Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Title:  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Author:  J.K. Rowling

Published:  July 16, 2005

Page Count:  672

Genres:  Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult/Children’s

My Rating:  5 out of 5

I believe this was my third time reading HBP.  I read it when it first came out, then again right before Deathly Hallows came out.  I remember being enraptured by HBP the first time I read it, and I still found it pretty darn great this time around.  It’s not my favorite in the series, but it definitely comes close.

What I love about the last few books in the series is the sheer amount of information the reader is given.  I feel like, having now read the entire series (not this time around, but previously), that in the first three books the reader is living in total darkness in relation to Harry Potter’s world.  We think we understand what’s going on, we think we know what they are all up against, we think we get who the bad guys are and what they have done, but really we have no idea.  It isn’t until books four and five that the reader begins to have a clear picture of what Harry is really dealing with.  And it is in this, the sixth book in the series, that we are given a ton of information about Voldemort which we (and Harry) previously had no clue we were even missing out on.  I loved the scenes with Dumbledore and the pensieve – learning about Voldemort’s past, learning about what motivated him, what drove him to be such a ruthless and evil wizard, was so interesting to me.  I loved these sections of HBP the most, I think.

And I also fell MORE in love with these characters throughout this book.  Like I said in my review of Order of the Phoenix, I really don’t mind all the teenager-ness shown by Harry, Ron, Hermione, and their friends in these books.  I like how despite being some of the most intelligent and poweful wizards they know, they are still normal teens with confusing emotions and hormones.  It makes the whole thing seem much more real to me, so much more believable.  And I think this stuff just adds to the characters’ personalities and just helps the reader get to know them all better.

So I’m looking forward to rereading Deathly Hallows, but I’m sort of sad about it, too, because then once again Harry Potter is over and I won’t read these books again for many months, possibly years.  I love this series and it truly gives me such comfort and joy when I get a chance to revisit it!  And I haven’t yet seen the HBP movie – I’ll let you all know what I think when I do see it.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Title:  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Author:  J.K. Rowling

Published:  January 1, 2003

Page Count:  870

Genres:  Fiction, Children’s Books/YA, Fantasy

My Rating:  5 out of 5

I say to you all, once again–in the light of
Lord Voldemort’s return, we are only as strong
as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and
enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing
an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.

So spoke Albus Dumbledore at the end of Harry Potter’s fourth year at Hogwarts. But as Harry enters his fifth year at wizard school, it seems those bonds have never been more sorely tested. Lord Voldemort’s rise has opened a rift in the wizarding world between those who believe the truth about his return, and those who prefer to believe it’s all madness and lies–just more trouble from Harry Potter.

Add to this a host of other worries for Harry…
• A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey
• A venomous, disgruntled house-elf
• Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
• And of course, what every student dreads: end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams

…and you’d know what Harry faces during the day. But at night it’s even worse, because then he dreams of a single door in a silent corridor. And this door is somehow more terrifying than every other nightmare combined.

The fifth installment of the Harry Potter series is absolutely my favorite book in the series – which is funny, because it’s a lot of people’s LEAST favorite.  But I just love it.  There are several reasons why I love the book so much, but none of them really do justice to the comfort that the book brought me when I was recently suffering from a lapse in my reading (I’m still suffering, sort of, sad to say).

I love how much information we are given in this book.  At the end, when Harry and Dumbledore are having their yearly talk – after all the action has occurred, of course – Dumbledore tells Harry, and the reader, SO MUCH.  And it is at this point where the reader starts to understand just how much in the dark they’ve been all along, and also it made me wonder (the first time I read it) what else J.K. Rowling could possibly be hiding from me because obviously there had to be more (don’t worry, there’s more, but I’ll get to that when I review books 6 and 7).

I enjoy the action in this book.  There’s just so much suspense, so much drama – like WTF is going on with Harry’s dreams?  And WHY OH WHY can’t the Ministry figure out that Voldemort is really back?  And WHEN will this confrontation between the Order and Voldemort or the Death Eaters take place?  Because the entire book builds up to the fact that it will.  And I was totally satisfied with the scenes in the end of the book – with the craziness at the Ministry.  I remember the first time I read this one, I was reading so fast because I was so involved in the action that I had to go back and reread chunks because I was speed-reading in such a way as to miss crucial parts of the story.  I loved that!

I also don’t mind the teenage angsty-ness we see in Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  It actually made the book feel more authentic… they are fifteen years old, of course they are going to act like stupid teenagers half the time.  If they didn’t it just wouldn’t seem true to me.  I also appreciated how much more we got to see of Fred and George in this one, they are awesome characters and I love that Rowling developed them a little more here.

Okay, I’m done.  Too much gushing for one day.  I’m currently reading the sixth book so I should be reviewing that one soon.  I’m TRYING to get my review books read, and challenge books too, but I’m having trouble focusing, so these are a nice distraction from my responsibilities.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Title:  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Author:  J.K. Rowling

Published:  November 1, 2003

Page Count:  734

Genres:  Childrens’ Fiction, Fantasy

My Rating:  3.5/5

Currently, I am sloooowly rereading all of the Harry Potter books.  If you follow my blog, you’ll remember that I started doing this at least six months ago and I am being very leisurely about it (is that correct grammar?  I don’t think so.  Oh well.).  I’m going to skip the plot summary on this one since it’s right in the middle of a series and for those of you who haven’t yet read these books, I’d rather not spoil anything. 

This fourth book in the Harry Potter series is actually one of my least favorites (possibly THE least favorite), but that’s not saying too much because I love all of these books.  The main thing that I dislike about this one is that, now that I’ve read it a few times, I’m starting to feel like it’s much too long for its own good.  I definitely think that this book is a little too long and maybe too difficult for some of the younger fans of the series.  Whether or not those fans read the book anyway I couldn’t tell you.  But I think that Rowling spends too much time getting to the action in the book and too little time actually executing the action.  If I remember correctly, they don’t even pull names for the Triwizard Tournament until about halfway through the book.  For a 700 page book, that’s too long (in my opinion) to go before introducing a major plot point of the story.

There are, of course, many things about this book that I do like.  I love how mature Harry, Ron, and Hermione are becoming and how much their friendship develops in this book.  Rowling makes it seem so natural that the three of them together can figure out how to outwit the other Triwizard competitors, that together they can figure out any spell, curse, or whatever else they need to learn.  I love that about the three of them – they complement each other brilliantly.  I like how they are starting to become teenagers, to develop little crushes and get nervous around one another – it’s cute.  By the fourth book, you feel like you know these characters so it’s fun to read about them evolving into these new, more mature, more self-aware people. 

And the ending – this book has one of the best endings of all the Harry Potter books.  Even though it’s terribly sad, Dumbledore spends a great deal of time explaining things to Harry (even though there’s obviously a lot he still doesn’t know), and the book leaves a major cliffhanger.  The reader gets the sense that a great adventure is about to take place in the next book – huge things are going to happen.  Rowling does a great job making the reader excited to pick up the next book (which is also like 800+ pages). 

Anyway – if you haven’t read this series yet, I highly encourage you to do so.  They are great fun, exciting adventures with absolutely amazing characters.  They are NOT just kids’ books, whatever anyone tells you.  They are so much more than that.

Have you reviewed this one?  My google reader was being weird and I couldn’t find any – let me know and I’ll add yours!

Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Title:  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Author:  J.K. Rowling

# of Pages:  435

Release date:  September 1, 1999

ISBN:  0439136369

Rating:  4.5/5

For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black.  Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort.

Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed:  Harry Potter’s defeat of You-Know-Who was Black’s downfall as well.  And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, “He’s at Hogwarts… He’s at Hogwarts.”

Harry Potter isn’t safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his friends.  Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in their midst.

This is probably the HP book that I know the best.  For some reason, I believe I’ve read it more than the other books as well as seen the movie a few times (and I’m truthfully not a huge fan of the HP movies).  For that reason, this book is a true comfort read for me… I love going back to the familiar story and rediscovering Sirius Black and his contribution to Harry’s history.

The Prisoner of Azkaban has quite a bit of suspense and adventure – definitely more than the first two books.  First of all, there is the terror and uncertainty of Sirius Black being at large throughout the novel – how did he escape?  Where is he now?  What does he plan to do once he finally gets to Harry at Hogwarts?  Also, there is the fact that Harry keeps getting snippets of information about why Black is after him in particular – although he has some knowledge, everything he hears confuses him (and the reader).

I think that one thing I love so much about this book is how much Harry is forced to grow up.  He learns a lot of new information about his parents’ past, about how exactly they were found by Voldemort and who in the wizarding world is truly on the dark side and out to get Harry.  He becomes much more aware of the world around him, and how events that occurred many years ago can still have a great impact on his life.  He still has plenty to learn about his past and about the wizarding world (which he absolutely will do in the next four books), but I think that this book is sort of a turning point where he really begins to grow up.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite of the first three books in the series, not my favorite overall but my favorite of the first three.  I also think that, when reading this series, if you get to this book you will definitely want to go on to read the rest.  It begins to set off the more sinister tone of the last three books and gives you just a touch of what’s to come with the rest of the series.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

From the back cover -

Ever since Harry Potter had come  home for the summer, the Dursleys had been so mean and hideous that all Harry wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.  But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature who says that if Harry returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does.  For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls’ bathroom.  But then the real trouble begins – someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone.  Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever?  Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told?  Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects… Harry Potter himself!

There are a few things I really love about this second installment in the Harry Potter series.  I like how the friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione really develops in the book – they truly begin to trust each other, to rely on each other, and back each other up.  I especially love reading about their friendship having read the other books already – I know how much stronger it gets throughout the series and it’s fun to read the beginnings of it.

I also love the way J.K. Rowling gives us pieces of information about Voldemort and Harry’s parents, and the whole thing, by only allowing Harry access to small pieces of information.  It is great to be on this journey with Harry and learn about all this stuff as he learns it – if the readers got too much information, the books wouldn’t be nearly as fun or interesting or suspenseful.

Last, I love the way Dumbledore’s character really starts to develop in this book.  Harry really starts to trust him, and this book begins to show the depths of Dumbledore’s wisdom.  This book has one of my favorite quotes from Dumbledore in it, “It is our choices, Harry, that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

If you haven’t already read this series yet, well, you should.  That’s all I have to say on the matter.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

From the back cover -

Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick.  He’s never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon.  All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley.  Harry’s room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed.  There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that’s been waiting for him… if Harry can survive the encounter.

Ok, so I have read this book several times already, but periodically I feel the need to reread this series because it is one of the few comfort reads I have.  And lately, I’ve been reading a lot of ARCs and other books that I’ve committed to review, and even though I’ve been enjoying them, I felt the need for something easier, mindless, and something that I really love.  So I decided to reread the series in its entirety.  And since I’ve never reviewed these books on the blog before, I decided to at least let you all know that I am reading them.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a great introduction to Harry’s world and these characters.  It’s actually one of my least favorites in the series, because it takes half the book before you really understand what’s going on and start to settle in with the characters – and just like that, the book is over at a measly 300 pages.  However, it really is a fabulous book for children and I think Rowling does a wonderful job of introducing the characters and their relationships with one another in this first installment while still making the book pretty action-packed and exciting.  So, yeah, good start to what is probably my favorite series.

Has anyone NOT read these books?  Why  not?  Is it because of all the hype, or just not interested in fantasy, or kids’ books, or what?  The reason I ask is because I was reluctant to read them for a long time myself, and only started reading the series after Order of the Phoenix came out.  So I’m just, ya know, kinda curious.

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