This is J. K. Rowlings 5th book in the Harry Potter series, it was truly fantastic and I have no idea why it took me so long to read it! The story starts with Harry being left at the Dursleys for most of his summer receiving no news about Lord Voldemort after the devastating and intense events in the previous book. Soon we find out that this was for his own protection; that Dumbledore and a team of many other trusted witches and wizards have formed a secret order to protect Harry and prepare for Voldemorts return. With all this going on in his personal life things get even more stressful for Harry as he returns to school. He is plagued by his upcoming OWL (ordinary wizarding levels) exams and the cruel new head mistress professor Umbridge, who makes life at Hogwarts unbearable for all. Including the teachers. The story comes to a shocking end with the truth of Harry's and Voldemort's past and future being revealed.
I truly believe that the story was incredible and unlike any of Rowlings books in the series so far. Rowling is able to create such an intense and ferocious anger within Harry leaving me and others on edge as to when Harry was finally going to explode and let out all of this violent building emotion. The whole shift in Harry's emotions really adds to the development of story as we are able to make unseen connections between his anger and Voldemort at the end of the book. Additionally I was truly impressed as to how realistic Rowling was able to present Harry and his class mates emotions and actions up to the beginning of exams. Displaying the confusion most normal teenagers feel about the future and displaying the stress leading up to exams. Also I found that the plot was very grabbing and stirred a whole whirlwind of emotion within me that I have never felt with any other book before. The addition of new characters and the new found confidence within certain other more quiet characters really caught my attention because I was able to get to know more about these people and their stories and how they contribute to Harry's story. It even gave me the chance to infer as to what future roles they would play in the in upcoming battle between the Dark Lord and Harry. Another surprising factor to this book was that Harry's parents played a bigger part in this section of the story than any other of the books so far. Knowing their history not only affected how I felt about them but also how I felt about certain characters connected to them. Especially how I felt about Harry with the exposure of his bully of dad and uncle, I started to feel sort of angry at Harry for defending his father at all costs and not taking into account the opinions of people who truly knew him, most importantly the opinion of Snape who was somewhat right about Harry's father the whole time. However overall I understand why these characters needed to be portrayed this way to contribute to the plot of the book. The emotional development of Harry in this book is truly key to the story.
Despite all these wonderful contributing factors to the story I do have a few complaints about the book. Firstly not a complaint at the writing of the book but I just truly could not stand Umbridge, I honestly don't think I have ever hated a character more then Dolores Umbridge. My whole wish throughout that book was for the fabulous Mcgonagall to cast a truly vicious spell on the wretched woman... Unfortunately my wish did not come true! I think I may even prefer Voldemort to Umbridge if I'm being honest. Secondly I was very unimpressed with the death of a most loved character of mine, Sirius Black. I felt as if his death was over looked and Harry never really felt proper grief for his death, perhaps the scene could of been written with a more emotional tone which I know Rowling is capable of. I am hoping that I get more of a chance to see Harry's grief and now he copes with this further death in his life in the next book. A further complaint from me is the battle scene at the end, I did not understand half of it and it was very rushed. If it had been slowed down and less complicated it really would of added more tension to the story. I was very confused as to the setting of the scene and unsure as to what was really happening and found myself losing focus a lot. A final final criticism from me is the final scene on platform 9&3/4, Harry showed no further emotion for what had happened at the end of term and the threats to the dursleys seemed too minuscule and weak to have actually effected them. So maybe if the scene seemed more realistic and portrayed Harry's true emotion at the time I would of been happier with the ending.
In summery I thought this book was extraordinary and was the perfect start to the battle that we know is coming between our precious Harry Potter and the evil Lord Voldemort. The change in the style of writing plus the emotional changes in the characters really pulled this story up from amazing to outstanding. I'm very excited for the next book in the series and can't wait to get reading!
Demi.
