I grappled with whether or not I would read the updated edition of Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli. On one hand, the creator of Harry Potter has turned out to be one horrible person after she took an awful stance against the trans community, but on the other hand Anelli was part of a movement during the height of the Potter books and films that goes beyond Potter’s creator and her views. The Harry Potter community is one filled with all shapes, sizes, races, sexual orientations, genders, and more. This is why I opted to pick up Harry, A History.
Before Bookstagram and BookTok fandoms went mainstream, there was MySpace, chatrooms, message boards, and a handful of Harry Potter fan sites known as “the Floo Network.” As editor-in-chief of The Leaky Cauldron—the most popular of them all with over one million hits per day—Melissa Anelli had a front-row seat to the formation of a global online fan community. Drawing on exclusive interviews, firsthand reporting, and a decade documenting the phenomenon from the inside, Anelli takes us on a personal journey chronicling the most influential fan movement of the twenty-first century.
Filled with behind-the-scenes revelations about the release of Harry Potter books and films, unforgettable fan stories, and insights into the early internet fandoms and rise of fan communities, Anelli captures a singular moment in pop culture history and celebrates the readers whose passion helped change the internet, publishing, and the way books are read forever.
As mentioned in the book, there seems to be two groups of people that have spun out in recent years. Those who want to continue to read, watch and discuss the Harry Potter series, separating the art from the creator, and those who shut off the series all together after Harry Potter’s creator’s decision to speak and act hate towards our trans friends. Although I enjoyed reading most of the books and have enjoyed watching the films, I have always found myself a fringe fan as it is, so really wasn’t hard to veer towards the dropping the series as a whole. However, the problem with that is there are so many great and wonderful things that have spawned out of the creation of the Harry Potter universe.
I guess it’s not full surprising that a large community of fans was built around a series that sold an estimated 500 million copies of the books. The more people who have read, a better chance for a sub-fandom to be created. However, for a fandom to grow exponentially this quickly in such a few number of years was truly fascinating to read.
The decision to read Harry, A History became easier knowing its about the fans, fandom, and a semi-memoir style book from Anelli. As editor-in-chief of The Leaky Cauldron, Anelli has first-hand experience of this fandom and the growth over the years. She was part of the most amazing times of the history of the franchise and in this book gives us a behind-the-scenes look into what it felt like to be on the ground floor and looking around at what was being created.
With this however also came the direct experience of the fallout of Potter’s creator and her comments and actions. Anelli’s identity has been intertwined with Harry Potter for many years and at times can seem hard to separate. Having such a large portion of your life attached to a series where the author turns out to have feelings and opinions that don’t match yours I imagined was a shocking blow. In this updated edition of Harry, A History, Anelli dives into the aftermath and how the author of the series truly hurt a good portion of her fans–a fandom that is so open and accepting of all people.
What Anelli accomplishes with Harry, A History is not a full telling on how the stories got published, although she touches on it, but how the fandom was around the release of the books and films, along with her journey to The Leaky Cauldron and eventual interactions with Potter’s creator. When first released, I can imagine it being so fantastic to craft a book such as this and even get the author of the Harry Potter series to write a forward. What sucks is getting the chance to update Harry, A History with new films and upcoming televisions series, but make the conscientious decision to no longer use the forward.
Harry, A History – even more so the updated edition – is not for the author of the original series, but for those who found a home in the Potter Universe, a place where no matter who you are you were accepted over the simple fact that you loved the story. This is a story of the growth of a fan base and those who helped behind-the-scenes to connect fans with other fans and to share theories, hopes, wishes, and moments of a book series. Anelli captures what it was like in the heyday of Harry Potter as well as nearly 20 years later having to decide how you connect with a universe where the creator isn’t who you had hoped.
Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli was a book I wavered back and forth on reading, but in the end am tremendously glad I did. In these pages, I learned about how a group of fans help forged a community of other fans that should last a lifetime. There have been some amazing ups, and sadly some horrible downs over the years, but in the end they found a home in Harry Potter, a place to belong. Anelli does the best she can do with the circumstances and I applaud her for standing by the community built, but not the creator of the Harry Potter series. It’ll never be easy to say your a fan ever again, but it should be easy to love those who find similar passions to you, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, shape or size.
Yes, I purposely left out Harry Potter’s creator’s name in this review. If you don’t know who that is, look it up. I support my friends in the trans community and completely condemn the actions, comments, opinions, and hurt that has been caused by the author of the Harry Potter series. You all deserved better from someone who helped bring you all together in the first place.
The updated version of Harry, A History hits bookstores everywhere on November 17, 2026 from Gallery Books.
