It will come as no surprise to anyone that I'm a Harry Potter fan. As such, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
was the book that got me into J.K. Rowling's magical world. That said, I
tend to skip over it when I reread the series. This is for several
reasons, which I will outline below, before I get to the reason I
shouldn't skip over Sorcerer's Stone as often as I do.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is largely a setup book.
The reader gets what is basically a book-long info-dump interspersed
with actual plot. That said, much of the info-dumping is necessary as
the reader is in the same shoes as Harry: neither has any idea what the
Wizarding World is like. However, in large info-dumps serve to make the
book choppy. While we don't necessarily need to know what's going on
hour-to-hour and day-to-day, I personally felt as though delving into
the day-to-day stuff more often would have been helpful to break up all
the jumping around that happens. There are also a lot of
plot-conveniences throughout the book that hinge on characters being in
certain places at certain times to overhear random bits of dialogue in
order to create the red herring villain: Professor Severus Snape. I
enjoyed Snape as the villain on the first read, but knowing about that
upon reread ruins the magic, as it were.
What I really enjoy about rereading Sorcerer's Stone is the
foreshadow-y clues sprinkled throughout the pages. Sirius Black is
mentioned in the first chapter, though he doesn't come back up until
Prisoner of Azkaban. Horcruxes, while not explicitly named or expounded
upon, are mentioned. We see the after-effects of Voldemort using one of
them. It's the only way he could even show up in the book. Professor
Snape is initially set up as the villain. By the end of the book, and
ultimately the end of the series, we see that he's not. We get a slight
mention of the Marauders in this book, or at least a mention of their
exploits, when Dumbledore tells Harry that James saved Snape's life.
These, along with many other bits and pieces, are reasons rereading
Sorcerer's Stone is so much fun.
In addition to the foreshadowing, there were certain bits of the story I
really enjoyed. The depiction of Hogwarts at Christmas really stands
out. I also quite enjoyed the Gringotts plaque -- I've got that thing
memorized. I do really want to punch Ron in the face for all the things
he said to Hermione in this book, though. That was before they became
friends, but even so, he was really cruel to her.
If you are reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the
first time -- I don't know why you're reading this review if you are,
first off -- this is the book that gets you into the series. It might
not be the best example of Harry Potter brilliance, but it works as a
nice introduction to the series.
Still manages to draw me in and keep me reading. This particular reread is being done along with Mugglecast’s reread, so I’m only keeping to a few chapters at a time to go along with the podcast. That said, it’s a little hard to stop reading when I need to; a testament to Rowling’s effective writing.
Noticing this time around how much I get things mixed up with the movie. Just, the order of things, really. The Sorcerer’s Stone film is quite a good adaptation, even if they did cut out and rearrange some things. However, I’d completely forgotten that Vernon and Petunia were in the room and actually silent through Hagrid’s explanation of Lily and James’ deaths. Kind of weird, actually, and one of the choppy bits I talked about in my 2013 review. The mood swings completely from Hagrid being outraged to all calm to outraged again in the space of a page or two. I also have a hard time believing Vernon and Petunia were wrapped up in Hagrid’s story enough to not interject more than they did, but, well, it happened so shrugs all around.
Also find it interesting that Hagrid, who was expelled in his third year, is just randomly using non-verbal magic all willy nilly. Non- verbal magic, we find out later in the series, isn’t taught til the sixth year. So it just struck me as odd this read-through.
I had somehow forgotten just how short this book is. Like, it felt like the whole Norbert/Detention thing should have happened earlier, but there also wasn’t time for it to have happened earlier. You go straight from that into the finale, which happens really quickly. There’s just a lot crammed into the last three chapters, it’s a little nuts but also masterfully done.
Dumbledore is incredibly deep with the thoughts he shares with Harry at the end of the book. I think a good chunk if the most famous Dumbledore lines come from Chapter 17. He’s also incredibly frustrating, especially on a reread. Harry’s straight up asking about the prophecy without actually asking about it because he doesn’t know and Dumbledore is just like “nah, you’ll find out when you’re older.” I kind of want to punch him in the face. Also interesting that he apparently has little regard, or maybe even knowledge at this point, about Snape’s feelings toward Lily Potter. He, like Quirrell, puts Snape’s actions down to hating James and wanting to basically square away the life debt Snape owed James. Just so interesting when all the fan discourse around this stuff if put down to Snape saving Harry for Lily’s sake.
So anyway, it’s been fun revisiting one of my absolute favorite series again. The Sorcerer’s Stone is really a comfort read for me, though I don’t read it near as often as some other fans. Still a fantastic beginning to the series.
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