Book Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

 Hi everyone and today I shall be reviewing the first in the esteemed book series of Harry Potter: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Since this is the proper (because it is British and that is what it is called in Britain) name of the book, I will be referring to it as such, not Sorcerer's Stone.

As you already know from my School for Good and Evil reviews, the Categories assessed shall be Pacing, Language, Characters and Plot. Each category will have 10 points and I will be ranking the book over 40 points. I will be giving my own opinion on each of the categories. 

DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS ALERT IN THE REVIEW! DON'T READ UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK

A little info on the book before proceeding. It was first published in 1997, written by J.K Rowling and was later made into a film in 2001 (ironically I have the version of when the film came out: the Bloomsbury 2001 edition).

Now, I have two points to address before I get started with the review. Firstly, I will not be considering the films at any point in this and other reviews of the Harry Potter series, this will solely be based on the books (since this is, after all, a bookish type of blog). Secondly, since this is my comfort book series (I read it every year as a tradition and trust me, it gets better each time), I might have some nostalgia for it spread throughout the reviews. However, I will try to keep an open mind as if I was reading it for the first time without being an avid fan of the series beforehand.

Now, let's get started!

PLOT: 

Ahh, let's go back to where it all started: the Philosopher's stone. By the way, I'm not just talking about the Harry Potter series as a whole but also the ENTIRE trope of child/teenager realises that they have unique abilities, sending them away from the mediocrity of life as they knew it, but must face new challenges on the way.

Back in 1997, this way of writing was uncommon, so it was revolutionary in the way it was executed; if it were written today, it would still have been popular but it would not have been one of what I call the top three fandoms in the world (Harry Potter, Star Wars and Marvel). But what is the actual plot?

Well, the story starts with Harry living at the Dursleys, who are his aunt, uncle and cousin, who extremely mean and borderline abusive at times, knowing that his parents are dead but never quite knowing why. He starts receiving strange letters from a place called Hogwarts, which as Hagrid later explains, is the school for learning witchcraft and wizardry. The rest of the plot follows him at school, getting on the Quidditch (a wizard sport) team, and discovering what the three headed dog is guarding.

Now I know I'm not exactly the target audience, as this was originally written to be a children's book. However, I read it for the first time at the same age as Harry was in the first book and let me tell you, as a child, I was thrilled by his adventures. Even now, as a young adult, it has aged like wine, getting better and better each time I read it.

Overall I would rate the plot 8/10.

CHARACTERS: 

There is a wide cast of characters in the Harry Potter universe, but for this review, these are the ones that are the most important. 

HARRY:

11 years old and already given up on the world. How can you blame the poor guy? He sleeps in a cupboard under the stairs, is mistreated on a daily basis by his supposed "family" and does not have any friends, not one. Furthermore, his parents are dead. At least, before Hagrid shows up and states that he is a wizard, freeing him from the mediocre world he knows. As soon as he enters Hogwarts, this is where his true personality starts to shine. Now, something I have to address before I continue on the main character. Harry Potter is the main character of the franchise, and among fans, most of them do not consider him to be a good character. Here is my hot take: HARRY (the character) IS UNDERRATED. His parents were murdered right in front of him when he was a baby and he was mistreated for 10 years, and somehow he turned out alright? If that shows you anything, it is that he is resilient, and the fact that he needs his friends for help means that he is not perfect, and as I said in other posts, perfect is OVERRATED.

RON:

Harry's first true best friend. Loyal is the one word to describe Ron, albeit sometimes a little unkind to those he considers annoying (that being Hermione at the beginning of the book), but he slowly begins to warm up to her as well. He is also brave, showcasing at the end of the book just how much by sacrificing his giant piece in a game of wizard's chess, almost risking death from the height of the fall. Ron is also underrated, especially when assessing the Golden Trio. He is not as intelligent as Hermione, but he does have some common sense at least, as he and Hermione have a conversation when in peril from one of the tests to get to the Philosopher's Stone. Those who have read the book know which one I'm talking about, but for those who forgot, there is a Devil's Snare and according to book lore, it loves the dark and the damp. Ron suggests to start a fire, with Hermione panicking and saying that there's no wood. Ron yells out the now iconic "Are you a witch or not?" and brings her to her senses. On a side note, I'm still a bit bitter about Ron's representation in the movies, especially since only book lovers know his true character as J.K Rowling imagined him.

HERMIONE:

Harry's second best friend, and normally people's favourite character not just in the Golden Trio, but in the entire Harry Potter universe (or Wizarding World, as known by most fans). Honestly? I don't blame them. Remember that this book came out in the 90s, so strong and intelligent characters like Hermione were relatively uncommon at the time. As they say with iconic things: always replicated but never duplicated. This means that while Hermione has some imitators out there, she is unique to this day and the joy of reading her character never wavers and is always there. Yet, she is not perfect. She is portrayed from the very beginning as very bossy yet this persistent flaw is part of her charm. I remember relating to Hermione hard when I was younger, simply because I had hoped and hoped for me to have a Golden Trio of my own back then. She is the brains of the trio and helps them get out of sticky situations with her quick wit. She is one of the first feminist characters to appear in a children's book, and when considering that it was published in the 90s, we can safely say that this character paved the way for other known and beloved female characters to come. 

DUMBLEDORE:

The wise mentor guiding one to their true purpose. I see many people comparing Dumbledore to Gandalf from The Hobbit. I don't blame them. They're both the same archetype. Note the word I said: archetype. I did not say they are the same character. Indeed, Dumbledore does not play an integral role in the story until the very end (unlike Gandalf, who is constantly there for Bilbo). What he essentially does is give us exposition for the rest of the Harry Potter series, leaving us readers curious and on our toes for the next installment in the series. Since it is the first book in the Harry Potter book series, there is not much I could say about the characters without giving away spoilers from other books, so that's it for Dumbledore, I reckon.

SNAPE:

The original suspect of killing Harry, he seems to fit the bill perfectly: menacing, an unknown hatred towards the main character, a physical appearance that pushes people away (and before the Snape fangirls say anything, it is how it is described in the book so I'm using the book as reference). However, this book teaches us not to judge people by their appearances, but rather by their actions. Sure, Snape acts mean to Harry on various occasions, but then in private he tries to save him from the jinx set on his broom. And I feel that the message was executed well in this book, and that it is an important one. Otherwise, not really much to say about him either.

QUIRREL:

Stuttering and quiet, as he himself says, who would suspect him for his motive to kill Harry? While in the beginning, he seems rather nervous as a character. However, when he reveals that his whole personality was a farce, that is when he becomes dangerous. One of the reasons that I recommend this book to those aged 9 and above is because any readers younger than that will find the fact that Voldemort (aka the murderer of Harry's parents) is situated on the back of Quirrel's head to be rather disturbing and maybe even traumatic. Otherwise he is weak as a villain. Not as in he is weak as a character, but rather weak in physical terms because Voldemort is sapping all his strength in this book. In fact he dies when Harry touches him (because of the power of love as we learn from Dumbledore) just because of Voldemort.

MALFOY:

Oh, Malfoy...the fictional character so many heterosexual girls fawn over. So many heterosexual girls say that Mr. Draco Malfoy is the perfect man and that their expectations of men are too high because of this character. And as a heterosexual girl myself, I say....come off it! Why would anyone want to be friends with this character, let alone date them? They only like him because he is played by Tom Felton in the movies who is considered hot! Anyway, why should one NOT have a crush on this character? Well he is the typical hotshot school bully who thinks he is above everyone else just because his father has high authority. He is basically the epitome of the white, rich kid one had in their class when they were young and for now, nothing else could be said about him other than that. 

Overall I would rate the characters a 7/10.

PACING:

The pacing is a little chunky and slow at times, but this is understandable because it is a school story at heart, and normally adventures at school take place slowly as most people see school as a bore. I personally enjoy the pacing that the Harry Potter books have, as it is calm and light hearted. Nonetheless, if you are looking for a fast paced book full of riveting action at every page, this book is not for you and for this reason, the pacing is going to get an average mark.

Overall I will rate the pacing 6/10

LANGUAGE: 

The language is simple and easy to understand, being a children's book. It does not offer much intellectual challenge for adults. However, I ranked this section a little higher than average. Before seeing the score and asking why, keep in mind one fact that may not exactly have to do with the book itself but rather something I need to address in general. This is a book meant for children. Meaning that children that read this will use this book as a foundation to read books with more complex language, and in the views of a child, this actually is complex language. So the target audience is not for adults, as much as many fans try to insinuate that it is (at least in the case of the first three books). The point I am trying to make is that anyone can enjoy Harry Potter if they wish. However, adult fans cannot state that it is a simple story, with simple characters and simple language, therefore hating on it, because it was originally not made for them. It was made for children, albeit more older children, as I recommend this to ages 9 and above due to the themes involved. Just a disclaimer, I disagree with society's mentality that we cannot enjoy something childish just because we grew into adults. I personally love Harry Potter (as you all are probably aware of by now), LEGO and cartoons. Do I let society stop me? Nope. Haters gonna hate and as I said in a Tweet once, normalise adults liking "childish" things, because it is normally adults who create these "childish" things in the first place.

Overall I would rate the language 7/10

FINAL THOUGHTS:

You know what the ironic thing is? I was very harsh on this book, not rating as high as I thought I would, which means I did a great job as a reviewer, not letting my nostalgia blind me. The score reflects my first time reading it rather than as an avid fan, because in my eyes, the Harry Potter series is perfect. Also the first time I read the twist with Quirrel being the one who wanted to kill Harry, I thought it was amazing because the clues were there but because we are delved into Harry's perspective, we think it is Snape. To this day, I think this part of the book was phenomenally written. As I said in the language part of the review, I recommend for all fans of the fantasy genre, especially for children aged 9 years and above (in context, I first read it when I was 11, so when reading it, I was the target audience).

Overall I rate the book  28/40

What are your thoughts on the book? Tune in in the comments! Thanks for reading my review on this book, and don't worry, more are to come soon! Happy writing, everyone!