Ah ... this collection is such a casual reread for me that I actually forgot that I needed to write a review!
It’s Harry Potter, so of course, it’s five stars from me. Not biased at all. I swear.
I love rereading this collection when I’m in the mood to dip back into one of my prime obsessions, but I don’t have the time to commit to rereading the seven books. As I said in a previous review, one of the reasons why I love the HP series so much is how incredibly detailed and multifaceted its universe is. The fact that Jo Rowling can quite literally sit down and write a textbook, a library book, and a fairytale collection from this world — (which goes over such minute details as when wizards decided to put ‘cushioning charms’ on broomsticks to make them more comfortable) — is a testimony to how strong her worldbuilding is.
Out of the three (Fantastic Beasts, Quidditch Through the Ages, and Beedle the Bard), my favorite would be the fairytales. Possibly this is because it has the most straightforward narrative — it’s a series of short stories, rather than an ‘informational’ piece — but I also think it’s because the fairytales reflect what I find most interesting about the wizarding world: its customs and prejudice. Dumbledore’s commentary on how wizards received and changed these tales to ‘hide’ opinions about Muggles (non-magic people) etc. is fascinating to me.
I studied and wrote about real fairytales pretty extensively in college, and I’ve always been interested in how they reflect (and shape, in all honesty) the way that a culture thinks. Rowling does this so well here.
Next, I probably most enjoy Quidditch Through the Ages. Given that I’m not a sports fan, you would think this would be tedious to me — but, believe it or not, this book is actually funny. Wizards have a propensity for setting things on fire during games. That’s all I’m going to say.
Quidditch Through the Ages also gives, out of the three, the most extensive description of wizarding cultures outside of the UK. Very interesting to me.
Although I’m tagging Fantastic Beasts as my least favorite, I do enjoy it. The way the magical creatures interweave with mythologies and the original book series does make me smile. I might simply have read it too many times, or possibly because I’ve been exposed to so many magical creatures via the new movies, I found myself pushing through this one a little bit. My favorite part, however, was Rowling’s new inclusion of North American creatures: any reference to the American school of magic is addictive to me. Like I said, I’m a nerd.
This is the sort of collection that you want to read after you’ve read the Harry Potter series. Reading it beforehand, you will find that it’s just a collection of seemingly random information — after HP, you appreciate how it deepens, widens, and enriches the global wizarding world in Rowling’s series.
Overall, a wonderful, quick, and well-written read!