The Unauthorized Harry Potter

#59Title: The Unauthorized Harry PotterAuthor: Adam-Troy Castro
Publisher: BenBella for Borders
Year: 2006
Genre: Literary criticism, Harry Potter
205 pages

Another of those "Borders Exclusive" buy-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace Harry Potter literary criticism books. Purchased at Borders but no longer available on their website.

It should be said up front that Castro hits and holds an annoying, intended-to-be-jocular tone through much of the book, as if he is speaking condescendingly to middle schoolers, though the content and cover price argue against this. He also has a very disruptive habit of writing in single-sentence paragraphs. This reads like pornography or other bad genre fiction. In addition, he refers to himself throughout as "Your Friendly Host." For some reason, he spells portkey as "Port Key" throughout. If you can ignore all of this, and I'm not suggesting it's easy, you will enjoy the book more. It's worth the effort as Castro has reasonable ideas; when he gets rolling the reader has a much better sense of his skills as a writer.

Castro asks, as do other Harry Potter commentators, how the social worlds of wizards and Muggles can coexist yet barely intersect. Has Castro never been to Burning Man, a gay bar, a crack-of-dawn birdwatching expedition, a synagogue? Plenty of groups live side-by-side without knowing very much about each other at all. Throw me into my neighbor's house and I'd be as lost with his Wii and circular saw as Mr. Weasley is with a fellytone.

Castro's thinking about the books themselves is good; like Orson Scott Card's section of The Great Snape Debate or Langford's The End of Harry Potter? (both reviewed below), it's a pleasure to read plot speculations from an author in a related genre.