It is necessary to preface this review (as well as all the others I’ll do for this series) with a brief demographic overview of myself. I am a late-20’s gay transgender man who did not grow up with these books. I am reading them for the first time to essentially see what all the fuss is about and what’s there that folk are so keen on.

The first installment of this franchise is… okay. It’s middle of the road YA boarding school fantasy. Rowling’s sense of humor has a real mean streak to it that I often found extremely off-putting, particularly in the narrative’s treatment of Neville and the awful descriptions of Dudley and Uncle Vernan’s statures. I often see people describe these books as being sources of comfort - I can only hope that the others aren’t as rude as this.

Dumbledore is a stand-out character and I enjoyed him quite a lot. He really gives off that elder queer energy and I’m surprised that people seem to think that him being gay was a retroactive decision. For as much as I personally detest the author, I have to argue in her favor there. The man rolls up in on the 8th page in high-heeled boots and purple, for God’s sake!

Overall, a fast read. The prose was fine. Nothing spectacular here. Pacing-wise it felt very slice-of-life, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily. As an aside, Quidditch sounds like a terrible sport.