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Title: Overrated. Potential wasted.
Review: If the alleged hero of the story acted even =remotely= heroic, instead of reacting to things happening to him with an "okay, sure" tone, it might have saved this book. Accent on the might, there. Picked it up purely because the the hype, and only forced myself to finish the thing just to see if the author ever figured out how to write a lead character that did something other than react to everything going on around him. Rowling didn't. The fish-out-of-water concept backfires, in that the only time Harry's actually out of his element is in the opening chapters with his Muggle family. He's perfectly at home and pretty comfortable at Hogwart's, which is a true waste of story potential. The supporting cast are far more interesting and well-developed as characters than Harry, and I'd actually seek out a book with Hermione or Hagrid. Unfortunately, they're not lead characters. I can't find myself caring enough about Harry to read book 2.
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