I was the age Harry was in the books as they were released (ie; 11 when Philosopher's Stone was released in 1997) so it felt like a parallel for a while. Strangely, at that time I only had a sort of tenuous link with Harry Potter which surprised my family as I was boy known to love anything magical or witchy. However, my dad was a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. He died unexpectedly in the summer of 2016 and that autumn I decided to read the books for the first time as an adult. I wouldn't say it was a "mistake" but that I simply was not prepared for the emotional collapse that followed over the next two months. Rowling says that her mother's death "is on every page" and it truly is, it becomes so clear if you too are in the throes of heartstopping grief. Since then, I have read them through once more and found it only slightly easier; I was in an emotional wilderness for days after reading the last Patronus scene in 'Azkaban' and the entirety of 'Deathly Hallows'. The series has won a very deep place in my heart and I think it would have without the personal baggage. There's a real but never explicit Celtic current in that series too and I think that taps into something deep in many people.
I was the age Harry was in the books as they were released (ie; 11 when Philosopher's Stone was released in 1997) so it felt like a parallel for a while. Strangely, at that time I only had a sort of tenuous link with Harry Potter which surprised my family as I was boy known to love anything magical or witchy. However, my dad was a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. He died unexpectedly in the summer of 2016 and that autumn I decided to read the books for the first time as an adult. I wouldn't say it was a "mistake" but that I simply was not prepared for the emotional collapse that followed over the next two months. Rowling says that her mother's death "is on every page" and it truly is, it becomes so clear if you too are in the throes of heartstopping grief. Since then, I have read them through once more and found it only slightly easier; I was in an emotional wilderness for days after reading the last Patronus scene in 'Azkaban' and the entirety of 'Deathly Hallows'. The series has won a very deep place in my heart and I think it would have without the personal baggage. There's a real but never explicit Celtic current in that series too and I think that taps into something deep in many people.
Alas, Alan Rickman