Harry Potter Books Ranked

We all have our first obsession in life. For some it's a hobby, a theme (I went through a dinosaur obsession phase), or a passion. For me, it was Harry Potter. I first got my hands on a Harry Potter book in 3rd grade and was instantly hooked. So much so that even during class movie days, I would be found at my desk reading Harry Potter rather than watching whatever movie was playing. One day, my teacher came up to me and asked if I wanted to watch the movie instead. I shook my head and told her, "No, this is better." Luckily, my teacher let me keep reading. I'll always remember her for that. 

And so, my obsession with Harry Potter began and has only grown exponentially since then. From trips to Harry Potter World in Universal, to making my own custom wands out of twigs and paint, to debating how good of a character Ron Weasley is with my friends, I've fully embraced my inner wizard. So join me as I give my personal opinion on how these magical books are ranked!

7: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I have read many book series in my time and for some reason, it is very rare that the first is ever close to the top of my list. Part of that is because of the necessary exposition needed to set up the story and everything to come. Having read every Harry Potter book multiple times, I find myself breezing through the first book, eager to get to future ones with more content. It is also the book most geared toward a younger audience, which makes sense given Harry's young age at the start. However, this means I find it more lacking in significant substance, especially compared to later ones in the series. 

That said, it almost seems unfair to rank the first book as the worst. There is no Harry Potter book in the original series that I dislike, and The Sorcerer's Stone has to get some bonus points for being the first in one of the most successful book franchises of all time. It also sets the tone for dramatic plot twists in the series (my 8 year-old self definitely was not suspecting of Quirrell) which somehow get more and more exciting as the series progresses. 

So while it may come across as more of a children's book now than the rest, I know from personal experience that this book absolutely captivates its target audience, along with a good amount of adults to boot. It's just hard to compete with the rest on this list. 

6: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I'll be honest, this book scared me as a kid. I would lie in bed listening to creaking in the house thinking there was a giant basilisk in the walls. For that reason, it was low on my list when I was younger. I’m not always one for giant monsters, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of spiders either.

However, now that I’m older, I appreciate this book a bit more. It’s bold for a sequel, and doesn’t shy away from darker themes or upping the suspense.  Also, once you know the rest of the Harry Potter saga, The Chamber of Secrets suddenly jumps up in importance in a way you wouldn’t know when first reading it. I mean, it introduces us to our first horcrux, long before we even knew that was important. I love when stories come full circle, and this book shows that J.K. Rowling knew where she was going early on in this series.

Still, I’ve never fully shaken the sense of the creeps this book gives me and so I can’t rank it too high. But I still didn’t see the big twist coming. So thank you for introducing me to anagrams, Tom Marvolo Riddle. 

5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Fear not, this ranking list is not simply the order of the books backwards. In fact, when I first read The Order of the Phoenix, it went straight to the bottom of my rankings of Harry Potter books. Why? It’s long. So long. I vividly remember the copy I first read was 870 pages. For a 4th grader, that is very daunting. It was easily the longest book I had ever read at that point in my life, and I kept wondering how I could still have so many pages left to turn after reading for hours. 

When I reread this book now though, I marvel at how many details there are that I missed as a child, and certainly missed in the movie adaptation. I love seeing more of Neville’s backstory, and the chapter, The Only One He Ever Feared, may be my favorite in the entire series. Because let’s be honest, Harry isn’t the greatest wizard when it comes to actual magic. At this point he’s only 15, and Hermione is clearly the superior spell-caster. Harry gets all the points for bravery and rightfully so, but in this book the adults of the Order of the Phoenix come to play and it’s a whole different level of wizardry for your imagination to feast on.

So why isn’t this ranked higher? I could say the reason is that it is still long-winded, or because the other books ahead of it on this list simply are better, but the truthful answer is really one word: Umbridge. Is there a villain that gets under your skin more than this professor in pink? Hard to think of many. I suppose that means she’s a great villain if I hate her so much. And maybe I should be thankful that she brings out the best of McGonagall’s scorching one-liners. But really, she grates on my nerves to the highest degree, and I think the most relief I feel during the whole series is when she’s finally gone. 

I also will never forgive this book for killing off Sirius Black. 

Alright folks, we’re in challenging territory now. I could genuinely put all four of these last books at the top of my list and feel good about it, but I won’t, so here we go. 

4: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Oof. It hurts me to put this book so low. I love it. The stakes are high, and everything that has been building for five books is now here, one last time in the halls of Hogwarts before our main characters go on the run.  Somehow the mix of high school drama and end of the world foreshadowing just go together. Which makes more sense the more I think about it. 

We’re exposed to even more advanced magic in this one. With spell inventions like Sectumsempra and powerful items like the Pensieve coming into play, The Half Blood Prince suddenly makes you realize how deep the wizarding world goes and makes you think more about the moral gray area our characters are entering as the saga comes to a head. 

We also finally start diving into horcruxes, the final piece of a puzzle we didn’t have a full picture of until now. The consequences of this of course are immense. Ending with a certain headmaster reaching his doom late one night in the astronomy tower and a certain potions professor revealing he’s the Half Blood Prince. Yet Dumbledore’s death in this case elevates the book for me. Unlike other deaths in this series, I was fully expecting Dumbledore’s. It’s a trope I had seen before in Star Wars, when the old mentor dies for a purpose in front of the young hero, and I just felt like that was where this whole book was headed. It seemed like it had to happen, and when you find out later why it did, Dumbledore’s sacrifice means even more. Still, it doesn’t make the scene any easier to read, and it doesn’t push this book into the top three.

3: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Okay, I was really tempted to put this book one rank higher than this. But for better or for worse, I talked myself out of it. Actually, The Goblet of Fire has quietly risen in status for me recently since the last time I reread the whole series I felt that this book was the most entertaining from cover to cover. 

Why? Again, the world building is amazing. I love the introduction to other magical schools and the concept of the Triwizard Tournament, even if it probably should be banned for the danger it presents. The different tasks make you think you’re reading stories within a story, and almost distract you from the larger, more sinister plot going on in the background. That’s certainly what happened for Harry and the gang.

It’s not until Harry finds himself in the graveyard with a lifeless Cedric by his side that you realize that the villain that had just been a whisper in the wind up until then, was now back. It’s really quite the oh dang moment. I knew Voldemort would return at some point, but I wasn’t expecting it quite in that dramatic of a fashion. After that, the shock factor keeps building. You’d think after three previous books of plot twists, I would have been better at guessing them by now, but I wasn’t expecting the Barty Crouch Jr. reveal at all. Somehow neither was Dumbledore, the greatest wizard in the world who has probably seen plenty of Polyjuice Potion schemes in his lifetime, but I digress.

Being the middle book of the series is a tough ask, and overall The Goblet of Fire handles the shift from, “amateur wizards dealing with problems that conveniently wrap up during the school year” to “the big bad is back and things are about to get real (though still mostly during the school year)” perfectly.

2: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I’m well aware that revealing number two on this list also reveals number one.  However, we can save the debates about number one for when I get to that explanation. First, let’s tackle the final book in this series.

I sometimes feel obligated to put the final book or episode or movie at the top of any list simply because it’s the climax of the story. After all, it’s usually when the hero beats the bad guy, what’s not to love? But I’ve come to realize that I often prefer the journey over the destination, especially when it comes to some of my favorite series. Sure the hero may win in the end, but that’s what it is, the end. 

I think “bittersweet” is a cliché, yet proper way to sum up The Deathly Hallows. You finally get answers to questions you’ve been waiting on for years. The story of the three brothers is captivating, the chase for the horcruxes is thrilling, and the Battle of Hogwarts is both heartbreaking and exhilarating. Yet you lose a lot in this book as well. The magic of a Hogwarts school year, a twin and an owl you’ve grown to love, and most of all, the journey of your favorite characters as the book comes to a close. Every other book in the series ends with a hint toward the future, but when you close the cover on book seven, you realize there is no more Harry Potter story (in this series) and it can feel a bit gut wrenching.

So why did I rank this so high even with the bittersweet feeling? Well, it wraps up the story in a satisfying way. Are there a few things I would change? Possibly...Probably. But it’s so hard to stick the landing of a series this long, and I’d say this fulfills that mission. I said before how I love when things come full circle, and boy do they in this book. Nothing makes that more clear in the chapter, The Prince’s Tale, which singlehandedly changes the narrative not only around an entire character, but the trajectory of the entire series. Harry Potter is full of amazing plot twists, and the final one mattered the most.

For these reasons, whenever I finish The Deathly Hallows, I just want to start all over again. And I do every few years. So I suppose the story is never really over.

1: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Well you knew this was the top of the list because of the previous one, but that doesn’t mean it deserves any less of an explanation. Look, I know this is often considered the best book by many Harry Potter fans, and I don’t always like to be mainstream, but in this case, it’s absolutely the right call. 

There’s just something special about this book. I’ve tried to put my finger on it over the years. Part of it I think is that it’s the only one where Voldemort isn’t actually the primary problem the characters are facing and it’s a nice change of pace. Part of it is that Sirius Black is an amazing character. Part of it is that time traveling is done in a better way in this book than most other stories. But mostly I think it’s because The Prisoner of Azkaban draws you in like no other in a way that I can’t fully put into words.   

When I first read this book I was confused. I didn’t get how "Harry’s dad" saved him from dementors. Then I read those chapters again. And again. And then realized, “Oh wait, it’s Harry. That’s so cool.” Keep in mind I first read this in third grade, but still to this day I think the time turner was a pretty cool concept and executed brilliantly.

Also, in a series full of riveting plot twists, my personal favorite is how Sirius goes from mass murderer, to innocent, lovable dog and godfather in the matter of a few chapters. It’s poignant, and you feel like Harry finally has that connection to his parents he had been searching for, while also having to face the man who actually was responsible for his parents death. The complexity of the story and the characters is so well developed, and you can see Harry starting to come of age, drawing in the reader to do so with him. 

Maybe when I reread the Harry Potter books for the millionth time, I’ll see that one or multiple books are objectively better than this one. But I don’t think they’ll ever get to the top of my list. The Prisoner of Azkaban holds too much nostalgia for me to ever let it fall below number one.  

So there you have it! My personal Harry Potter Book Ranking! What do you think? Leave a comment down below!

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