Harry Potter
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowlingby J.K. Rowling
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 11 fantasy novel series by recommenders
Recommended for its world-building, storytelling and its power to get children reading; critics point to weak prose and the author's controversial views.
Recommended for its world-building, storytelling and its power to get children reading; critics point to weak prose and the author's controversial views.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 1 year
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Gets kids reading and read aloud
“if someone had forced me to read Plato instead of Harry Potter as a kid, I wouldn't have done nearly as much reading as I did”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Three Theses on the Literacy Crisis” “Harry Potter and the likes at school is a great idea”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time” “I've actually read them out loud to my children.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams dies at 68 after prostate cancer battle” - Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “U.S. kids no longer reading for pleasure”
Strong storytelling and world-building
“HP is wonderful storytelling and world building while providing exceptionally mediocre prose.”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “To become a better writer, read as much as you can” “Rowling is actually really good, inventing very charming things, very fun sentences”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class” “Harry Potter series is in fact one of the better ones among contemporary literature”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits” Beloved favorite series since childhood
“Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter were my favorite children's series.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What's your favorite children's books?” “spending countless hours daydreaming that I was in that world”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Video Games as Art” “the whole Rowling series, which I like a lot”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class” - Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?”
Audiobooks and French edition useful
“If you're learning French, it's a great idea, the French gets progressively harder so you can keep up!”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” “the only item that wasn't absolutely repulsive was Jim dale reading Harry Potter”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “The Nonfiction Book Market is Collapsing?” “It's read by Stephen Fry and he's great!”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Cassette tapes are making a comeback?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak, mediocre prose
“HP is wonderful storytelling and world building while providing exceptionally mediocre prose.”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “To become a better writer, read as much as you can” “the writing is atrocious, the plot is trite and the world-building is unoriginal and shallow”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “I Miss Terry Pratchett” “the writing in the books is abysmally bad”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “What is happening to writing?: Claude Code and the negative space around AI” Author's controversial views and ethics
“JKR's whole life and works involve strong themes surrounding eugenics”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Framework Sponsors CachyOS” “it'd be a lot cooler without the terf book getting mentioned”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Diary of Tom Riddle, for the ReMarkable with LLM responds” “it's easy to not fund trans hate by not funding JK Rowling”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy” - Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Diary of Tom Riddle, for the ReMarkable with LLM responds”
Political and disturbing themes
“there are dozens of these disturbing tropes with real world parallels”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Diary of Tom Riddle, for the ReMarkable with LLM responds” “tried and mostly failed to push a bunch of weird political stuff”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Diary of Tom Riddle, for the ReMarkable with LLM responds”
Other fantasy novel series people recommend
The four most recommended other fantasy novel series, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discworldby Terry Pratchett | 33 | 4 | 89% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Harry Potterby J.K. RowlingThis page | 28 | 7 | 80% | 9 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| The Wheel of Timeby Robert Jordan | 20 | 10 | 67% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Stormlight Archiveby Brandon Sanderson | 12 | 1 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Malazan Book of the Fallenby Steven Erikson | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
33 of the 36 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's easy to not fund trans hate by not funding JK Rowling”
“Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter were my favorite children's series.”
“Harry Potter series is in fact one of the better ones among contemporary literature”
“Yudkowsky's harry grows as a character which basically doesnt happen at all in the original series.”
“Harry Potter and the likes at school is a great idea”
“the only item that wasn't absolutely repulsive was Jim dale reading Harry Potter”
“What I like about Harry Potter is that many things are not what they seem when later looking back.”
“Harry Potter is still deeply in the cultural zeitgeist”
“JK Rowling backfilling all of that stuff in the Harry Potter books”
“The whole family is hooked.”
“HP is wonderful storytelling and world building while providing exceptionally mediocre prose.”
“in reality it's just better writing, period”
“if someone had forced me to read Plato instead of Harry Potter as a kid, I wouldn't have done nearly as much reading as I did”
“there are dozens of these disturbing tropes with real world parallels”
“tried and mostly failed to push a bunch of weird political stuff”
“it's unethical to promote her works, even indirectly”
“it'd be a lot cooler without the terf book getting mentioned”
“it's our bedtime book series every night”
“the writing is atrocious, the plot is trite and the world-building is unoriginal and shallow”
“I watched the Harry Potter movies first and then read the books and thoroughly enjoyed the books”
“the writing in the books is abysmally bad”
“spending countless hours daydreaming that I was in that world”
“literary street food, and I say that as a compliment”
“I'm now excited to read the rest of the books, but less excited for the movies, lol.”
“I came to love the descriptions of nature and feelings in the tenting chapters”
“it's still an important epic series for newer generations”
“I've actually read them out loud to my children.”
“If you're learning French, it's a great idea, the French gets progressively harder so you can keep up!”
“I also reread the entire Harry Potter series”
“Rowling is actually really good, inventing very charming things, very fun sentences”
“the whole Rowling series, which I like a lot”
“It's read by Stephen Fry and he's great!”
“JKR's whole life and works involve strong themes surrounding eugenics”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.