I have sort of a headache right now (it was a thick book), and I’m not quite sure whether I like or not, so I thought I’ll offer a couple of thoughts for discussion.
I thought it was a tad long.
I didn’t cry when
Sirius died. Too quick, too hurried, I kept expecting him to come back through the archway (and I’m still not convinced he’ll stay there)
And I didn’t particularly like the fact that several times we were supposed to think that somebody had died just to build up suspension.
I did cry, though, when
Neville’s Mom hands him the gum wrapper. But then again, I’ve always been a sap with things concerning Neville. I’m still not over the scene where he won the House cup and everybody cheered him. Been known to tear up when I tell people about it. But I digress.
Had to laugh a couple of times, too, though.
What else? I liked the fact that
Harry doesn’t end up with Cho, cause sometimes it just doesn’t work out. No major Ron - Hermione sparkage, though, which I thought was somewhat disappointing.
As I said these are just a couple of thoughts. Feel free to add your own comments while I go and take some headache medication.
I liked Black too. I was thinking that his character was getting a lot more background and he would be around a lot longer.
I even remembered to preview so that I know I did the spoiler tags right.
[spoiler]Sirius dead, the truth about the Marauders (those slimy GITS), really freaky scenes (detention with Dolores, Kreacher, or however his name was spelled) and the whole thing had me worried all the way through! Especially the snakebite Mr. Weasley got, and then when McGonagall fell after the stunning…but I’d never have guessed the death was Sirius.
And is it just me, or was Sirius progressively deteriorating?
Tonks and Luna - New female characters, finally…Tonks is so cool. Luna is weird in a good manner.
Cho is kind of ditzy in this book and Ron is kind of underdeveloped, though I don’t really like them anyway.
Well, that’s enough random babbling for now. [/spoiler]
[spoiler]…of course, this means that the fandom will rush to pair every new character with another and write stories about them. Cho was ditzy in the…blubbering-weird manner. I mean, what kind of grieving is that?
I was also disappointed by the lack of flying car in this book. It fought off giant spiders, it can go invisible and it flies! I hope that it aids in the final battle against Voldemort. Somehow. I don’t care about logic, it could run Death Eaters over or something. [/spoiler]
Bought the book shortly after 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, got home around quarter to 11:00, began reading almost immediately, and finished about fifteen minutes ago, stopping only to make lunch.
I liked it.
I thought that it had a mean streak that was just a touch wider than what I saw in the fourth book.
[spoiler]
Umbridge was just a fantastic villain. The detention scenes with the lines being cut into Harry’s skin as he writes them on the parchment was just delightfully twisted.
The cameo by Lockhart was fun.
I also really liked the expansion of Neville Longbottom’s character and backstory.
Snape remains my favorite character in the entire series. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the guy, he gets more complicated.
Was it just me, or did it seem to me that Harry spent most of the story in a state of being either pissed off or very close to it. His behavior and temperament seems to have been changed substantially since the end of the fourth book, which I guess isn’t too surprising, given what happened with Cedric. The whole section in the beginning of him dealing with the Dursleys was interesting, mainly because he wouldn’t have behaved that way in any of the previous books. Harry seems to have changed quite a bit, emotionally.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Alias and I were talking about Harry’s developing nasty streak earlier today. Of course, you can’t expect him to go on being well-behaved after all that’s happened, can you?
Umbridge scared the crap out of me. That thing with the quill… (shudder) I loved the rebellion as soon as she took over. Fred and George were awesome in this.
I had the death of Sirius spoiled for me last night (that horrible post on the Harry Potter sticky), but I hoped it was wrong. I liked Sirius a lot, and we were just getting a glimpse at him. I also have a sort of feeling he’ll be back, but I wonder. It looks like Harry’s hopes were pretty put down. Snape’s memory was particularly interesting, I thought. He gets more and more complicated every day, doesn’t he? I wonder if, now that he’s had a good peek into Harry’s mind, he might be more sympathetic? [/spoiler]
Book arrived on my doorstep at 11AM, and I just finished it now.
I thought I could not love Fred and George any more than I already did. I was wrong.
[SPOILER]The very first thing I noticed was that Harry seems to have gotten much more angry than he used to be. I wonder how much of that was just a function of being fifteen.
Very sad that Ron gets on the Quidditch team and Harry gets banned.
Harry wants to be an Auror. I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die from not-surprise.
I thought the Harry-Cho thing was a good awkward teen relationship. I never liked her anyway.
Professor Umbridge was truly, truly creepy. All the more reason to love Fred and George (and the Professors!) for messing with her.
Fred and George’s good-bye to Hogwarts was bee-you-tee-ful!!
I was quite surprised to find out about James Potter and Co.'s actual meanness. Poor Snape.
Sirius’ death was upsetting, but I was more moved by Ginny, Ron, Hermione and ESPECIALLY Neville battling with the Death Eaters.[/SPOILER]
And finally the explanation of why HArry has to stay at the Dursley’s. Good
Well, I’m a slow reader…started reading at 9:40, finished just a bit ago. I loved it. I thought the way the characters were written in this was even more truthful and mental thought than the previous books.
I know nothing happened, but the bickering between Ron and Hermione was great…you can see that something is going to be there eventually. At one point I even said to myself “Wow, that’s exactly how my fiance and I acted when we were just friends in high school.”
I didn’t feel all that bad for Sirius’ death, as I felt he almost had to go to further the plot. When Hermione got blazed, though, I got really scared. I knew that she’d faked us out already with McGonagal and Mr. Weasley, and I figured she’d be just downright stupid to kill of Hermione, I got very nervous. Hermione is my favorite character, and I will be extremely upset if she dies in the series.
I agree that Snape is just getting more and more interesting as time goes on. We now have genuine sympathy for him, but I just want to know more about what caused him to go dark, then good again.
Harry’s relationship with Cho was brilliantly written. I especially loved how she left the scene of their kiss completely to our imaginations. Well done!
The battle at the end with the 6 kids, then the members of the Order and the Death Eaters, plus Voldemort and Dumbledore was finally the kick-ass wizard battle I’ve been waiting for. In the previous books, with all this magic around, simple little stuff ends up saving them. We truly get to see that Harry is indeed a powerful wizard, even at a young age, and he is particularly adept at bringing out the potential in his fellow students. Neville was fantastic!
I too absolutely loved George and Fred in this book. Their ambition, cleverness, and attitude towards Umbridge were top-notch.
Umbridge was a truly evil, despisable character!
The only thing I was left disappointed with was that we never found out how the O.W.L.s went! I can’t remember from the previous books, but do the grades come out late in the summer? If so, I guess that makes sense, but with all the emphasis on them in the book, I expected to find out that Hermione got all Os and Harry did well enough to put him on the path to Aurorship.
Biggest surprises? Harry’s rage, the initial recognition of massive corruption at the ministry, and Ron’s selection as a Prefect (I had forgotten they were selected in year 5)
Anyway, that’s a rather long summation of my thoughts so far. Maybe I’ll read it again this week (although, not in one day again)
Wow, my second sentence makes no sense. I meant to say that the characters were more truthfully written, and Rowling had a better insight into the inner thoughts of teenagers than she ever had before. There were several times when I thought, “yup, I know just how he feels…I was there when I was 15.”
No kidding. But I figure when you’re 15 years old, witness some really messed-up stuff that no one but your close friends believe, and have a channel in your head connecting you to the bad guy, odds are high that you’re probably not going to be too happy-sunshiny. Sirius, on the other hand…I just wanted to smack him. Wasn’t even all that broken up when he died; Harry’s reaction is what made me cry.
And now I’m even more curious about Snape. “Lucius Malfoy’s lapdog”? Gah, not enough information!
**Anddd…**go Neville! The boy really is quite capable and brave if given the opportunity. Once the clumsiness factor goes away, he’ll be quite the talent.
I’m bubbling over with comments, but I’m talking with a friend who hasn’t finished yet, so I’ll have to hold off on speculation for at least a bit. And I don’t think I’ll ever read an 800+ page book all in one day again. Information over load!
When Harry first started acting strangely, I thought - Well, that’s not the Harry Potter we know?? - and then somebody mentioned he was 15… cleared everything right up for me.
It was exactly like being 15. Up one moment, totally down the next. Thinking everybody is “in” on everything but you. Being really obnoxious at times, realising it, and still continuing with the obnoxious behaviour.
Another thing that I really liked was how the “boundaries” got smudged. You know, evil characters are explained (really liked the bit about Snape, too), good characters are not the all-time heroes. I even thought Dursley was going to start thinking about his evil ways (which is still to be determined, he did not get to say much after the Dementor attack).
JessEnigma, come on and join the NevilleFansUnited I’ve been saying that since Book 1. But would anyone listen to me?? Would they??
And, Jman, I was scared for a moment she might kill off Hermione, too…I’m kind of scared what she will think of in the next book.
My burning question for Book 6 is though: What did Snape do to make Dumbledore trust him?? I really want to find out more. Argh! The wait begins AGAIN.
I just finished about 20 minutes ago. First thing I did was get on here and look at everyone else’s comments. Most of the things that really stuck out were mentioned, so I only have a few things to add.
The whole being 15 thing. I can totally relate, being 15 myself. You really do act like a real a** sometimes, and only realize it later. The whole awkwardness thing with Cho was pretty accurate, at least from my point of view. On closing, the department of mysteries was extremely freaky. Especially the brains. One thing I didn’t understand though. If it’s a prophecy, won’t it happen whether or not Voldemort hears it? What does he care?
Well, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed in the book. It was still a good read, but this really irked me…
Where’s the twist in the end? In her past books, Rowling has had a totally unexpected ending that has the mind boggling. And when you read over the books again, you see the little bits of information that you skipped over the last time that add up to the final picture. The prophecy mumbo jumbo was too vague and not nearly as exciting as the usual endings. But hey, NEVILLE as the other person who could’ve taken Voldemort down - wasn’t that a shock!! I was glad to see more development of his character in Order of the Phoenix though.
I was kinda pissed that it was Sirius that bit the big one. And I don’t think he’s dead, either. I mean, all that hype, that story by Rowling that she cried, and it was a pretty minor character that bit it. Great book overall, though.
I think the twist was meant to be the fact that Harry’s dream was planted by Voldemort. I wasn’t really surprised, either, but that’s okay. It’d be hard to top Goblet of Fire’s shocker, wouldn’t it?
I bought the book at 12:05 am, went to sleep, went to work, and marathon-read the whole thing. Phew.
[spoiler]I was banking on the death of Dumbledore. I figured that in order for Voldemort to make a move, and have Harry truly demonstrate some independence, Dumbledore can’t keep being mysteriously absent every time he’s most needed. I guess I was wrong.
The things I most loved about the book were the repetitions from previous stories; in particular I’ve been turning over that reference Dumbledore made of Trelawney: “That’s two prophecies she’s made. I may have to give her a raise.” I’m glad we found out what that prophecy was.
The cameo by Lockhart was very cool, as was the introduction of Neville’s gran; the return of the Knight Bus; Lupin, of course; Rita Skeeter; I dunno, just all of the previous items. The book pretty much assumed that we were familiar with them, too, which I liked.[/spoiler]
