I made this list a while back and would like to put it up here today
1) Harry’s not all that smart-
This has bugged my in nearly every book. In terms of logic, common sense, and intelligence, the reader is nearly always smarter than Harry. I’m always saying, “No, dude, you gotta listen to Hermione. It’s a red herring. You moron don’t do that, don’t say that.” Most books place you the reader in the place of the main character and you experience the adventure as them. To me this totally falls apart if I am smarter than the main character. I just can’t see myself doing the things he does.
1b) or interesting-Just to continue, I think we like Harry because the author wants us to like Harry. He’s brave and seems to have a streak of dumb luck following him, but other than that he’s just an average boring character. What’s he ever done that was interesting? Important stuff just happens to him, and half the time he doesn’t even pick up on what’s really significant. The story advances around him and he’s just a convenient plot holder.
2) Horcruxed are contrived-
Ok I know this is a complaint that refers to a specific portion of the books towards the end but I have included it anyway. Dan helped me come up with this complaint. Going back over the series, it seems that if horcruxes were the ultimate enemy they should have been mentioned way earlier in the series and given a bigger importance. It feels too tacked on. I like my enemies to feel fleshed out; even if they are just inanimate objects.
3) How the hell did Voldemort die if he had so many lives to spare?
Again this gets to the finale, but I’m curious how Voldemort could have died in the first attempt to kill baby Harry if the extra lives he had were meant to save him from death. It seems like super-extraordinary measures were required to bring him back. Why create a safeguard to your life that was so hard to utilize? Surely he could have spent his energy on something else more worthwhile like making himself a potion to keep him alive forever. It does appear such things are possible in Harry’s universe.
4) Quidditch is pointless-
Again big help here from Dan, but hopefully he is not the only one to notice that the main part of the game quidditch is without point. The part everyone pays attention to is the goals being made with the quaffle. Why? Those points are hardly worth anything compared to the capture of the snitch. Why even use a quaffle? Nine times out of ten the win is solely based on the skill of the seeker. Why even train the rest of the team?
5) Books are way too formulaic-
Harry arrives at school. There is a mystery. Each chapter reveals new questions to be asked without answering any of the old ones. At the end of the year Dumbledore explains everything to Harry in the hospital wing (or his office). Seriously, that’s the storyline to EVERY BOOK even the very last one. Well ok, there is no explanation from Dumbledore in book six but you get the idea. I was sick of it by book three. (BTW this is my favorite complaint)
6) It doesn’t make sense when you read it out of order, it doesn’t make sense when you read it IN order!
I read the last book out of order. That is, being bored to tears of the formula and not wanting to wait until the end for the punch line (so to speak) I mixed the chapters all up. I read them in order something like this 36, 2, 35, 5, 6, 7, 1, 34, 32, 33, 10, 11, 13- and in this way I finished the book. Now I said to Dan, “It didn’t make too much sense” and reread most of it in proper order. After this I found that it still didn’t make too much sense. It was like a book of pockets filled with story and a few of the pockets were stitched to each other and several stories were just one long thread that had one stitch in each pocket. Another good analogy would be several jigsaw puzzles mixed up with each other. In reality that means you have to sort out all the pieces before you can even solve one puzzle. Really that’s how I’ve always felt reading those books.
7) Why does Avada Kedavra sound so much like Abracadabra?
The death spell is just abracadabra? You lost me already.
8) Unforgivable curses for everyday use?
They make a big deal out of the “unforgivable curses” and how illegal they are and how terrible you are if you use one, then Harry (other characters get on board too) goes and uses not one, but several near the end of the series. This is NEVER EXPLAINED. To me that’s just poor workmanship.
9) Love? The secret power is love? That’s it?
Far be it from me to knock the power of love. I am all about love, it’s great. My problem here lies in the fact that from the beginning Dumbledore insisted that there is more to it than just love. Harry asks about why he is special, why he didn’t die, why he speaks snake, why he has his scar. Dumbledore states that these things are a result of his mother’s love and the sacrifice she made because of her love for him. He also hints that love is not all there is to it. Really? Oh yeah, see in reality it’s because of Voldemort’s connection to Harry and this piece of his soul and the killing curse that didn’t work and blah blah blah blah, it all goes back to the death of Harry’s mother and her love for Harry. Period. Love is awesome, but don’t try to tell me there’s more and then give me this vague crap that boils down to what you’ve already said.
10) All that buildup and somehow I’m not excited about the ending
Every book makes it seem like you are building to something better. I read them all saying, “Oh the next one’s gonna be so awesome!” and the next one never really was. I postponed my judgement until the final book because somehow I kept hoping the next one would fulfill what the current one lacked. Boy that was stupid. Each book has it’s own little climax but the next one always begins again at the bottom. You think you’re climbing a series of hills with increasing height when really they are all the same. The last hill is kind like a plateau and you just stand there saying, “This is as good as it’s gonna get? I should have tried to read Moby Dick again.” That being said, I think the books would work well as some kind of a television series. Call it say- The Hogwarts School of Magic- and it could be like those kids in high school shows. Every day is one day in their life. Tie it all together with the theme of Voldemort lurking somewhere in hiding. There is plenty of time for all that exposition and a climax can be a single episode. I think it could work except that it has already been precluded by the movies. I’m gonna get so sick of those soon.