In the summer of 2018, I re-read the entire series (the Stephen Fry version, not the Jim Dale reading on Audible). As I undertook the endeavor, I wondered what my favorite book would be. The “easy” answer is Deathly Hallows—it’s kind of like how every Star Wars fan is expected to say Empire Strikes Back is their favorite Star Wars movie. But I wanted to approach my third time through the series—once reading on actual paper and once on audiobook—with a fresh mindset, open to whatever the series brought out this time through. 

Goblet of Fire is hands-down my favorite Harry Potter book. It’s the quintessential Harry Potter experience. He’s still at school, getting up to his usual antics with his friends. They start to grow up a little bit, with the introduction of the ball we get our first taste of young love in the wizard world. Dumbledore is still the wise, beloved, distant yet present headmaster. The Malfoy-Snape-Potter story arc is more subdued, replaced with more complex antagonists. The Wizarding World opens up beyond Great Britain to show us there are witches and wizards everywhere. Harry is embroiled in some incredibly challenging wizarding tasks. And while all of this is happening at everyone’s favorite setting, Hogwarts, there is a dark wizard lurking in the shadows throughout the whole novel. While Deathly Hallows is dark from start to finish, Goblet of Fire only has the undercurrent of darkness, like storm clouds looming in the distance on an otherwise sunny summer day. It has everything (except quidditch, but I’ll take the Triwizard Tournament over quidditch any day). I love this book.