When we finished reading this third installment to the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling, my daughter (9) told me that this was her favorite yet. I hate to argue with a nine-year-old, but I have to disagree.

I’ll tell you why, but first, I need to back up a bit. We began reading this series earlier this year, because we’ve exhausted almost all the other great book series of the past century, from Little House to Narnia to A Series of Unfortunate Events. And because I’ve been wanting to see what all the Harry Potter fuss is about, I thought it high time to give this one a try.

I found the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, innocent and fun, and the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, only less so. Now I fully understand that with each passing year in Hogwarts, Harry and his friends will ostensibly experience worse and darker mysteries. It sort of comes with the territory of wizardry and witchcraft…and aging, I suppose. But if the steps downward are as drastic as they’ve been for these first three books, I’m not sure I’ll want my kids to continue reading them at this young an age!

Admittedly, the images that I’ll describe below take on a life of their in the films which we’ve watched only after we’ve finished the books. Any reaction I have as a father may be based more on the shocking on-screen imagery than on the books themselves. Still, since the films are based so completely on the books, the roots are here.

Two of three elements to this story stung my conscience as we read this one together, beginning with the dementors. These characters truly are a personification of the demented: rotting carcasses that float like wraiths, feeding on the happy thoughts of their prisoners and sucking souls from the damned with their kiss of death. I’m starting the see the very fine line between what could maybe pass as Christian allegory (i.e. the scene where the White Witch kills Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) and what’s truly just plain Darkness.

The second stinging element was the fortune-telling professor through whom a message came for Harry in a voice not her own and without her knowing it. This scene of possession was disturbing, and my wife actually said: “That’s like what I saw in my village growing up.” She’s told me stories of demon possession that make my skin crawl. This is no different. While this was far more disturbing on screen, it occurs in the book as well.

A third element doesn’t so much sting my conscience as it does scratch a nerve. I’m not a huge fan of time travel as a mere element of a story unless it’s the main thing. Too many paradigms shift when someone messes with time to be used merely as a side-plot. Granted, Hermione and Harry’s time travel was in a way necessary to the story, but it opens questions of parallel universes that don’t get answered. Plus, it makes me wonder, if these magicians can travel in time and change the past, then why don’t they? Why in Sorcerer’s Stone do they rescue Harry and not just go back and save his parents too? Time travel is too big an element for an author to trifle with, and I think that’s what Rowling did in this book.

Now, I’m not going to argue these things with my 9yo daughter (yet), but I did want to lay these out in my review. Regarding the Darkness that’s becoming a more regular character in the series, I think I’ll have to be more careful with these stories moving forward—especially by watching the movies myself before letting my kids see them. They’ll not be too happy if that’s the case, but their happiness in getting what they want isn’t exactly my top priority—especially if what they want is Darkness! I’m not signing off the series yet, but I’ll be approaching the next installment with temperance.

©2022 E.T.

Read More from J.K. Rowling:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (1997)
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (1998)
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (1999)
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (2000)
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (2003)
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (2005)
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J.K. Rowling (2007)
* Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling (2016)