Harry Potter and the Mix of Genre

picture by Dzenina Lukac

The Harry Potter books have a very special place in a lot of peoples heart, may they be book lovers or people that never would have touched any other book.
Unable to achieve the same feeling these books gave us with any other read, some of us are constantly in search of “The New Harry Potter”. I often read or heard books being labeled as such and forgotten on the next day.

The internet is full of articles, blog posts and videos recommending books that are similar to HP, but I’ve noticed that the recommended books are mostly only similar in that way, that they are about wizards and witches and maybe a magical school, but they never really make me want to read them.
I know a lot of you will agree that just the concept of a magic school isn’t what makes this series special. For a lot of us, it was that concept that made us interested in the first book but it where other things that made us love it.

What makes Harry Potter?

The answer for this question will differ depending on whom you ask. The Harry Potter series appeals to readers and movie goers of different age groups, cultural backgrounds and interest groups, so of course they all won’t value the same aspects of this story. While some might enjoy the humor and “childish” charm much more that the darker elements, others will list how complex and dark it can be as exactly the reason it stands out.

Whatever you like about Harry Potter, it’s undeniable that the books owe a large part of their success to the fact that they combine elements of different genres. That’s why these “books like Harry Potter” articles mostly fail to satisfy: They often only concentrate on the most obvious aspects of the books or deliver recommendation of very genre-typical writings, lacking the arguable complexity of the Potter series.

Coming of Age / Outsider Story

I think the most obvious, besides the magic, is that Harry Potter is the story about a boy growing up and finding his purpose in life, accompanied by hardships to face and events that are obviously too much for a young child. He and his friends grow with the experiences they make, rebel and learn to be able to handle situations even adults struggle with. Harry learns to live with both admiration and exclusion and how to deal with them.
For me, even though it is an important part of the story, this is not the most interesting bit. I often hear people say how much they enjoy coming of age stories, but I mostly only enjoy them as part of a bigger plot than as the main part.

Mystery

Something I didn’t think much about until very recently is how much of the stories evolve about mysteries to solve and how important and well done they are. Huge parts of the books are about questions like “What is the philosophers stone?”, “Who is the halfblood prince?” and so on. Especially the early books are almost exclusively about solving such a mystery, with other things happening along the way, of course.

If someone asked me, I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m much into mystery books, but thinking about the HP books as such makes me want to rethink this and give more detective stories and similar things a chance. Being surprised about the solutions and twists was a huge fun when reading these for the first time, even I was to young reading most of them to remember anymore, but these “OMG”-moments are something I certainly miss.

Fantasy

Obviously. Starting out as something like urban fantasy and Harry being the one asking the question the reader wants to have answered for them about the new world, transforming into an adventure and even a great war, HP shows us different aspects of the fantasy genre, involving various mythological creatures as well as how the magical world deals with us muggles.
The use of magic follows different rules that the reader learns more about as the students do. By that and other extensions there was no limitation on world building.

Teen Romance / Youth and Children’s Novel

Probably a lot of us fans don’t want to think of this as a teen romance, and though it is not the biggest part, it is undeniably there. Admit it, a lot of you who are engaged in fandoms and ship fictional characters regularly started doing this with characters from Harry Potter.

First contact with romance is just a part of the growing up story and since The Goblet of Fire (if we leave aside Ginny’s childhood crush on Harry) a part of the Harry Potter story as well.
But not only the romance caters to a young audience but also the themes of friendship and who we consider our family, as well as the conflicts connected.

The wonders of childhood and the fast excitement of kids: we also relive them reading this books over and over again. The books contain humor in a way that we seldom find in books for adults except they are marketed as comedies, the world is described with precision and whimsy and there is also a certain extent of making fun of characters in a really cute way.

(Political) Commentary

Yup, the cute children`s book about magic contains some criticism of how politicians can be corrupted and abuse their power, as well as on parts of society, like the media, gossip, racism, jealousy and so much more. How we view authority is also often featured.
Parts of the book can also be read as allegory to real world events, e.g. the Death Eaters being compared to the Nazis by many analyzers.

And so on…

Sports, school, some sci-fi tropes, trauma and dictatorship are further parts of the story, but I could probably continue endlessly to list all the genres and topics J.K. Rowling was influenced by.
I can’t recommend a book that is really similar to Harry Potter in spirit or combines these genres as well either, but knowing what to look for is probably already a better step than just picking up the next random book about a magic school and hoping it will be the next big thing.

What important genres and themes did I forget? What do you like most about Harry Potter? Can you recommend a book that you feel comes close?
Feel free to leave a comment. :)