A little past my goal date, although I did try, I am finished with the Harry Potter series. For now, can’t wait till book 7 comes out.
Title: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Author: J.K. Rowling
Rating: 5 Stars
I *loved* this book, I cannot say it enough. I love this series, but most of all, I love this book. Especially toward the end, I didn’t want to put it down.
Harry is nearly of age in the Wizarding world, he’s got one final visit to the Dursely’s before he turns 17. Everything we knew before, comes full circle in this book, and we learn more about Voldemort’s past and how he came to be the dark wizard he is now. Harry witnesses another death, this one hits him more emotionally than the others. He also goes through the normal things a 16 year old boy goes through at school.
***and here is where it gets spoilery – my comments on parts of the story***
Dumbledore picks Harry up from the Dursley’s – nice touch. I love the way the Dursley’s are all scared of him, and he doesn’t care. I could almost picture that whole scene in my head.
I loved the parts of this story where Dumbledore takes Harry into the penseive to show him things about Tom Riddle/Voldemort. It shows that all along Dumbledore knew what he was doing, giving Harry bits of the story throughout his years at Hogwarts, but not overloading him. And now, Harry knows it was worth the wait because he’ll get to know everything. Dumbledore admits he’s made mistakes, and that no one – including himself – is perfect. But, he’s always had Harry’s best interest in mind.
The Harry/Hermione/Ron triangle, with Ginny on the side. It was nice to see something so normal as school crushes amongst all of the things going on with Voldemort and Draco and Snape. Harry knew Draco was up to something, I’ll get back to that later, but he also knew enough to see that Hermione liked Ron, Ron didn’t really like Lavender, and that he (Harry) was head over heels for Ginny. :) Kinda reminded me of my high school days when friends were sooo mad at each other because of who they were dating or who they were trying to date. It made my senior year hell, my circle of friends was small (6 total), and I was probably the only one who never fought with anyone. Well, me and the other Jen, but the other 4 we always fighting, but it was always a different combo. But, I stray from my topic. Harry’s circle was really only a triangle, with the 2 other points not talking for a long time. I’m glad that Harry finally kissed Ginny, rather Ginny kissed Harry. He needed a girlfriend, I always thought it’d be Hermione, but I guess she was too close. I’ve come to find, there is a point at which a friend becomes too close to date.
Draco/Snape – I knew when I read chapter 2, where Snape makes the unbreakable vow with Narcissa Malfoy that somehow that was going to be important later. Draco always seems like he’s up to something, but knowing what his mission was, I sorta knew he wouldn’t be able to do it. The necklace and mead, of course we knew they had to be connected to Draco somehow, but they seemed a very round-about way to carry out his mission of killing Dumbledore. From the beginning, Harry doesn’t like or trust Snape. And really, the only thing he had to go on was gut feeling and knowing that Snape hated his father. But, you know what they say, often times trust your gut. Harry knew Draco and Snape were behind the necklace and mead, he just didn’t know how. And honestly, I couldn’t figure out what the Room of Requirement had to do with anything, yes Draco could hide in there but I didn’t even think of what he could have been fixing. I completely forgot about the cabinet that was used in Order of the Phoenix. Of course, I wasn’t considering that if there are 2 of something, there could be a way to go between them. Like portraits, the people in one portrait can go into the frames of the others. And if a portrait of one wizard is in more than one place, that wizard can travel between any of them. I like how all of these were tied together, after all books in a series are written in a certain order for a reason. The use of polyjuice as well, something we’ve seen a few times before.
Harry/Dumbledore/Horcrux – This was about where it started that I couldn’t put the book down. Harry was going to go with Dumbledore to pick up and destroy a horcrux. It was dangerous, but then again, when has Harry ever stayed away from danger? But I think this was the most dangerous and challenging adventure Harry has had. I also think that having to follow every one of Dumbledore’s orders was probably the hardest thing Harry has ever had to do, especially making him continue to drink the potion.
Dumbledore/Snape/Death – I knew when I started reading that Dumbledore was going to die, I just didn’t know how. We are told at the beginning that it is Draco’s mission to kill Dumbledore, and we see Snape make an unbreakable vow with Draco’s mother. So, one of them is going to do it. Even though, the way he was described throughout the book it seemed he’d die any minute. But, it was Snape who betrayed Dumbledore. He was a spy for both sides, yet kept his loyalties to the dark side. At first, when Snape killed Dumbledore I thought well… he had to.. the vow and everything, since Draco couldn’t. But he left with the Death Eaters, again, he had to. But it makes sense that he was a double agent. Yet, Dumbledore trusted him, and wouldn’t hear any different from anyone else. Maybe he knew Snape would be the one to kill him. Of course, I’m sure he hadn’t figured Harry would be standing there watching.
This brings me to Harry and Death, which he’s seeing more and more of as the story goes on. First he watches Voldemort kill Cedric, then he sees Sirius fall behind the veil, and now he watches the man who has protected him for 6 years killed at the wand of someone he trusted so much. I think it also makes it worse when he finds out that Snape is the Half-Blood Prince (I didn’t see that one coming, and kinda wondered when it would come into play). That must have been Snape’s ‘in’ with Voldemort, both half-bloods that stuck to their pure blood side. It’s understandable that Harry is hit hardest by this death. It was almost as if Dumbledore was like a fatherly figure to him. Although he wasn’t family, Harry as always considered those he was close to at Hogwarts his family since he didn’t have a good family life outside of Hogwarts.
Reading about the funeral made me feel like I was there, watching Harry and his friends from the side. It was sad, but written so well. If this were real, I think Dumbledore would have loved knowing his final resting place would be Hogwarts, possibly he knew it all along.
And in the end, Harry thought, he truly thought, he’d be able to go off on his own to find the remaining horcrux and fight Voldemort alone. He really should have known his friends better. They understand why he doesn’t want to go back to Hogwarts even if it will be open, not wanting to relive what happened there, and knowing it wouldn’t be the same without Dumbledore. By the same token though, he should have known that they would go with him anywhere and help him on his mission to rid the Wizarding world of Voldemort. There is a quote near the end of page 651 that I believe sets the tone for the next book, yet sums up this friendship that we’ve seen grow for 6 years.
“You said to us once before,” said Hermione quietly, “that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We’ve had time, haven’t we?”
“We’re with you whatever happens,” said Ron.
Ok, so it’s not exactly a quote, but a series of quotes. This takes place after Harry breaks up with Ginny, and tells Hermione and Ron that he won’t be back to Hogwarts if there is one. The three of them have been through a lot in the 6 years they’ve been friends, and Hermione and Ron have had the chance to abandon Harry, yet they haven’t. They’ve always done whatever they could to help him. Harry won’t be alone on his next mission, he’ll always have his friends – his wizarding family.
My next entry will be the first “official” of 2006, my first of my 52 reads. Hopefully tomorrow. :)
