Rereading Harry Potter as an adult and finding it difficult

[Dasisr]

Obsessed with Harry Potter as a teenager but finding it a difficult read as an adult. How badly he is treated by the Dursleys. How deprived of love he was and in later books how he was kept away from his friends/family. All the death of loved ones he had to witness. Honestly finding it tough to get through. AIBU or anyone else the same?

No, I get what you mean OP. Even her later works (The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig) are quite dark stories. My brother commented on that after reading The Christmas Pig to our niece. There is a lot of darkness in children's stories, I loved Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, Roald Dahl, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess when I was fairly young, and read Harry Potter when I was a teenager just as I was becoming a Goth, so the dark themes didn't really bother me, I was listening to some pretty dark music a couple of years later. (And honestly having to deal with music snobs who think Evanescence are 'lightweight' need to listen to their albums and not just the songs that got released as singles.)

(Side note, reading the graveyard scene in Goblet of Fire while listening to the song Whisper by Evanescence was quite a spooky experience, highly recommend if you like that sort of thing.)

I just don't buy it - Ron and Hermione were both seriously affected by that necklace, yet they somehow hung out with Harry for six years and didn't even come close to having the same problems?

Whatever you do, don’t read James and the Giant Peach - that little boy had to live IN AN ACTUAL PEACH.

Sobbed my heart out when Dobby was murdered and I was 13. It’s just a story, a poorly written one with massive plot holes at that (love JK and HP before anyone comes for me)

I am a literary critic with a PhD in literary analysis. It was in no way 'sudden'. It took quite a while.

In the film it was Neville , in the books it was Dobby

Neville is no good at magic because he is not using his own wand, it was his father's wand and not one he chose. Once he got his own wand after his father's is broken he flourishes at magic

While discussing gillyweed, can I mention the Triwizards Contest as a pointless addition to plot progression?

Every time I re-read book 4 it makes me annoyed.

Ha - was just about to say the same! Also to reiterate a PP never ever pick up A Little Life, you'll be in therapy for decades.

Doesn't Harry winning it mean he gives the money to Fred and George to start their joke shop, this meaning they have access to some clever bits of kit when they break into the Ministry?

It also introduces Fleur who later marries into the Weasley family, whereby we learn about the Goblins' view on treasure etc.

(Personally it was the Quidditch in that book that got me.)

Ooh, I don't remember that bit about Neville's wand. When did that occur?

I actually enjoyed reading it out loud to DS more than when I read it in my 20s. There was also lots to talk about in terms of characters and foreshadowing etc.

OP - YANBU. Not sure why so many people thing YABU. Books (and films, music etc) can be upsetting, Grave of the Fireflies left me feeling sad for days, in Harry Potter I cried when Dobby died (book and film), Watership Down when Hazel dies (book, film, & song). I was crying watching Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 last night.

@TeenDivided
It was broken in the Battle of Department of Ministries and it is commented that his new wand is probably one of the last wands Ollivander sold

Dudley isn't evil - his easily led and a product of his parents and upbringing. In the final book you see him turning a corner from this when he says goodbye to Harry when they go off to be protected.

There's also the issue that Harry has a horcrux within him - this will make those around him struggle perhaps. Some are more affected by others. Though obviously there is some deep seated fear and mistrust of magic/wizards by the Dursleys due to Lily and Snape in their childhoods.

Neville also isn't dim. He's forgetful and shown as being quite young initially. But as he grows up he isn't portrayed as dim through the books, and ends up as one of the heroes more than once.

@NooNakedJacuzziness I’ve just finished A Little Life. Enjoyed it to begin with but it quickly devolved into a self-indulgent bore fest. We were repeatedly told how brilliant the main character was but all we ever saw was him being a self-deprecating whingebag. I found it really hard to believe he'd inspire such slavish loyalty, tragic childhood or not.

That's true.

Some overweight characters in HP are villains, some are good...in contrast with Dahl where they are invariably the former.

The aunties in James and the Giant Peach...my God when I saw the dinner table scene of Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban ("you boy, clean this up"), I had serious deja vu.

They were books aimed at children and most children like familiarity and some repeated aspects on the things they watch and read.

That is a monumentally bad novel, though I think the misery porn is more problematic than the borefest element. It read like an overextended hurt/comfort fanfic which was trying to maintain the reader's interest by dangling the promise of more and more graphically-written voyeurism on child abuse, rape, self-harm etc to come, and then having to outdo itself again and again.

Some adult readers seem to have very poor comprehension skills. Yes, Neville is described as plump and is bullied and mistreated. But we are very obviously meant to like Neville and dislike his bullies. Harry et al are largely actively nice to Neville and encourage him to stand up for himself and value himself. Plus he turns out to be a brave hero!

Nah mega over reaching here.
Harry being a horcrux didn't affect anyone else. Ever.

I just snorted tea everywhere. Such an amazing yet horrific read. i saw there’s a play now. I was like WHO THE FCK WANTS TO SEE THAT. And it’s honestly one of my favorite books.

Do you burn all books you don't enjoy?
The charity shop would have been a much better place for an unwanted book. Let someone else enjoy it rather than the waste and description of a book.

You can’t help but grow, OP, and your ability to lose yourself in a particular made up world is bound to change. I used to read certain books over snd over. Then, suddenly, I found I couldn’t lose myself in them in the same way again. Its not wrong or right, or due to creeping political correctness, or because of the “woke mind virus” or JKR phobia. Its just a natural part of close reading, time, and personal evolution. You have had more experiences and some of them make specific scenes in the book more real, or painful, or annoying than when you were young. My youngest daughter used to play “having pneumonia” with her friends when she was a toddler. All great fun until she was rushed to the hospital and stayed four days with it. She was quite bitter about it after “I thought it would be fun! Its not!” Sometimes we know too much to enjoy a fictional account.

It’s a running joke in our house that 90% of films about children start with the parent/s dying. If you went by films you’d be astonished by the amount of orphans out there

I struggle to read it because it's so badly written.

All HP fans have a huge soft spot for Harry. His life was so difficult, but he is resilient. That is what sets him apart and honestly, all heroes.

He gets through it inspite of everything.

To whoever said its not real.life - the magic might not be, but don't for one second think this doesn't happen in real.life. there are far too many examples of kids being brought up in worse situations than Harry 😞