Harry Potter was badly written

[Stackys]

I’ve seen this said on here a few times, that the books are badly written and she’s a terrible author who just got lucky.

Why do people say this? The world she created was amazing, what’s wrong with the books?

Her stories appeal to children: they're imaginative and exciting, with great characters to work with.

But, she wasn't a great writer technically speaking. Her first book was solid, top notch. But they got progressively longer and longer and more bogged down with 'stuff' because they were rushed out. She needed a better editor.

She was rejected countless times by many publishers who are all probably a bit fed up they let go now.
I hope the next Strike book isn't disappointing.

I have an English Degree, I studied HP as part of my Children's Literature module.

JK Rowling is far from a bad writer, she may not be perfect, she may write differently to your preferred style. She is an amazing story teller and created a world that children and adults alike have fallen in love with. I think she's absolutely amazing. (And my favourite book is Frankenstein - hence the username - so it's not that I don't appreciate other writing styles). I do appreciate diversity in writing though and love a great many writers, all very different.

Publishers were to scared to tell her to edit after book 3. The last 4 should be cut by around 20%.

I think the problem is actually more in the editing. The first few books have been well edited and are more tightly written. As JKR got more popular I suspect the editor felt less able to do his job...

I read the books in Italian, when I was younger, and loved them. They don't seems poorly written, but maybe the translation was better than the original.
I love the story, I could never even imagine writing something so complex, as JKR did.
Sometimes even famous writers get it wrong: I was reading "A farewell to arms" recently, and it's so underwhelming.

Interesting so many people think the later books should be shorter, Order of the Phoenix has always been my fave cos I LOVE all the world building stuff (apart from Grawp, but I don’t like Hagrid as a character so I’m an outlier anyway). The beginning where they clean Grimmauld Place for ages is probably my fave bit of the whole series lol.

But the English at times is mediocre.

But then you get authors like Stephen King stating that plain language is always best and that "the road to hell is paved with adjectives".

I love JKR. Her books are easy reading, but that's OK by me. The plot follows your basic archetypes. HP is basically the Christ/male sacrifice/Aslan story, which is why I think HP has no real personality or talent - he just has to 'be'. Dumbledore is the magic mentor who dies so the hero can fulfil their destiny.

Some stuff is very pat, though - like everything fitting into a school year, but I guess it would be a bit weird if everything was done and dusted by Christmas and the rest of the book was about lessons and exams. I'd also be pretty pissed off if I was in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff and those bloody Gryffindors just swooped in with some half-assed, semi-accidental bravery at every end of year and pulled the House Cup rug out from under everyone else.

Having said all that, Harry's walk to Voldie in the last book never fails to turn on the waterworks for me. Great storytelling, even if the writing itself could be more polished. Much prefer her to e.g. Tolkien, whose plots are bloody amazing but whose writing is a total snoozefest for me. Never got on with Alan Garner, either - just not accessible for me.

I still don't get house elves, though. A race of slaves that like being enslaved doesn't sit well with me.

It’s been a while since I read any of the Harry Potter books, but JKR did a very good job with drawing the reader into the story through the world building and plots of the books (although admittedly there are a few bits that don’t make much sense when you stop to think about them).

The writing style?
Okay, maybe it could have been improved, but if the writer can make the plot a really good one - which JKR succeeded in doing, for the most part - then personally, I can forgive a lot when it comes to the writing style.

They're fast-moving stories, children love them - and she wasn't setting out to write great literature. And she's a whole lot better than Enid Blyton.

@MadeleineMaxwell - I always took the house elves to basically symbolise the unquestioning masses blindly following (religion) and doing what they are told without questioning what they are doing or why, whilst being exploited by the more powerful Actually finding comfort in knowing their place and not having to do or think anything else. That’s why Dobbie turns into such a hero, almost a martyr.

The characters and imagination are brilliant for children.

Some people don't like JKR and have an agenda behind their comments... she tends to speak her mind and quote biology which annoys some individuals - she not 'woke'

Or look at this way - she's the kids' equivalent of Dan Brown or John Grisham. Bestsellers don't set the literary bar too high.

I think a lot of the 'bad writing' comments are a backlash because so many adults are weirdly obsessed with the books and films and think JKR is the greatest writer ever. They are essentially very popular but not very challenging children's books (I might hazard a guess that those two points are connected) that were very quickly turned into films and so the franchise expanded. If Warner Bros weren't so busy pushing all things Harry Potter I suspect the books would be less popular than they are.

Having said that I think JKR is an admirable individual and if someone had to be given so much money and power and influence from writing kids books I'm glad it was her.

After listening to the books again my big question which I be only recently thought of is. How do students get to hogwarts are the start of term if they live closer to Hogwarts than Kings Cross. For instance Hogmeade. Surely those kids don't experience the novelty of the Hogwarts Express. And what are their arrangements for them to get to school. What does their letter say instead of "The Hogwarts Express leaves Kings Cross Platform 9 3/4 on September 1st at 11am"

The plots engage children, but there's not much you can do with the prose in terms of teaching, so in that way it's not a valuable book. If you wanted examples of imagery, metaphor or character development, you're better with another book. It's popular because you don't have to work hard or reread.

She does the thing where she constantly uses the character name instead of a pronoun. I hate this and oddly have seen it an awful lot in bestselling series, Lynda La Plante is another one that drives me mad with it. I've seen it so often I do wonder if there is something deliberate about it, like the author doesn't trust the reader to remember who the characters are or what is happening.

@ScorpioSphinxInACalicoDress

There's one I use in particular- the name Harry appears 12 times in 5 lines, not a pronoun in sight. He's moving, so it's Harry walked quickly, Harry ran silently, Harry waited anxiously. Etc etc.

That should have been picked up by the copy editor.

I do think that the majority of the worst criticism just comes from the fact it's popular, and people like to feel superior to others who like popular things.

(Not including writers or english teachers etc in that - if writing or language is your job then crack on and be critical).

I often wondered if the parents get a long list of requirements for the new terms at Hogwarts and how much they charge.
Harry must have been on a bursery as I can't imagine the Dursley's paying anything for poor old H!

I read the Robert Galbraith one - the first one... the casual vacancy - didn't enjoy it at all. Harry Potter was OK, but you could say 'crap writing' about almost anyone if it isn't the kind of writing that appeals to you. I read of James Patterson but his books drive me up the wall, I reckon they would be the size of a novella if he stopped making every bloody sentence a sodding paragraph! In one book I read he actually split a conversation between paragraphs! Ridiculous! and a waste of trees witht he amount of blank pages he has...

As others have said, and her Galbraith books are much the same: she writes incredibly good stories in sometimes incredibly mediocre ways. Much like the big detective books, Grisham etc.

Stephen King is similar, he has a limited style of writing - he discusses it in many of his talks.

As a reader you make your choice.

@Bluesheep8

I've only read one. Lots of things were just copied from a book I read and loved as a child - The Worst Witch. I couldn't get past that I'm afraid

Please could you provide examples of this? It's actually a very very serious charge and you need to be able to back it up.

Jeez that was crap writing - every sentence a chapter...