After I finished the third book in this series a few months ago, I quickly decided that it was my favorite one so far. It took me a while to pick up the fourth one because I was still basking in the awesomeness that was HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The Goblet of Fire is the longest one I've read so far, and it looks like the fifth one is even longer. Honestly, though, I found it hard to mind at all that it was over seven hundred pages because I was enjoying myself so much the whole way through, and that's quite a remarkable feat for me because more often than not I get a little impatient with a novel that seems to be a lot longer than it should have been. I feel like I learn so many new things of the HP world after each book; it just keeps building and building on itself and I am simply astounded by Rowling's creativity. 
 I met new characters and learned about the Dark Mark and what Death Eaters are. This book, towards the end especially, really focuses on Voldemort and how he is continuously gaining back his strength. I can see that it's at a point in the series when everything's getting a bit darker. After all, The Goblet of Fire is when the movies started getting rated PG-13 rather than just PG. Obviously, the books still retain their innocent charm, but at the same time, the darkness is coming - this is especially evident with the first real death of a character that was present throughout most of the story. Rowling does a great job (surprise, surprise) at creating tension and getting me excited for this war that is coming. I was pretty intrigued with the whole idea of the Triwizard Tournament once it was explained, and was practically tearing through the book in my eagerness to find out what the three tasks were. 
 Along with seeing all the new things, though, I love coming back to the old characters. Harry, Ron and Hermione are all wonderful characters, and watching them all make difficult decisions in the face of danger is completely thrilling. The mystery of the story ensnared just as completely as before, and as usual I was left satisfied and happy at the end. I love how everything is always explained; the pieces come together flawlessly. Honestly, there's nothing bad I can say about this book, and I'm very eager to begin HP and the Order of the Phoenix, but I'll probably end up watching the movie adaptation of the fourth one first. 
 5 stars