What, Is J.K. Rowling Reading My Listology Profile?: Thoughts on the Wonderful 6th Harry Potter Book

Order of the Phoenix is really long and drags way too much. On the other hand, Half-Blood Prince is a svelte 652 pages, far shorter than Order of the Phoenix as well as Goblet of Fire... Order of the Phoenix's villains don't receive enough comeuppance. Well, now they do. Cornelius Fudge has been fired, and I'd still like to see Umbridge dead, but I'll live. I do love how Harry snubs the Ministry of Magic. As for the villains in Half-Blood Prince, they receive hardly any comeuppance, but the ending is deliberately tragic, and I can tell that Harry is going to open up a serious can of whoopass next book... In Order of the Phoenix, Sirius's death is not as affecting as it should be because Sirius spends the whole book being an asshole, and Harry is an asshole too. Harry is a lot more chill in this book and doesn't get irrationally angry. Additionally, Dumbledore's death in this book is just heartbreaking... Order of the Phoenix contains some huge plot holes, and some of the decisions the characters make are just dumb. Fortunately, this fault does not plague Half-Blood Prince. The plot and characters are completely believable and engaging... Order of the Phoenix contains many unnecessary parts and lame characters. At 652 pages, this book is actually rather tautly composed. Luna Lovegood's role in this book is highly amusing, and Tonks's sub-sub-subplot is very interesting. Thankfully, there was no knitting of house elf hats in this book... Harry is stupid for continuing to suspect Snape of evil-doing in Order of the Phoenix. Snape will always be a red herring. Uhhhh... okay, maybe not.

Indeed, if the 5th book represents all that was wrong with the Harry Potter series, the 6th book finds everything back on track. It's a fantastic novel, one that even manages to make long passages of exposition fascinating. Learning about Voldemort's past is just as exciting as the quest that starts in Chapter 26. We even break from the entirely Harry-focused perspective for the first two chapters of the novel. It's amazing that a series with so many characters has never strayed from seeing things from Harry's viewpoint, and granted, we still spend 28 chapters of this book in Harry's P.O.V., but the first two chapters are a nice change of pace, methinks. I do, however, think it's brilliant how Rowling manages us to keep us updated on so many characters' lives while staying in the perspective of one teenaged boy, without it ever becoming confusing.

In addition, this book is at times laugh-out-loud funny. Oh, sure, the Harry Potter books have always had a good share of wit, but the series has rarely made me laugh out loud. The parts about Cormac McLaggen, the Felix Felicis potion, and especially Ron accidentally eating the love potion were rather hilarious. On the other hand, the end of the book is a real downer and even made me feel lonely after I finished it, but that only serves to show what an emotional impact this book can have, even a book that is still largely intended for children (though when you consider how dark and bloody this book is, along with its graphic depictions of making out and inclusion of the word "slut", I think it's at least PG-13 material).

I do have one small nitpick about this book, concerning the Half-Blood Prince in its title. The subplot about his help during Potions class is interesting, sure, but all the secrecy surrounding his identity just seems so anticlimactic. When Harry finally finds out that it's Snape, it hardly even matters. [EDIT: Used to have what I thought was an inconsistency here, but a friend straightened me out.] I can't wait for the 7th book! Especially because the ending leaves so many questions unanswered. Is Harry actually going to return to Hogwarts? It seems uncharacteristic of him to leave his schooling unfinished, and I thought the seven books were each supposed to represent another year of school, but how will he have time to find the Horcruxes if he's staying at Hogwarts? And who is R.A.B.? Actually, I've done a Google search and found a likely possibility, but I won't reveal it here in case people don't want to read likely spoilers for the 7th book. Dammit, Jim, you need double-spoiler tags!

So yeah. J.K. Rowling is back in my good graces. Keep up the good work!