Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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  A close runner-up to Prisoner of Azkaban for my favorite Harry Potter book, this book just stuns me every time I read it. It is not an easy read (870 pages), but it has some of the best-written scenes in the entire series. It has some of the characters I love the most, and some of the characters that I love-to-hate the most.

  In this book, Harry is a realistic teenager. He has moments of angst, anger, and self-pity, but that makes me like the book all the more. I think a perfectly well-balanc... (show more)

  A close runner-up to Prisoner of Azkaban for my favorite Harry Potter book, this book just stuns me every time I read it. It is not an easy read (870 pages), but it has some of the best-written scenes in the entire series. It has some of the characters I love the most, and some of the characters that I love-to-hate the most.

  In this book, Harry is a realistic teenager. He has moments of angst, anger, and self-pity, but that makes me like the book all the more. I think a perfectly well-balanced, cheerful Harry would be completely unrealistic given his experiences, and I think his suffering and his accomplishments from previous books would both be cheapened if they had no fallout or aftermath.

  In the previous books, there is a solid line between the wizarding world and the non-magic world, and in each book the reader crosses, with Harry, into the wizarding world and leaves the non-magic world behind. That line blurs in this book. The "reality" of the book is what it is, and that reality exists regardless of where Harry is. That makes the book somewhat less "magical," but no less compelling; the draw of the book now lies in Harry's journey and J.K. Rowling's brilliant writing, and not in that incredible setting that first made me fall in love with the series. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Oct 31, 2009 at 12:22AM

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  I remember thinking that this particular book was rather slow at the begining. Of course, I thought they were all a little slow at the start, but they usually pick up rather quickly. I felt that this one dragged on a little. There were enough things going on with the characters that kept me reading, but since I actually had to wait for this one to come out, I was a little depressed about how little happens until the end.

  I was a little upset about the ending. I still don't know if I li... (show more)

  I remember thinking that this particular book was rather slow at the begining. Of course, I thought they were all a little slow at the start, but they usually pick up rather quickly. I felt that this one dragged on a little. There were enough things going on with the characters that kept me reading, but since I actually had to wait for this one to come out, I was a little depressed about how little happens until the end.

  I was a little upset about the ending. I still don't know if I like the particular death that happened. I mean, I realize it adds to how Harry's life is full of loss and all that, but it seemed a little extreme to me for a children's book. It seems like she was looking to kill off a character at the end of each one starting ith the fourth (though it has been a while since I've read the series, there may be other deaths...). (show less)

   

   

  by Michelle Anelli on Nov 17, 2009 at 10:49PM

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