The plot was pretty much dead in the water. Sorry for the pun. It was slow as all hell. Every chapter I got through, I found myself wondering just when would I work out what the plot was? You would think by 50% that I would have worked that out, but no, it was not obvious at all. The three characters didn’t come together until quite far on at the expense of a perceived big twist that really wasn’t all that twisty and ruined the experience that could have been woven intricately by this point. I do like what the author tried to do but it just didn’t work for me.