I was in third grade when I first encountered the Harry Potter series. The first book had just come out, and my teacher read it to us over the course of many Reading Times. I was already an avid reader, myself, at the time, but I had never encountered a book that I loved half as much as I loved this tale that was woven in my brain space. Every time the next book in the series came out, I ended up reading all of the previous books leading up to it to refresh my memory. I've probably read the first book ten or more times as a result.
As I got older, I realized that the first three books are absolutely geared more toward children than teens, and so I've ended up liking the last few books the best as a result. They're not difficult reads, and aside from all of the traveling in the seventh book, they're actually pretty evenly paced and don't bore me. That being said, the older I got as I reread them, I could kind of tell every now and then where Rowling was starting to either lose inspiration or at least was just trying to make whatever dates her publishers wanted. It wasn't like the whole series is a loss of inspiration toward the end. There are just points here and there where the ideas aren't quite as inspired as the previous ones, but she'd eventually get back on track again.
Are they worth a once-over?
This is subject to personal preference. I feel that they're worth a once-over, but they won't be for everyone. The genre is definitely modern-fantasy, and the writing has a whimsical quality that I tend to associate with old-timey fairy tales (but with more detail), but I remember liking it quite a lot.
Is the hype justified?
Again, this is subject to personal preference. I adore this series, but people can be jerks about what they like, especially when faced with the smallest hint of someone else not liking it. I, personally, feel like this series touched my life and helped influence it a little, so I feel like the hype is justified even if the jerkishness of the fandom is not.
What do you like about the books, if you've read them?
I love the world that Rowling created. I like the character development. I like that the characters are written to be real people with real flaws and real desires. The characters are relatable, making it really easy to see ourselves in them and want to find out how their story goes. I actually really like the magic in it. A lot of people are saying in this thread that it's nothing more than waving a wand and then here comes the magic. However, like any skill, it requires brain power and concentration, or you're not going to get the effect you want. It's not as simple as just bibbity-bobbety-boo and there's your pumpkin carriage. Like a muscle, one needs to stretch the muscle to strengthen it, and you don't have a school to teach magic if everyone can just instantly produce the exact outcome they want.
If you read them and hated them, what was it that pissed you off?
There are a couple of things in this that are just too black and white, but that's to be expected for a young adult series. There may be a couple of good Slytherins, but the House was basically just created to be a place to dump all of the "bad guys." Not much in the way of diversity. There are a few PoC people mentioned in the book, but they're all side characters with mostly unimportant side stories. The main heroes are all white though I really do like the fancast that Hermione isn't white because I think it could actually work out pretty nicely. Too bad they didn't go that direction with the movies, but the casting director for movies have already proven themselves to be pieces of shit by completely changing the race of a character from the first film to the one where said character finally becomes relevant. Skip the movies if you haven't already. The books were better.