Book Review
Jul. 27th, 2005 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J. K. Rowling
I greatly enjoyed this book, being an unashamed Harry Potter fan. It made me miss my T stop the other day. Several plot points were fairly predictable, but not in a bad way. I saw the romantic pairings coming a mile away (i.e., after The Chamber of Secrets), except for Tonks and Lupin. That was a total suprise. And Dumbledore's death was expected. Heck, given the way Rowling sets up certain aspects of the over-arching plot, his death was pretty much necessary at some point. Of course, there was a lot about the actual circumstances that I wasn't expecting. Oh, and I was right about the identity of the Half-Blood Prince!
Speaking of which, I really hope that Snape turns out to be a Good Guy. I really feel that for him to have been a true Death Eater all along, able to outsmart Dumbledore for years, would be the least interesting thing Rowling could do with the character. And she's shown herself to be better at characterization than that. Plus, there are plenty of details in the climactic scene of the book that seem awfully inconsistent with such an explanation.
I'm really curious about the last book now. If Harry and the gang are not going to be at Hogwarts, that will have a huge effect on the narrative structure of the book. Without the school year structure and the familiar backdrop, it's going to be a very different sort of story.
by J. K. Rowling
I greatly enjoyed this book, being an unashamed Harry Potter fan. It made me miss my T stop the other day. Several plot points were fairly predictable, but not in a bad way. I saw the romantic pairings coming a mile away (i.e., after The Chamber of Secrets), except for Tonks and Lupin. That was a total suprise. And Dumbledore's death was expected. Heck, given the way Rowling sets up certain aspects of the over-arching plot, his death was pretty much necessary at some point. Of course, there was a lot about the actual circumstances that I wasn't expecting. Oh, and I was right about the identity of the Half-Blood Prince!
Speaking of which, I really hope that Snape turns out to be a Good Guy. I really feel that for him to have been a true Death Eater all along, able to outsmart Dumbledore for years, would be the least interesting thing Rowling could do with the character. And she's shown herself to be better at characterization than that. Plus, there are plenty of details in the climactic scene of the book that seem awfully inconsistent with such an explanation.
I'm really curious about the last book now. If Harry and the gang are not going to be at Hogwarts, that will have a huge effect on the narrative structure of the book. Without the school year structure and the familiar backdrop, it's going to be a very different sort of story.
