Snape: The definitive analysis of Hogwarts's mysterious potions master (The Unofficial Harry Potter Character Series) Hardcover – October 18, 2022

I have been following Lorrie Kim's acute analyses of the characters of the Harry Potter series for fifteen years. Never has she failed to take my breath away with her ability to cut through the layers of Rowling's text to lay bare the crux of the characters' inner lives.In this book, she begins with Harry Potter novels, Pottermore additions to canon, published interviews and other writings of Rowling, and traces the evolution of Severus Snape from his humble beginnings to his heroic end.I tend to be an uncritical reader, accepting what the author gives me as fact without questioning. My acquaintance with the work of Lorrie Kim has taught me to be a bit more discerning now, when I read, but I will never attain the skill that seems to come to her as naturally as breathing.Kim provided me with many treasures of insight into the massive intellect of Severus Snape in this book. At the same time, she examines the origins of Snape's fractured personality: the childhood of poverty and neglect; the joy of finding a friend in Lily Evans; the constant dissonance of his underprivileged upbringing among the children of wealth and influence in Slytherin House; the unrelenting bullying he endured at the hands of the Marauders throughout his seven years at Hogwarts, and his full knowledge that Dumbledore was aware of much of it and still failed to protect him or punish James Potter, Sirius Black, and company; the trauma of coming face to face with Remus Lupin as a fully transformed werewolf; the devastation of the loss of his friendship with Lily; the decision, which he likely considered to be his only path forward, of taking the Dark Mark; the desolation of the death of Lily at the hands of Voldemort, whose decision to destroy baby Harry Potter was informed by the prophecy related to him by Snape; Snape’s pledge of service to Dumbledore, including protecting Lily's child, as penance for his terrible transgressions.Using these things as her springboard, Kim interweaves the machinations of Snape through the seven book series, showing us how the actions that were so heinous through Harry’s eyes were actually deeply plotted ways to teach Harry the things he needed to know to survive through the years of his childhood.There is much beauty in Kim’s exposition of Hogwarts’s Mysterious Potions Master. More than once sudden clarity in my grasp of Snape’s actions and words brought tears to my eyes.This book is a must-have for true scholars of the Harry Potter series. I would not be at all surprised to find it in the curriculum for a university course on the complexity of anti-heroes. Kim herself certainly did her homework in preparation for writing this book, as evidenced by her “Works Cited” page at the end of this book.Do you love Snape? You will love this book. Do you hate Snape? You will better understand who he was and the reasons for his actions. Are you on the fence? This book will help you make up your mind. Are you a Harry Potter scholar? You must have this master work in your library of reference books.Are you simply a Potter fan who cannot find enough material to feed the ravenous need to know more, to more deeply immerse yourself in the towering achievement that is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series? Find it here. You need this book in your library.

In this character analysis, author and Potter scholar Lorrie Kim dissects the seven books in the Harry Potter series using Severus Snape as her compass rose. In her words, “if you want to know the story, keep your eyes fixed on Severus Snape.” The double-agent who gave his life to save a boy he spent years hating, who is only revealed to the reader in the final chapters of Deathly Hallows, comes alive in Kim’s book: through her narrative voice, we are reintroduced to Snape, his motives, his development, and his importance in the tale of the Boy Who Lived. The book is broken down into chapters based on the books in the series, and each section is dedicated to analyzing the part that Snape played in that particular installment and dissecting the reality behind his actions in each story. As readers, we learn the significance of Snape’s part in the Dueling Club from “Chamber of Secrets,” contemplate the man’s very real psychological trauma that comes to play in “Prisoner of Azkaban,” and discover the nuances of surviving life as a double-agent, particularly once Voldemort comes back into power at the end of “Goblet Fire.”What I Liked/Didn’t Like:• There’s no sense talking about what I didn’t like. This was a biography of one of my favorite characters from the series, and the fact that someone sat down to write a comprehensive analysis of his part in the epic adventure of Harry Potter is enough to make me very happy, indeed. If I had one complaint, it might be that there were too many subheadings in some of the chapters, and that the transitions between them didn’t always flow as smoothly as I might have liked. BUT ENOUGH OF THAT.• It was an excellent idea to split the analysis up by book, especially when we consider (as we must once we have read this study) that Snape is a very different man from year to year. Through Kim’s writing, we see how this sometimes-deceptively-minor-seeming character evolves, changed by his own experiences and revelations just as Harry grows into adulthood.• As a teacher, I received a huge amount of pleasure reading Kim’s thoughts on Snape as a teacher. It’s so easy to dismiss him because of Harry’s (and arguably, the narrator’s) hatred of him and the fact that we see him in the classroom almost exclusively when he is berating someone (usually a Gryffindor, more usually Harry). He’s not perfect, and God knows he would have been taken to task in any real school with a competent administration, but Kim reveals Snape’s impact as an instructor, the skills and values he instills in his students, the sacrifices he makes for them… and that’s pretty neat.• Although I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, when I do, it’s important to me that the text is accessible. Even though I’m a former literature major, I don’t find it much fun getting bogged down by convoluted language when all I want to do is learn something new and get engrossed in a new subject. I thought Kim’s writing was very accessible, clear, and often effusive without being sentimental. Whether you’re an English professor or just a regular fan, you’ll have no problem maneuvering your way through this study.