Well, using the best of my speed reading capabilities, I just finished the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.

My first thought is that the world building is quite great, on par to Tolkien, with one notable exception: optimism. Where Tolkien, while verbose, creates a world so detailed that it has almost a life of its own with ups and downs, Rowling’s world is almost completely… depressing.

Granted a world of magic where the wand chooses the wizard sounds quite wonderful in its childlike way, but it has its share of problems that are troubling. Unlike the movies, there are things that are VERY, VERY wrong about the wizarding world.

I won’t bother too much about SPOILERS, because if you haven’t read or watched Harry Potter at this point then there’s not much I can say to you.

Once finishing this seven-series books, I feel like it should read as Harry Potter and a Series of Unfortunate Events. I’m honestly hard pressed to find a point that has anything consistently good that happens to that poor kid, except maybe the Weasleys and that is a bit of a wash on some points. To say that in some ways, Harry might have been better off with the Dursleys says a LOT about what happens to him.

First, let’s cover, at least briefly, the inherent problems of the Wizarding World. Abuse, violence, discrimination and other things are pretty much allowed with no restriction as long as it doesn’t affect the ministry of magic. I’m really not joking. If you read the books, it’s abhorrently clear. To make my point: Umbridge. Dolores Umbridge in the books never receives any punishment for what she did to the students at Hogwarts. In the movies, they have all these news articles saying how she was punished and fired for what she did (probably because the writers rightfully couldn’t in good faith let that slide). In the books, however, after she taught at Hogwarts (and had that brief run-in with the centaurs), she just went right back to work at the Ministry and Rowling never states that after the war she gets fired, so one can assume that even after supporting Voldemort, after torturing students, she STILL works there.

Secondly, Harry is a severely abused child: neglected and malnourished by the Dursleys. From one year old, the poor kid never had a kind word, a warm hug or any sort of comfort given to him. Understanding even the most rudimentary facets of child development, Harry would have to suffer from some pretty severe problems from it. Honestly, that’s probably why even though most of his school days were honestly pretty crappy, he still found it better than what he experienced at the Dursleys. It’s only made worse by two facts: one, Dumbledore could have easily made sure that the Dursley’s were taking care of him either through him or by someone else – two, yes, Harry needed to live there at least part of the year for his mother’s protection to stay over him (see the Seventh book for more details) but not all the time, which means he could have lived somewhere else again with either Dumbledore or someone else. It didn’t need to be like that.

Thirdly, Harry’s school years were pretty crappy, really, and only got progressively worse. Every year SOMETHING happened to him, but more than just important plot points, most of the time he had an EXTREMELY hard time of it. Take Chamber of Secrets where most of the students talked badly about him because they thought he was the Heir of Slytherin and he only had Ron and Hermione to talk to. It only got worse from there. Every year, in some form, or another he was ostracized. Honestly, Malfoy was the least of his problems. He didn’t even get to complete his seventh year.

Fourth, Ron Weasley is a horrible friend. I’m sorry, but, really, if you read the books he is often a little sh*t and I really can’t forgive him for how he abandoned them in Deathly Hallows. He’s a coward, jealous, and says meaner things than Malfoy! He consistently is the reason that Harry has a harder time than he should. The only good thing about him is his family. They, at least, outside of Ron, actually stood up for Harry frequently and treated him with kindness and love. I’m thinking of when Arthur nearly lost it on Vernon when he realized how poorly Harry was treated and then the twins giving Dudley magicked candy to punish him. Ron, though, really, I tried. He’s great in the movies, but I can’t get past him in the books. He treats Hermione even worse.

Fifth, Harry is constantly undermined by the adults in the books at the same time they want him to save the world. It’s so frustrating, I mean, really, really, frustrating the way they won’t tell him anything. I’m thinking of Dumbledore quite a bit, but the others as well. I mean, let’s be real, Dumbledore literally led Harry to the slaughter while pretending to be his friend. It was Snape who finally revealed to Harry on his deathbed that Dumbledore knew Harry was a horcrux and he had to die.

Sixth, Harry definitely has the Grimm because so many people die around him. His parents (horrible enough), then Sirius, then Dumbledore, then Snape then Remus and Tonks, Fred. Like these are important people to him. But people like Sirius and Snape are heartbreaking in particular because they are relationships that he never got a chance to have, not really. He never really got to know Sirius in the way that he should have; never had a chance to have him as his father-figure, which is just beyond unfair. Then there’s Snape. I’d probably have to, and maybe will, have a whole thing, about how cruel that relationship was. Snape and Harry had a lot in common actually and thanks to Dumbledore neither one of them ever got to experience it.

Alright, so that’s enough venting.

Despite what I wrote, I am a fan of Harry Potter, but maybe not to the level of some.

Maybe that’s because I’m a Slytherin.