I too read the books as an adult on my daughters' recommendation. They are not great literature but for soemone whose childhood was blighted by the appalling Enid Blyton, and the dreary C S Lewis , could see the appeal to kids,even through the pedestrian prose.
Two of the bigger problems are the lack of world-building and the clunky transition from kids stories to teen and eventually YA books.
Too many unanswered questions. Who elects the Minister of Magic? Is the Wizengamot a court or Parliament or both? Are Pureblood wizard kds home-educated before they go to Hogwarts? How come dozens if not hundreds of muggle-born and half-blood kids can disappear from the education system every September and nobody at the Department of Education bat an eyelid? How in Hades do you hide bloody geat Dragons and fucking Giants? I'm big on Tolkien, and I can tell the difference between an auhtor who doesn't necessarily explain everything about their wlrd, but could if asked, and one who doesn't explain because they're too dim or lazy to figure it out!
The changes in tone from one book to the next are often jarring, and character development comes in spurts.
Ginny is only a year younger than Harry, she arrives at Hogwarts in the second book. Harry (based on James Kirk) is impulsive, headstrong and frequently irrational, Hermione (based on Spock) is rational, logical, emotionally insecure, not as smart as she thinks she is and has few people skills. She and Harry complement each other as friends but would not work as lovers. Ron, the most genuinely intelligent of the three, (based on Bones McCoy) is irascible, empathic, understands how the world works and is unafraid to challenge Hermione and her assumption of superior intellect. In doing so, he drives her far beyond her mediocre destiny. He is the wind beneath her wings.
Ginny is signalled from the first book onward as Harrys' True Love. And JKR's cop-out. Throughout all seven books, she codes Harry as the Hero, the Pawn of Fate, the Chosen One who has no other purpose than to destroy Voldemort. But anyone who knows anything about this type of myth knows that once the Hero completes his assigned task he dies!
In that context, Ginny should play the role of Harrys' accidental murderer; either by forgetting something vital, or doing somethng she thinks will help but which actually ensures Harry's death (in this variant, she should be carrying Harrys' child).
The other variant is that Harry accidentally kills Ginny during the battle and subsequently either commits suicide or is killed by Ron in revenge.
JKR either didn't know or understand this, or she bottled out.
But the kiddies had fun, so let's not be too harsh. Mediocre they may be, but they got kids reading!
