More than 25 years ago, on 26 June 1997, a legendary creation happened in literature named Harry Potter. This name is a remarkable phenomenon in the modern world. Later on, Harry Potter’s influence on other books became a common although popular thing. The not-very-well-known author and single mom, J.K. Rowling never thought that an imaginary world created by her would change the pop culture of the new age. It has captured the attention of all categories of people and earned the admiration as a great fantasy genre book. Bloomsbury published the first book of the Harry Potter series in English in the United Kingdom. The book generated many positive reviews. It also gained commercial success worldwide in a very short time. This book has captured the hearts of many adult audiences as well as younger readers. In February 2023, the books of Harry Potter sold more than 600 million copies worldwide touching a new milestone. This makes Harry Potter the best-selling book series in history. The last four books of the series set another record, proving its popularity among modern literature readers. They were the fastest-selling books in history. Within 24 hours of its release, the last book sold roughly 2.7 million copies in the United Kingdom and 8.3 million copies in the United States. Out of the seven Harry Potter Warner Bros. Pictures made a total of 8 movies. In 2026, Harry Potter was the highest-grossing media franchise. The total value of its franchise was $25 million.
Like other fantasy series, Harry Potter does not follow the rule that we can call not blending the fantasy world with reality. Other fantasy series, such as The Lord of the Rings, have tried to follow this rule of the fantasy genre. In this type of writing, most of the time, the protagonist tries to escape to a better fantasy world than reality. Though in the Harry Potter series, there’s no escaping motive, rather in this series, the real world follows the little wizard boy with all his problems right into the majestic world of Hogwarts through the platform Nine and Three Quarters. This series has elements like mystery, thriller, adventure, horror, and romance which makes it rather appealing. It is a mixture of everything that a reader would feel a force pulling them to this magical world. No one can deny the fact that Harry Potter is the apple of the eye of modern literature readers.
Arising of the Fantasy Genre:
In the beginning, the fantasy genre was not as popular as it was after the release of Harry Potter. Before Harry Potter the reputation of the fantasy genre was “childish” and “immature”. But after reading Harry Potter or after knowing about Harry Potter many adolescents and young adults showed interest in it. They liked this series so much that after reading it, they became interested in the fantasy genre and started reading other famous fantasy writing pieces. This shows how much attention Harry Potter gained and that it has made a whole generation interested in the fantasy genre. It changes our overview of the world around us. Harry Potter affected our understanding of the fantasy world too. Harry Potter mixed some old techniques and theories with some new ones. That’s why it has become a much more interesting series. For example, we can find a little bit of similarity in Harry Potter with other famous characters. Harry Potter has a childhood scar on his forehead. This scar resembles the scar of Odysseus in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey.
The Harry Potter series brings a new chapter in the fantasy genre. In today’s day, many fantasy lover readers were mainly attracted to this genre after reading Harry Potter. Even though “Chronicles of Narnia” was published before Harry Potter, its popularity was at its peak after the release of Harry Potter. This is how much effect Harry Potter has over the new generation. After the Harry Potter release, the whole fantasy world changed. It changed the view of the fantasy genre. J.K. Rowling has made something new out of the box; she added every genre type in her book that became the talk of the town in no time. She included action, adventure, romance, and comedy while keeping magic going on that every single person was drawn to. Harry Potter is a revolutionary work for the fantasy world that has changed the way it is viewed among the readers.
Influence on Young Adult (YA) Fiction:
Harry Potter is a mixture of every type of fan fiction out there. This book has captured the admiration of the whole world. The main reason for its wide popularity among people of all ages is its unique writing style. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter paved the way for blockbuster sagas such as “Twilight,” “ The Hunger Games” and “Divergent.”
Harry Potter was able to connect with young and adult readers that others could not. It is a mystery how Harry Potter gained this much admiration from all ages. Perhaps Rowling wrote a perfect combined book, a series that contains 7 books, and the readers grew attached to it from childhood and grew up with it. Or she wrote it at a perfect time with a perfect writing skill constructed with creativity, mystery, adventure, and romance, capturing the hearts of young and adult readers. Harry Potter was able to boost the sales of young adult books because of its popularity and made other young adult writers work easily.
In modern literature, the rise of coming-of-age with magical, mystical, or fantastical elements has become a powerful phenomenon. Moreover in young adult literature. This type of story builds up by mixing up the growing emotions and self-discovery. These stories show the bonding of pure friendship through the adventures and journey of the magical world. Series like Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts allow the readers to explore the theme and friendship with others while keeping the connection with the magical world.
Inspiring New Fantasy World:
J.K. Rowling’s brave combination in the fantasy genre has opened a new path for other fantasy writers. She made the characters realistically so that the readers could relate to the characters. From Harry Potter’s childhood to adolescence, she tried to build every character with the energy they should have at their age. How Harry, Ron, and Hermione were very much joyful and had lots of curiosity in them. Later, as they grew up, they would face the complications of adolescent life. They would fight over silly things and would make up again just with a little heartful or useless, unrealistic talk. An example of their adolescent life can be seen in the 4th book. In this book, when Harry and Ron are on bad terms, they don’t talk to each other and use Hermione as their medium of communication. This was a funny moment as Hermione became sick of their childish behavior and burst out saying, “I’m not an owl” as in Harry Potter’s wizarding world, owls are used as messengers in the series. This scene was quite amusing and made the readers realize how realistic these characters are. As they are following the life cycle and passing the phases of childhood to adolescence.
Realistic types of writing can be seen later in other fantasy writing pieces. For example, we can see in “Twilight” how the characters grew up from adolescent college students to adults. They experience the life cycle and follow the path shown by Harry Potter. This strategy of building the magical or mythical characters as realistic as possible is a plus point for this genre writer. These types of characters are more popular among young and adult readers as they can imagine themselves as a part of these magical worlds. Many popular books have followed the path of Harry Potter. Using the same strategies as them.
Literary Trends Sparked by Harry Potter:
Many trends became a trademark of the Harry Potter series. Words such as muggles and purebloods are mostly used in this modern wizarding world. The main power of the series was the fantastic trilogy of three best friends. They are inseparable, intelligent, brave, courageous, supportive of each other (even when they fight with each other, they always have their backs), and crime partners. This is a strong base for the series to grow popular. The trilogy shows the young generations how powerful a trilogy can be when they set their mind on something. Later on, this turned into a dominant format in YA and fantasy fiction. In “Percy Jackson,” we find a trilogy consisting of two boys and a girl that can be seen as related to Harry Potter. The same goes for “Twilight” as they also have a powerful trilogy of their own.
Harry Potter is a character-driven story. Its plot is slightly suppressed by the character’s development. As a result, the readers can engage with the characters and put their main focus on the character’s journey. Harry Potter, also known as “The Boy Who Lived” is a storyline where the wizard boy survives an evil attack and later tries to endure the new life of the boarding school that is also conducted by magic. The character grows up, and in his adolescence, he finally succeeds in finishing off the evil. Throughout the series, the readers find themselves in the characters and enjoy the journey together with the characters. These long 7 books have introduced us to a new, broad, and extensive world of magic. Many fantasy writers are now starting to write their stories based on character-driven plots. Harry Potter changed many modern literary writing styles and brought a new light to modern literature.
Harry Potter is a cornerstone of modern literature as it has built its empire and even was able to pull readers’ attention to this genre. Harry Potter drew some new strategies that helped him to climb up the ladder and make it to the top. Harry Potter is an everlasting wildfire. It has a charm that it collects admiration from both young and adults. The Harry Potter maniac is going on and it will always be the most popular book series in the fantasy genre as it finds its readers and binds them with its magical spell.
In the future, other fantasy books might follow the same path as Harry Potter. Harry Potter, with its unique writing style, has been popular among readers and gained much popularity, so it is kind of obvious that future fantasy books will also follow the strategies and secure easy and sure success for their writings.
