Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
1 journaler for this copy...
A christmas present from MrPloppy, which I've only just got around to reading.
This is really the Empire Strikes Back of the Harry Potter series - everything is looking bleak, the good guys keep losing, and there's not even much of a happy ending. A brave departure for JK Rowling - or at least it would be if the series wasn't so phenomenonly successful that it can easily afford one downbeat book without risking losing too many readers. And anyway, it's still a great story :-)
Rowling continues to capture all the confusions and frustrations of teenagehood. I especially liked the theme of seeing your parent as merely human (which is of course a major part of growing up - that moment when your parents cease to be godlike and suddenly you see their failings) comes through (obligatory spoiler code coming up):the Weasley children facing their father's mortality after he is attacked; Harry discovering his father wasn't such a nice person after all; and Harry's two surrogate father figures, Dumbledore and Sirius, letting him down - Dumbledore by misjudging the situation and Sirius by dying. Not a happy book.
Now I just have to wait another month or so for the next instalment - let's just hope things get a bit more cheerful! (Though I suspect they won't until the end of book 7)
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This is really the Empire Strikes Back of the Harry Potter series - everything is looking bleak, the good guys keep losing, and there's not even much of a happy ending. A brave departure for JK Rowling - or at least it would be if the series wasn't so phenomenonly successful that it can easily afford one downbeat book without risking losing too many readers. And anyway, it's still a great story :-)
Rowling continues to capture all the confusions and frustrations of teenagehood. I especially liked the theme of seeing your parent as merely human (which is of course a major part of growing up - that moment when your parents cease to be godlike and suddenly you see their failings) comes through (obligatory spoiler code coming up):the Weasley children facing their father's mortality after he is attacked; Harry discovering his father wasn't such a nice person after all; and Harry's two surrogate father figures, Dumbledore and Sirius, letting him down - Dumbledore by misjudging the situation and Sirius by dying. Not a happy book.
Now I just have to wait another month or so for the next instalment - let's just hope things get a bit more cheerful! (Though I suspect they won't until the end of book 7)
^ ^
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v
