at July 18, 2005 9:03 AMI finished reading this book quite a few hours ago, but needed the time to gather my thoughts a bit. I still haven’t completely been able to focus - the book has been quite a shocker. If you thought that “Harry Potter and the Order of Pheonix” was depressing, you might as well skip this book. World is a lot more brutal in the new era when there is a fierce battle raging between the good wizards/witches and the death eaters. a lot of people we have come to know and appreciate are offed with relative ease that is actually scary when you have the time to ponder.
I am not ashamed to say I ended up crying towards the end, though oddly this book’s ending is a lot more hopeful and full of courage and anticipation of braver things to come than the 5th book’s ending. I cannot wait to see what happens next. There is a lot of information provided in this book, almost as if J.K.Rowling was extremely anxious to fill us all in before something bad happens.
There are a lot of firsts in this book. Dumbledore finally trusts Harry enought to give out more information to him than he did before. Of course, Dumbledore also ends up trusting someone else deeply and ends up at their mercy when he shouldn’t have. The kids are pretty grown up and end up having love interests - most of which Harry Potter lovers might have predicted or hoped for since day one.
It is definitely a treat to watch Harry grow up right in front of our eyes as the book progresses and he is definitely different from the sullen, moody boy he was in the fifth book. A must read for fans, but left me wanting for more, which was probably the idea of it all.
Of course, like a lot of other online reviewers, I felt as if the Sixth book was nothing but a long prologue to the seventh one, for which I am waiting with bated breath. There is one line of the book that still brings me to tears - Harry is Dumbledore’s man through and through!
One last thing - given all the clues about the Half-blood Prince spread throughout the book, it was quite stupid of me to not guess who it turned out to be - it was a total no-brainer. I am just dying to read the seventh book now - I can just see how kick-ass it is going to be now, Harry Potter and the Horcruxes…
Posted by shanti at July 17, 2005 6:48 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Harry Potter and the the half blood prince was a really good book it was sad at the end but so be it. Books are books life is reality but i really felt tha J.K Rowling really put an effort into the book. And i remember when i bought the book i was sooo excitied and i think it was worth the excitment so thats what my thoughts and who ever likes Harry Potter You Rock Ü
Posted by: Pixie_Angel at July 17, 2005 8:54 PM
Hi
First time here.. And yes, I agree with all your sentiments on the book.
But, here’s a theory. ‘He’ pleaded for ‘X’ to kill him. Thats why he performed the freezing charm on Hary. So, that he will not interefere. ”He’ trusted ‘X’ and must have ordered ‘X’ to kill him if necessary.
The other reason is that he had made the Unbreakable Vow and he had to fulfil it.
It was sad.. but the book was good..
And yes, I am waitinf for the next one :-)
Posted by: Sowmya at July 18, 2005 3:30 AM
Pixie, I definitely liked the book - I just thought it was very different from the first Five and serves more as a prologue to the seventh one than a complete one in itself.
Sowmya, my guess is the Unbreakable Vow…
Posted by: shanti at July 18, 2005 9:03 AM
I think Dumbledore knew that Snape was going to have to kill him back when he found out that Draco was given that as his task. In fact, I believe that Snape told Dumbledore about the unbreakable vow. I think that was part of what prompted Dumbledore to begin sharing the memories with Harry. I also believe Dumbledore has left some mechanism behind to vouch for Snape now that Dumbledore is gone, but who knows how long it will take for the Order of the Phoenix folks to find it and believe it. Just a theory…
Posted by: Kathy at July 18, 2005 4:22 PM
Shanti,
Good faithful review to this wonderful book. :beam:
I wrote one which has no spoilers though. Looks like we concur on a lot of things.
Regards
Ram
Posted by: Ram at July 19, 2005 1:45 PM
For some reason, I’m still holding in the back of my mind that Snape isn’t really bad after all … I guess it depends on what sort of message Rowling wants to get across: either 1) Even those who are intelligent and reasonable and trustworthy make mistakes, no one’s perfect (Dumbledore) or 2) Believing in someone you love and trust, even if it’s about something quite unlikely (He’s actually right to trust Snape). Maybe I just want to see some sort of redemption of Snape, he’s such a sad character, obviously an unhappy person…hopefully his unhappiness has not led him to evil as Riddle’s did …
Posted by: Pickles at July 20, 2005 9:44 AM
Aishwarya and Supriya have written a nice long review at riverpulse.blogspot.com.
I personally thought that the whole Unbreakable Vow thing was built into ‘X’ and Dumbledore’s plan, because they had to get Voldy to totally trust ‘X’. Dumbledore knew the big picture, and he knew what had to be done.
But otherwise my feelings are much the same as yours. They shouldn’t make it into a movie though. They’ll just ruin it.
Posted by: Aditya Bidikar at July 23, 2005 1:35 PM
hey first time here…one thing i didnt get abt the book..the scroll thingy that dumbledore had…the entire thing was supposed to be a setup right and some one already had the horcrux tht was supposed to be there. he ends the note by sayin he wants him to be more mortal when he faces harrypotter which doesnt make snese cuz tht wont help voldermort. the r.a.b seems to have those intentions…hop u guyz can help me out…its pretty unnervin when you dont get a part of the climax
Posted by: asha at July 27, 2005 1:29 PM
Ram, thank you.
Pickles, I was kinda on the fence about Snape, but remember Dumbledore’s words to Harry that as an intelligent man, his mistakes are usually much bigger than the average person’s - I think Dumbledore trusted too much. I am not ruling out redemption for Snape, but I think he is not a good person.
Aditya, definitely a good theory - will wait and see what happens next.
Asha, RAB was against Voldemort. He wanted to mess up a horcrux for Voldemort so he will be mortal when he faces his nemesis, whoever it is.
Posted by: shanti at July 27, 2005 1:37 PM
First time here… OMG! HBP was a really surprising book… I was so nervous when I was reading it, but I was enjoying it all the same! It’s sad that Dumbledore died, but I guess there is a rational cause why Snape killed him. Any guesses on who R.A.B is? I have a feeling it’s Regulus Black, Sirius’s brother… I remember that in the 5th book, it was mentioned that Harry and the others found a locket that was unopenable at the Black house… I am guessing that it might be the horcrux…
Shanti, I agree with you about what you said about Dumbledore’s mistakes are usually bigger than the common person…
Well, anyway… I guess we’ll find out in the 7th book!
Posted by: Lahari at July 30, 2005 12:50 PM
Lahari, I agree with you about RAB and the locket - those are my guesses too. It sucks that we have to wait two more years to find out what happens next.
Posted by: shanti at July 31, 2005 10:55 AM
Shh. Don’t tell. Snape’s in on it. He protected Malfoy the younger as promised. But he and Dumbledore planned it all to fake V and the Death Eaters out: Dumbledore’s death is a fake; Dumbledore — alchemist that he is — will rise yet to stay in the shadows to help Harry put a final end to poor sick V. After all, didn’t he say his ‘friend’ nick flamel kept enough of the Stone’s elixir to let him set his matters in order?
It was Sirius Black’s little brother, Regulis Black, that left the note with the imposter locket… and the other locket is in the Black’s house… and thus in Harry’s possession…
and now? onward Harry! Igne Natura Renovatur Integra! Rowling you did it, did it, did it! Sublime!
Posted by: deborah conner at August 2, 2005 9:04 PM
Isn’t Malfoy a Death Eater?
What about this business that Harry won’t be returning to school? Where is he going? Will he find Dumbledore? And, when he does, will Snape be there, too? Wasn’t Percy at one time charged with keeping the Unicorn? I’m guessing book #7 resolves these issues early on. Since there’s a need for all the kids to get back to school. Perhaps, they’ll do work in the summer, not just have Harry sit on his 17 year-old duff? It’s the last time he’s going to have to be at that house? And, Dumbledore did leave some sort of “something” on it, when he came to collect Harry the last time. To the Opening Pages of #7, then …
Posted by: Carol Herman at August 12, 2005 2:52 PM
Here’s Shit:
DD might have injected polyjuice potion into one of the death eaters & ,like in ootp (5) ,might have escaped removing everyone’s (including HP) memory & snape killed a death eater.
Howzzat!!
Posted by: Ajay at August 28, 2005 8:52 AM
SnApE iS A bEtRaYal.DumBdoRe tRust Him So Much
Posted by: robin at December 17, 2005 4:18 AM
It Was Awsome:nice: But most sad and romanrice
He kiss’s Ginny Weasly ( New it )
DUMBLEDOOR DIES IT TOO HORRITBULL
WAAAAAAAAA it ruins the book kind of :(
Anyway Thats all i gotta say im 7 years old
And love harry potter
Posted by: Madeline at October 24, 2007 6:04 PM