#hp book review

[nuninho2000]

My favourite Weasley twins moment and it's not even in the books

[coolnightmaremagazine]

Character Analysis: Hermione Granger and the Mishandling of House Elf Slavery

Series: Harry Potter Author: J.K. Rowling Topic: House Elves

Hermione Granger makes me think of Britta Perry from Community. But I don’t think she should.

Britta often stood for the right causes, but for the wrong or shallow reasons—usually as a setup for the joke. She’d fumble her delivery or overstep in a way that made the audience laugh at her rather than with her, and it often undermined the legitimacy of the causes she was trying to champion.

Hermione, on the other hand, stood for something right—the liberation of house elves—and she did so with real conviction. She researched their treatment, took action (however naive), and clearly saw the moral wrong in a society that used magical beings for unpaid labor, even as everyone else accepted it as normal. Her motivations were sound, and her sense of justice was admirable. But despite this, the narrative gave her the “Britta treatment.”

Rather than exploring house elf slavery as a serious systemic issue in the wizarding world, J.K. Rowling treated it as a punchline. Hermione’s campaign to free the elves—S.P.E.W.—was ridiculed not only by other characters but by the structure of the story itself. The language around it was infantilized (“elf hats,��� knitting clothes), and the elves themselves were written as happy to be enslaved. Even Dobby, the one elf who wanted freedom, was portrayed as quirky and strange for it. The underlying message seemed to be: “This isn’t really a problem, and Hermione is silly for thinking it is.”

But the truth is, it is a problem. It’s slavery. Generations of magical beings are born into servitude, denied autonomy, and punished for disobedience—and yet the only major character who questions this is mocked. It’s a glaring moral blind spot in a series that otherwise wants to talk about good vs. evil, oppression vs. resistance.

The other characters’ dismissive responses to Hermione’s activism reflect poorly on them. Ron jokes about it. Harry, who spends so much time fighting tyranny, can’t seem to care. Even Hagrid, who should empathize as a marginalized being himself, brushes her off. Their reactions would have made sense if the story used them as a way to interrogate how even “good” people can ignore injustice when it’s normalized. But the series never does. The discomfort is played for laughs or quietly swept aside.

Worse still, Hermione herself is never given a moment of vindication. There’s no turning point where the characters realize she was right. There’s no reckoning with the system of enslavement or serious follow-up on the future of the elves. Even after the war, when so many broken things in the wizarding world are being rebuilt, the issue of house elves is left untouched. It feels like a betrayal—not just of Hermione’s character arc, but of the moral framework the books set up.

It's a failure to grapple with the implications of the world Rowling created. By making light of a character who tried to take a stand, and by depicting the oppressed as content in their oppression, the series sends a troubling message about activism, justice, and whose liberation is considered worth fighting for.

Hermione deserved better. And so did the house elves.

[coffeebookslovegt]

Ella murió junto con el corazón... Del hombre que más la amo en el mundo.

[transman-badass]

Okay y'all, I need your input!

I want to take my lifelong Cthulhu Mythos special interest to the next level. I want to expand my own horizons and introduce people to what I find. So, I want to start reviewing Cthulhu Mythos stuff. Mostly books, since that's my wheelhouse but also anything else I can get my hands on, especially more obscure stuff. I've got a lot of ideas, including stuff for my Kofi, a cartoon persona, maybe even YouTube or podcast stuff later on?

I'm gonna do this for a year to see how it goes. Give it a good solid try because the time is gonna pass anyway and I'd rather be full of knowledge than regrets. But first... I gotta decide where to put it.

Please, if you're interested, reblog this! I want to have some idea of what I'm getting into with a theoretical audience 😅.

[pandorasboxofhorrors]

Today’s theme are the writings of Clark Ashton Smith, a Lovecraftian writer who added to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Clark Ashton Smith wrote many short stories and I have read them all. He is a fun and creative writer and not particularly dark or nasty. All of his short stories have been reissued in the last twenty years in nice volumes, but the question is where to start. Hyberborea is an excellent starting point for reading this author, a book of short stories from his Lovecraftian mythos. The best first story to read by Clark Ashton Smith is The Seven Geases, about a hunting party that descends into problems. Below are helpful links:

Hyperborea pdf:

The Seven Geases html:

The Seven Geases YouTube reading:

Hyperborea Goodreads review:

[bakausagilavi]

does anyone know any good youtube video reviews/deepdives/essays that are about Harry Potter books and the worldbuilding? I'd like to watch some critical takes on the book series and its worldbuilding, but thanks to youtubes "wonderful" search function, I'm only getting ones about the movies, really surface level takes, or just "jk rowling is bad". I'm not looking for "hp is the best omg nostalgia" videos either, but ones that look at the plot and worldbuilding with a critical mind.

[book-coffee-stormy]

Accio coffee 🪄 ☕

What is your favorite Harry Potter book?

[ilovecoralineandotherbooks]

The world can burn for all I care if you are not in it.

CDLynn - perfectly in pieces

[gambit-blogs]

This just dropped 😯😯😯

But I definitely think this is the last book of the series.

Because the first book is The Inheritance Games

Games as in plural meaning the series continues and the next book is The Grandest Game

Singular meaning the one last book

Totally going to be sad when this series is over but at least us team Grayson girls get more content. Looking forward to his happy ending.🫶🏻

[kittyghoul751]

You know what

Happy birthday, Wilbur Whatley 

He turned 111 :)

[radashes]

Magic Unveiled: Harry Potter Books vs. Movies

Grab your broomsticks, folks, 'cause we're diving into the enchanted world of why Harry Potter books are the real deal, leaving the movies in the dust like a sad Sorting Hat rejected from Hogwarts.

Let's talk about characters – the heart and soul of any magical escapade. In the movies, they're like magical mannequins parading around with a script. Ginny, my dear, in the books, she's got more personality than a room full of poltergeists. The movies just turned her into Harry's background dancer. Bravo.

And scenes? Oh, the movies have this knack for taking a scenic route straight through Cluelessville. Remember the Quidditch World Cup in "Goblet of Fire"? Nah, the movies were like, "Who needs magical sports? Let's focus on Harry's angst instead." Because nothing screams magical world-building like ignoring magical sports!

Now, Peeves, our favorite mischievous poltergeist. Books? Check. Movies? Nope. They tossed him out like a bad Quidditch player. Probably figured they had too much magic and mischief already – who needs a cheeky ghost causing chaos?

Let's not forget the brilliance of S.P.E.W. - Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. The books gave us Hermione's crusade for house-elf rights. The movies? Well, they were like, "Eh, too much plot. Let's cut that and throw in another shot of Harry dramatically staring into the distance."

The movies' idea of "detail" is like serving a feast with only pumpkin juice and a chocolate frog. The books, my friend, are the full banquet. You're not just watching the story; you're dining with the characters, experiencing the full magical buffet of Rowling's imagination.

So, while the movies were busy with their cinematic flair, the books were casually dropping wisdom like Dumbledore at the end of each school year. Here's to the true Hogwarts experience – where the pages are the real magic, and the movies are just a quick spell that fades away.

[the-kestrels-feather]

Dominic Noble hot

[autumn2may]

Today Richard Marpole reviews Chaosium's Cults of Cthulhu supplement for the Call of Cthulhu tabletop rpg, written by Christopher Lackey & Mike Mason! 🐉

"This is a well-crafted, thoughtful, and very useful guide to adding Cthulhu cults to your games."

[sandythereadingcafe]

REVIEWS

LITERARY LUNACY / NARRATIVE NIGHTMARES (Bewitched Book 1 & 2) by HP Mallory at The Reading Cafe:

'fanciful and enchanting tale'

[thereadingcafe]

[maxbegone]

people who review viral fanfic on their bookstagram…why?