Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think this is the book where J. K. Rowling lost the plot: literally and figuratively.

The book is way too long but either she was working to a deadline and felt she had to get it out there anyway even though it hadn't been edited down to a reasonable length or the Harry Potter hype machine had taken over and nobody felt they could tell her to cut out half the stuff in the book. For example, the whole Rita Skeeter thing appears to be a largely irrelevant rant from J.K. against tabloid journalism.

I'm still sticking with the series though because, despite my concerns, I am (essentially) enjoying the ride. What follows therefore should be taken as the rants and ramblings of a grumpy old man.

Extreme grumpiness alert
Harry and Ron were particularly annoying in this book and the resolution to their tiff was too trite.

Why were the school Quidditch matches cancelled? They only play three matches a year and the Triwizard thing (in theory) only involved one person from Hogwarts.

Mrs Weasley would not have believed Rita Skeeter's character assassination of Hermione.

Grumpy and spoiler-tastic alert
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How useless is the Triwizard tournament as a spectator event? Apart from the first task, where there is an opportunity to see a child being eaten by a dragon, the audience are not able to see anything that happens during the tasks. Muggle sports have underwater cameras, night vision cameras and cameras on drones that can follow the action as well as large screens in the stadium so the audience can see what's going on. Wizard events have some old duffer that can make his voice loud who presumably says things like, "And the contestants are still under water. I wonder what's happening?".

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