Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

olliebob - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a delightfully scary book. The plot twists are everywhere. The tension is everywhere. The heartbreak is everywhere. Harry starts his summer by going to the Quidditch World Cup with Hermione and the Weasley's. After the tournament, Death Eaters (Followers of Voldemort) show up. Everything is chaos. The Death Eaters are hurting people. People are fleeing. Harry, Ron, and Hermione find a safe patch of woods and sit down. Hermione relates how she saw that people have spells on their house elves so that they cannot run away. They see the Dark Mark in the sky, and Winky is blamed for it. At Hogwarts, things are just as chaotic. When Harry finds out their is to be a Triwizard Tournament held at Hogwarts for all students who are seventeen. Two other schools come, schools which are EXTREMELY intimidating. Students who want to participate can put their names into the goblet of fire. When it is time for the goblet of fire to choose who can play, Harry's name comes out, along with Cedric, Fleur, and Victor. He must compete. Harry battles dragons, saves people from mermaids, and goes through an intricate maze. He and Cedric decide to share the glory of winning the Triwizard cup. It is a portkey! When they grab it, they are transported to a graveyard where Cedric is killed, Harry battles Voldemort, and Harry's parents save him. He goes back through the portkey to Hogwarts. Harry figures out that Mad Eye Moody is not him at all. It was Bartimus Crouch Jr. He is taken to Azkaban. Voldemort has come back, but nobody believes Harry, except for Dumbledore, and Harry's friends. This is a great book, through and through. Thank you, J K Rowling for your wonderful series!

Starred review from January 3, 2000
HEven without the unprecedented media attention and popularity her magical series has attracted, it would seem too much to hope that Rowling could sustain the brilliance and wit of her first three novels. Astonishingly, Rowling seems to have the spell-casting powers she assigns her characters: this fourth volume might be her most thrilling yet. The novel opens as a confused Muggle overhears Lord Voldemort and his henchman, Wormtail (the escapee from book three, Azkaban) discussing a murder and plotting more deaths (and invoking Harry Potter's name); clues suggest that Voldemort and Wormtail's location will prove highly significant. From here it takes a while (perhaps slightly too long a while) for Harry and his friends to get back to the Hogwarts school, where Rowling is on surest footing. Headmaster Dumbledore appalls everyone by declaring that Quidditch competition has been canceled for the year; then he makes the exciting announcement that the Triwizard Tournament is to be held after a cessation of many hundred years (it was discontinued, he explains, because the death toll mounted so high). One representative from each of the three largest wizardry schools of Europe (sinister Durmstrang, luxurious Beauxbatons and Hogwarts) are to be chosen by the Goblet of Fire; because of the mortal dangers, Dumbledore casts a spell that allows only students who are at least 17 to drop their names into the Goblet. Thus no one foresees that the Goblet will announce a fourth candidate: Harry. Who has put his name into the Goblet, and how is his participation in the tournament linked, as it surely must be, to Voldemort's newest plot? The details are as ingenious and original as ever, and somehow (for catching readers off-guard must certainly get more difficult with each successive volume) Rowling plants the red herrings, the artful clues and tricky surprises that disarm the most attentive audience. A climax even more spectacular than that of Azkaban will leave readers breathless. The muscle-building heft of this volume notwithstanding, the clamor for book five will begin as soon as readers finish installment four. All ages.

August 12, 2002
In our Best Books citation, PW
wrote, "The fourth Harry Potter adventure, centering on an inter-school competition, boasts details that are as ingenious and original as ever. A spectacular climax will leave readers breathless." Ages 8-12.