Well, I just finished reading "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix" this week. To begin:
Wow.
This book is the longest of the books, but the shortest of the movies, which I have yet to see. (I'm scared to see how much and what all was cut out!) As in all the "Harry Potter" books, J.K. Rowling delivers tremendously when it comes to imagery, subplots and character development. However, I felt that this novel was seriously lacking in its overall plot. The book hosts a huge secret and the extinction of a primary character, but nothing particularly twisted or surprising happens.
Near the end of the story it almost seems as if Rowling gets tired of showing the reader things, and Dumbledore and Harry have a long expository conversation in which Harry learns secrets of his past through an oh-so-uncreative way: a conversation. I wish that I could have seen him learn these things instead of just hearing Dumbledore rattle facts off.
It was during this book that I became confused about some of the fundamental principles of Harry's world. For one, I was led to believe through reading the first four books that only purebloods can be sorted into Slytherin. I also believed Harry to be a pureblood because both of his parents were magical. This led me to be confused by Voldemort's relating to Harry because they were both half-breeds. However, there is apparently a clause I missed somewhere that explains that wizards are still "mudbloods" if a grandparent was non-magical, which is true in Harry's case. Other long-time "Harry Potter" fans can explain it better than I can.
To be completely honest, it feels like Rowling got genealogy/sorting hat facts mixed up somewhere down the line and tried to fix it through a few comments Sirius makes in the fifth book.
Another mild point of contention I have with this book is Harry's violent mood change. Though he is a pubescent 15-year-old now, the shift seems too dramatic. Harry has always had it rough and he hasn't always been necessarily peachy, but I've never thought him to be mean until this book. He has some downright evil thoughts at times.
With the end of the series looming in my near future, I do find myself getting sad. Reading the "Harry Potter" series has been sheer fun, and I'm not looking forward to that fun ending.
**Up next on the book posts: "Girl With a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier
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