Why The Tapestry is better than Harry Potter (even though I’ve never ready Harry Potter) 

So, you love the Harry Potter series? The witty characters? The scary ‛all-powerful’ villain? The school of magic? The magic creatures? Well, what if I told you there’s a whole ‘nother book series that does all of that but better.

Slams all five books of The Tapestry by Henry H. Neff on this rickety table. Joints held together by hope and dried glue creak from the sudden weight. My love for this series began, I don’t know when, and I can’t even tell you how. Because I legitimately don’t remember how I found this series. My best guess is I picked up the first book at my small local library in middle or high school, couldn’t find the rest of the books within the library system, so had to acquire them through other means . . . the Underground Book Tra ̶ Nope! Not that! That doesn’t exist. At least to my knowledge. And if it does, then someone needs to get me that secret password for it because I want in.

So I slowly acquired the rest of the series, all the way up to book four. And then. Nothing. For years. I couldn’t find book five anywhere. It was published in 2014 and I was very confused as to why it was nowhere to be found until I discovered it was never published as a physical book. Only e-book. That’s right. Random House, I’m calling you out on this one, never released the book in physical format and I was left with an incomplete series on my bookshelf to stare at on rainy days with increasing fury. And there I stewed. I tried a few times to find the e-book and I did, but reading the story in that format just wasn’t the same.

Fast forward to 2024, and I find out that Henry H. Neff self-published the physical version of the fifth and final book in his series and was selling it through an independent bookstore called Watchung Booksellers. I was ecstatic because a thing that I never thought would be possible was now possible. I would be able to read the fifth book, and complete what had been unfinished on my bookshelf for so long. It was an amazing feeling.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Messy, you have given us no reason as to why this book series is supposedly so much better than Harry Potter. And yes, you’d be correct. Thank you for being so impatient, this is called ‛setting the scene.’ This is why it’s better.

The Tapestry begins with a twelve-year-old boy who is recruited to go to a magical school in North America and discovers that he has a rare kind of Old Magic within him. Ya know. It was a whole “Yer a wizard, Harry.” But this was more like “Yeah, these evil creatures tried to kill you, so you’re coming with us, Max.”

But it only gets better.

Because by the end of book two, the world has already ended. Huge battles have been fought. Thousands have died. And the world will never be the same. Because the villain of the story IS all-powerful, defeats the good guys, and becomes ruler of the entire world. Yet we have three more books to go. The magic world itself takes a lot of inspiration from Celtic mythology and has nothing to do with wands. This book series has a complete view of magic, and groups of magic users worldwide. It shows that the magic ecosystem is not solely about a hidden school on the East Coast, it is everywhere. It is in a secret science-based facility in Europe. It is in the Himalayan Mountains. It is on every continent.

The villain doesn’t want our main character because he has a part of his soul. Oh no. He wants to possess Max and consume his magic. That’s right. Consume. As in devour, because the antagonist isn’t a person, isn’t a creature, isn’t even a magical person. No, no. He’s a demon. But Max is truly otherworldly and is one of the few people on earth with the ability to fight against the villain’s powers. And the other bad guys? They’re not only some wizards gone rogue, because there are quite a few of those. Oh no. There are bad guys who are also demons. That’s right, they aren’t even human. With overwhelming strength and abilities not even the average mystic is able to counter.

If the story line and world building isn’t enough, then the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter and with chapters ought to convince you. Because they’re beautiful.

And the biggest trump card is that the first chapter isn’t utterly boring. You may hate me for this, but I can never get past the first chapter of Harry Potter. It is utterly and completely lacking in fascination. Meanwhile, The Tapestry: The Hound of Rowan, book one in the series, delves immediately into our main character being stalked on a public bus while on a trip with his father to visit an art museum. Immediately something is off, and that feeling only ever continues throughout the narrative.

This is a truly amazing series that I would recommend if you loved or hated Harry Potter. And no, I’m not going to read Harry Potter no matter how much anyone complains about it to me. Trust me, I’ve tried.

I know I’ve been hating on Harry Potter, but I really do love the universe of Harry Potter. It changed the world of young adult fiction forever. It brought so many bright memories to children across the world. It created a community and connected like-minded people even into adulthood.

But The Tapestry is a story of true wonder and deserves recognition.

Cheers,

-themesswrites