Are the books less fun as the series progresses?

For me, i feel that the plot for the Harry Potter books have become very full of despair and its not the fun happy times that the Harry Potter books used to be. I still really enjoy these books and i think they are really good but...i don't know, for me, books are an escape from real life and i like the books to be happier. Does anyones else think this?

Well you can't expect things to be a utopia with a mass murderer at large. It's true that there is a lot of despair, but love is one of the driving forces in the series.

I think the later books are funnier, albeit in a darker way. For some reason, I don't like the first ones as much.

I think it depends on how you look at it. Yes, the series is becoming more darker and depressing, but I think that JKR does a fine job of lightening up the mood every now and then.

In the earlier books, escaping from the drear oppression of the Dursleys was enough. Now Harry has been facing a truly evil presence, and the evil credentials have to be established, as well as Harry's isolation from his previous protector's. Only by making the oppressiveness so dark can the victory be adequately sweet for a seven-book cycle.

Jo has said this somewhere, I think in the LeakyMug interview…anyway, she said that the series opens with a double murder - in the first chapter, we learn of a child whose parents have been murdered. That’s pretty dark stuff. Sure, the content gets increasingly darker as the series progresses, but Harry does not remain a young and somewhat innocent eleven year old. He’s now 17 and up against the most powerful dark wizard. Things are going to get a little dark. It just wouldn’t be the same if Harry had to play a giant chess game to beat Voldemort once and for all, or knock out a troll.

Times they are a-changing, and with them come a side of evil.

I think when you have a dark wizard trying to kill you every now and then life isn't that happy. You cant expect the books to be all about happyness though it is rather dark. I think J.K. Rowling does an excellent job lightening things up every once in a while.

I like the books. The idea of it seems to get better as I get older.
I know I wouldn't have understood half of the stuff in HBP when I was 11.

I think the later books are funnier, albeit in a darker way. For some reason, I don't like the first ones as much.

I feel the same. I don't think that the books are going to feel as happy-go-lucky as the first ones anyway because Harry is a lot more mature and is growing up. Things aren't as innocent when you are 15-16 as they seemed when you were 11-12. Not only that but we are now in a war so if the books were more lighthearted I think that they would be terrible. You can't have a war and have everything all happy. I definitely enjoy the later books much better.

This book is about life, and life isn't all sunshine and kisses. there is dark stuff going on, but i don't think that has made me like the books less. Book 1, it was a great story about a boy who can do magic, the later books you get more and more involved, I think I like the series even more, than I did back then.

I think they've been pretty fun. Amidst all the dark spots, Jo still manages to end a few chapters each book with happiness or hope.

I like it getting darker, it makes the story so much more interesting.

No I dont think so. Not only are they fun to read, they get more suspenceful as you go through each book and see what Harry has to go through.

No I dont think so. Not only are they fun to read, they get more suspenceful as you go through each book and see what Harry has to go through.

Yup. :)
And what Harry has to go through isn't 'happy go lucky'.
..So why would the books be?

no way! not only because of what everyone else is saying - y'know, these are dark times and harry's gone through heck, that spiel - but also 'cause you've got to keep in mind, harry gets older as the series progresses. peoples' definition of fun changes as they get older. humor goes from being innocent and silly to dark and sardonic (at least, for a lot of people).

i still get the same rush of excitement reading the later books - if anything, it's gotten more exciting because the books are no longer wrapped up in a pretty package at the end. i think goblet of fire changed all of that (prisoner of azkaban to an extent) - we get the cliffhanger at the end, and know that there's a LOT to be done before the story is anywhere near wrapped up! to me, this excitement is most of the fun of harry potter.

i do see how it has lost that innocent quality, but again - harry's growing up. i think that's what has made this series so successful. j.k. rowling has managed to craft a story that grows with the reader. if it had stayed the same, it would have gotten boring after a while.

< / long redundancy >

Yup. :)
And what Harry has to go through isn't 'happy go lucky'.
..So why would the books be?

Exactly. And this might sound stupid but when ever I get stressed out I just pull out a Harry Potter book and read my favorite scene in that book. :rockon:

For me, i feel that the plot for the Harry Potter books have become very full of despair and its not the fun happy times that the Harry Potter books used to be. I still really enjoy these books and i think they are really good but...i don't know, for me, books are an escape from real life and i like the books to be happier. Does anyones else think this?

Errr... they always had a dark undertone...


The first book starts out with his parents dying, then there's an attempt on Harry's life, someone kills a unicorn, then voldys on the back of quirrels head and quirell dies.

In book 2 some monster goes around nearly killing a whole bunch of people, and finally harry manages to defeat a huge horrible, great ugly snake, and defeat riddle who nearly sucked the life out of an 11 year old girl.

In book three we meet the dementors, and has tons of horrible experiences with them, learns his parents were betrayed, finds out rons rat who has been with them all this time is a murderer, black barely survives without getting the kiss, and those last few chapters were REALLY intense.

Book 4 starts off with a cold blooded murder, followed by Harry going through danger after danger as horrible, horrible, things happen around him, chaos at the world cup, the dark mark, innocent muggles being tortured, and then he gets transfered to the graveyard where Cedric is killed ever so casually, voldemort is reborn in a horribly sickening way and Harry barely makes it out alive, to nearly be finished by someone he thought was a trustworthy auror who was teaching him all year.

Book 5 starts off with a Dementor attack, takes us to a house that was owned by the darkest of wizards, we go to the ministry hearing where he goes to some creepy dungeon and barely gets off, and Dumbledore is ignoring him, goes to hogwarts where he meets dolores umbridge. Goes through horrors there, the snake attack on mr. weasley, umbridge generally being horrible, the azkaban breakout, everything he went through at the ministry, and then sirius's death.

Book 6 Begins with us hearing about Madam Bones and Emmeline Vance being killed, Giants and DE's ruining a city, dementors breeding *shudders*, we begin to think Snape might be working for Voldemort, then we have the creepy scene at slughorns were we think for a moment that something horrible might have happened. We learn about Voldemorts creepy past, more and more people dissapearing, and being attacked. Then we have the last 5 chapters which were basically absolute misery.

The point is, the Harry Potter series is incredibly fun to read, I have re-read the books dozens of times each, but the truth is that the Harry Potter series has been dark since the very beginning. The first book started off with a double homicide! There are many great fun moments in Harry Potter, and it isn't all misery. But there have been sad, sad things, horrific things in all the books since the very beginning, in equal measure in my opinion.

And that's really just part of the series, ultimately I think the series is about love, yes horrible things happen but that's because the wizarding world is at war, and because before it was, a horrible killer was still on the loose, do you think the underlying theme, of love, would mean as much if everything was fine and dandy all the time?

I think why it seems darker for some is because as we get older and grow up with Harry we take everything that happens in the books more seriously, we don't see it with rose colored glasses as we used to, it seems more dreary because we are not so young anymore. The truth is though there have always been alot of dark things in the books, but I have always found lots of fun in all of them as well.

The first book had lots of funny moments, as did the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth was a bit darker but it had Luna. :D The sixth had more Luna, lots of funny stuff with Lavender and Ron, etc.

The point is there is lots of humor and lots of much less humorous things in all the books, and they have all had a dark undertone, but that's just part of the series.

The series seems to have more and more depth with each book, the characters seem more and more real, and I think it's because we HAVE grown up with them, and we understand them more and more, they grow, they grow so much. And I really can't wait to embark on this final journey with them, through all the laughter, all the tears, all the despair and the hope, I'll be there till the end, I think as soon as I get my copy on the 21st, I will keep reading it until I finish, even if it means no sleep for days. Then I will have to go back and re-read it again, and again, and again.

So far no they have not been less fun, i think everything will be determined by DH though!

Oh, no, I actually like it that they are getting darker. It is only natural that things are grim and a bit depressing with a psychopath at large, killing people everywhere you go. I think that the later books are more realistic, in a sense, because life on earth is frequently like that - difficult, frustrating, unexpecting. But maybe that's just me talking, I like sad books. I find them really therapeutic, engaging and moving (I know, some people might find me really weird for saying that). But, yeah. I think the purpose of the books getting darker in tone is to encourage readers to keep on reading because we are hoping to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It creates suspense... it encourages us to have hope that things will turn out better. It gives Harry a reason to keep fighting for his life - he needs to work at defeating Voldemort so that life for him and the people around him will be better.

Having said that, I do not think the books are getting too morbid at all. There is a fair amount of angst, but not too much so it's still realistic, coupled with a few moments of happiness and humour. It's about the right balance of emotions, in my opinion.

Well, out of all of them so far I found the thrid the most depressing and even though the later ones, HPB in particular, may be grim and darker there are huge bits of pulling together, love and just generally funny bits which I feel is missing from the thrid.

Plus, I like the darker, more sinister feel as well as the adventures in the later books. For me, the earlier books (1,2,3) are a bit boring in comparison.

I wish they had all been a little darker from the start. She is finally catching up with what fantasy/adventure fans really want. I started with book four and when I went back to read the first 3, I found them to be way too light. 5 and 6 were better like 4, but I am hopeful that book 7 will be dark-mania.

Sure Harry may die and lots of other characters, but since they all go to wizard heaven or become ghosts at their choice, it isn't all that dark anyway. But you tend to forget about that as you read.

I actually thought that JKR has done really well in making the books with Voldemort back just as funny, enjoyable and occasionally light-hearted as the first. For example, JK put in all the stuff about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes especially in the fifth book, which lightened up all of Harry's occlumency disasters, Voldemort worries and other problems. So far, she's kept the dark books dangerous when they need to be, but just as fun and enjoyable as the safer books. I think this is a great achievement!:clap:

I think Deathly Hallows might be different though, as now Harry is more on his own, and I think it'll be especially dark if Harry doesn't return to Hogwarts. I just hope it's as fun as the first 6 books!

I don't think so. Well, maybe HBP was. But I thought OotP was absolutely hilarious! There are so many little jokes in there! At one point, the Trio is talking about Umbridge or something and in between them talking, it talks about how Peeves had started throwing things across the room. They all raise their books over their heads automatically and continue speaking. Then it mentions that an ink pellet it Katie Bell in the ear. Someone says something about Umbridge. Then Katie Bell starts throwing things back at Peeves. I just love how Jo writes these random things in the background! Like a dustbin in Grimmauld Place was coughing up owl droppings as Harry left the room. There are so many moments like that in OotP and I don't see how it could be considered "less fun." Obviously it's darker, but it's still fun. Remember "Accio Brain"?

I've never thought of the Harry Potter books as having a lot of happy times--as others have stated it's been pretty gory from the start. In the first book, we've already got possession, murderous chessmen, murderous plants; in the second book we've got giant snakes, people being offed in bathrooms, and so on and so forth.

What is changing is Harry's perspective, and I really enjoy how it allows the books to get more complex, more serious, and more real. I think it actually helps one to appreciate the happy times that are present in the later books--it gives this happy hope for the future.

I thought HBP was fun in how it showed teenagers still being so driven by hormones even in wartime :lol: Typical

Well, I'm fairly certain I didn't imagine all those moments I laughed out loud whilst reading HBP x) Even in the final scenes, Ron's wanting to punch Percy - what more could you want? Of course they're darker, but I also think there's a good balance of light, and I expect that to continue into DH (really, I do.) I mean, if there's no happiness in the series, what on earth is Harry fighting for? You've got to have a contrast, you know?

PotterFreak0515: my thoughts exactly. Those random parts of complete randomness and funniness are one of the best parts of the book. I love the part in HBP where the trio is attacked by a man eating stump and continue their conversation like nothing even happened:rotfl:

in my opinion i think the books are becoming yes darker but better and they are still funy though but thats just my opinion right?

Hi All,

As I read through all of the posts speculating on book 7, one consensus seems clear... the whole book (not just the ending) will be seriously dramatic and sad. Then I couldn't help thinking that this certainly isn't the type of storyline I thought I was diving into when I started reading the series. They used to be fun, adventurous, and action-packed with awesomely exciting plot twists. They were sooo enjoyable to read! Sure, a couple serious themes sprinkled in were fine, but for the most part they were uplifting and adventurous.

Now, it seems like the mood of the ENTIRE plot has changed. We're no longer reading a book about fun and adventure... it's become so focused on death and betrayal now. Why this shift away from "fun adventures"? What happened to the readers actually having fun while reading a Harry Potter book? If I wanted to read a dramatic plot, I would have picked up Crime & Punishment or something like that (note: I haven't actually read that, but it sounds heavy ~ )

I am hoping that book 7 will be much more uplifting and fun than Jo is currently letting on.... because I ultimately don't think she has changed what sort of story she is writing. I originally read HP because it was a fun adventure story... I hope Jo doesn't take that away from us fans

From what I've seen, the books have gotten slightly darker, yet I can see the reasoning behind it. The story begins with a happier more joyous feel to it. But as the stories have progressed, Harry has grown up... and the closer we all get to the real world, the more we realize how horrible it really is. I mean myself as a 17 year old, I look out into the world and see absolute chaos and pathetic occurrences. As 11-12 years old you don't think of all the bad happenings in the outside world away from your sheltered life, and this is exactly how Harry is beginning to understand it

Well, the books are darker of course. There IS a war going on, after all. But there are really light and fun moments too. And it isn't the silly "Alas, earwax!" kind of humor (not hating on that; I loved Silly!Dumbledore and such things). The humor...different then it was. I don't have a word for it.

But really, was the first book that happy in the first place? It starts out with a double murder and ends with Voldemort trying to kill Harry. That's not all that happy. Then it goes to CoS with a Basilisk trying to kill every muggle-born and half-blood.

The plot is still very exciting, as always, even with all the darkness. But I think the fact that makes reading it not as fun anymore makes it a bit sad, because the more we progress the closer we are to the end and I'm still finding it hard to accept that. I mean, I'm extremely excited for DH, but it'll still be the end of an era. I just hope JKR gives Harry a happy ending.

I don't think that they are meant to be "fun" books...they've always been dark

This series is unique, imo, because the books do get progressively darker, which is an accurate reflection of how life is. Children are curious and full of questions, and then they start to learn how the world really works and that people aren't always completely good or evil, and they get put into situations where they have to make choices. They also have to learn to love themselves and think about what kind of person they want to be. And things happen that can't always be controlled. Rowling does a great job of showing all that through Harry's eyes.

Less fun? Yes. Less fun to read? No.

Harry flat out annoyed me in OotP. I had to put down the book a few times because I was starting to hate him. But that only impressed me more- Rowling has created a character that has dark days and bad times just as any person would. Harry is so human- he has trouble with pressure, is confused by girls, has to deal with adults making choices for him that he has to live with, etc. (Wish I could say I like Radcliffe in the movies as much as I like Harry in the books, but I don't.) Speaking of dark, I'm not saying I get a giggle out of Umbridge's quilll, but the fact that it creates a feeling of unease tells me that I'm still invested in Harry and the story.

Bottom line: It can't all be sunshine and puppies when someone's out to kill you :huh:

I guess for me, they are less fun, as the series gets progressively darker--just as JKR always said it would. I've enjoyed it more though, so for me the books are more interesting as the series progressess.

The books are getting darker yes. But the point i think is important is that they do retain there humor. I think some of the things in the last book such as fred and georges poster were as funny as any other book. I think for me the books are getting more an more interesting as they go on (which for me makes them more fun to read).

In fairness the series was never light and fluffy to start with, so if im honest i dont think it was ever a particularly 'fun' series.

Not for me! The plot is just as good as it was for the first couple of books. I think it is just getting very very exciting waiting for the new books and reading the new adventures Harry encounters in the new year at school.

I think that the series is evolving just the way it's supposed to. I mean it's about a Dark Wizard that is trying to take over, and while doing so, kills loads of people.

They certainly are less whimsical, but the story and plots are as interesting as ever and JK has a talent for inserting humour in just the right places.

Compare the books to an amusement park: a youngster might take the Log Flume ride and have all the excitement s/he could stand. As the child gets a bit older, the Log Flume is still 'fun' but not the thrill it once was, so s/he might go for a beginner or intermediate roller coaster. As the child gets older yet, even these are not thrilling anymore, but fun enough, so there's further steps yet - a parachute drop, or a free fall ride. These things would have scared his or her younger self silly, but now they are appropriate. Finally, the kid is ready for the 1500 foot sheer-dropoff, loopdeloop, upside down, backward standing, barf-at-the-end roller coaster that you have to have a cardiologist approval to take - THAT'S what DH should be!

Is the scariest roller coaster less fun than the log flume? It would be to someone who is not ready for it, but someone who wants the full-speed, white-knuckle thrills finds it every bit as much fun as the 'tamer' rides. The books have progressed in intensity, and it may be advisable in years to come for librarians and booksellers to make clear that a child who is ready for the first three may need to wait a couple of years or more for the last four.

Compare the books to an amusement park: a youngster might take the Log Flume ride and have all the excitement s/he could stand. As the child gets a bit older, the Log Flume is still 'fun' but not the thrill it once was, so s/he might go for a beginner or intermediate roller coaster. As the child gets older yet, even these are not thrilling anymore, but fun enough, so there's further steps yet - a parachute drop, or a free fall ride. These things would have scared his or her younger self silly, but now they are appropriate. Finally, the kid is ready for the 1500 foot sheer-dropoff, loopdeloop, upside down, backward standing, barf-at-the-end roller coaster that you have to have a cardiologist approval to take - THAT'S what DH should be!

I completely agree, for those who have grown up with Harry Potter (I started reading them when first came out) your going to want something more dramatic and dark and that's what JKR has done. When you're 7 you think Disney films are amazing, once your nearer to the age of 18 you want to see things that are scaier, violent and filled with suspence. That's exactly what the HP books have done. I definately still enjoy reading the first two books, but the next ones get progressively darker, which makes them still appeal to the older audience.

Although the themes are a lot darker in more recent books JKR still manages to fit in the humour we have become used to in the series. Well done JKR :tu: we're looking forward to the next book with great anticipation.

Although the themes are a lot darker in more recent books JKR still manages to fit in the humour we have become used to in the series. .

That is my point exactly. Even though they get darker, they are still humorous and fun to read.:cool:

The books do seem to get darker and not as light-hearted as the series goes on, but still they have humourous parts.

I thought it was the opposite

I liked seeing the series go into darker areas as it progressed, it was still kept enjoyable and even light hearted at times with the jokes and romantic stuff going on. The focus shifts from the fun coming from discovery of a fantastic new world to seeing the troubles of this world and the adventure HP goes through in resolving it.

I don't think that they're less "fun," but the earlier books do have a more light-hearted feel to them. Prisoner of Azkaban was the best to me, as it managed to capture the early magic of the series and it mixed in some of the darker elements as well.

well,it had to be so,harry getting older having to face darker stuff,but they are all great including 7.

The first four books seem to be better stand alone books in my opinion. They have trends and themes that could allow you to enjoy the book by itself without any other books in the series. However, after the rise of voldemort, I feel that the last 3 books tend to blend into the great fight against him.

Now I do not feel this is a bad thing. However, it does tend to make things shift from, "O I need to escape the dursleys and get good grades" to "O man I better find a way to kill Voldemort or everyone I know and love with die a brutal death."

So yea I can see where the original poster is coming from with their post

Unfortunately, I think so. Mostly due to the fact that Jo couldn't put all the fun and humor into the last few books because she had to wrap up the storyline

I kinda know what you mean... the first books had that essence about them that everything fit together, but by the fifth book it became more sketchy and random. The old magic kind of dimmed. I'm not saying that's a bad thing though. The books just got a different sort of feeling to them.