I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at 1:40am today...
I got it on the launch day, but took about 5 days off from reading it last week for various reasons.
Anyhoo, random thoughts and grievances here we go:
Well, the major one that I guess has everyone raging or sad or something is that they killed one of my favourite characters. I liked him and now he's not there. Although, if various other fandoms *cough*X-Files*cough* have taught me anything, it's that The Person isn't dead until they've found the body. I mean, tell me that it wouldn't be possible in some way, shape or form for him to come back in some sort of fashion. Ykwim, blue-sparkly Obi style or something. My fingers are crossed for that.
Generally...the plot didn't seem quite as solid as the others. This may be due in part to my taking a 5 day break in the middle of reading, but it just seemed to be a lot of build-up to...a fair bit, don't get me wrong, but it just didn't seem as cataclysmic as the others. Sure, it was life and death...but...it just wasn't as heart-wrenching as I found GoF to be. Although, I may change my mind on this.
One thing that it was though, was very teenage angst. Particularly from Harry. Hermione is turning out to be all thoughty and very maturer-than-boys type thing and Harry and Ron tend to be emotionally inept. Harry is doing the angst thing very well, as we saw at the end of the book. In the last chapter when he was in Dumbledore's office, I was raging with him and at him...I didn't know whether to cry or even have a sense of fulfilment. I felt really up in the air at the end of GoF, but here...well, it's the proper start of the war and the ends are kind of tied up, but it just doesn't feel right on the whole. I wasn't really expecting plot-arc satisfaction from this book, but I wasn't really expecting it to be so completely...well...confusing, all over the shop...
Dumbledore's All Placating End of Book Explanations just didn't sit well for me this time.
That, and I felt that Dumbledore is really becoming a bit of a senile old git. Like Harry, I felt a bit cheated by him, but can understand where he was coming from in ignoring Harry. It's understandable, but it's just a weak excuse for some of the events of the book. I kept expecting for us to find out that Dumbledore really wasn't himself, that he had been possessed or replaced or something (obviously knowing that this wouldn't happen to characters 2 books in a row).
Things that I liked:
- The way that Snape and Harry's relationship is turning out. No, you fandom-addicts, I am not talking about Snape/Harry, just Harry and Snape in general. I like the twists due to James and the whole school thing of the past, I found that really interesting as it shed light on not just Snape but the whole gang.
- I also liked Moody, Black and Lupin and the whole gang being there for Harry.
- Tonks. I like that she has bright pink hair when she chooses to, and that she is kinda funky. In my head she is anyway :) Seems a bit of a token young thang though, so we shall have to wait and see what happens to her in the next book..
- Finding out more about the Black family and how all the purebreds might as well be called Inbreds.
- Professor McGonagal kicking Umbridge's ass in the Careers meeting and just being a bitch to Umbridge the Toad in general.
- Ginny. I like this Ginny. I like that she dates and isn't some sort of emotionally stunted person. I like that she has the guts to say certain things and be different. She struck me as quite different to what we've seen of Hermione, Ron and Harry so far. Breath of fresh air.
- I also liked that we didn't have to go through Harry's whole backstory at the beginning of the book. Good as it is as a catchup in the others, I liked this better. Also, this book felt more like a sequel to the 4th, rather than a standalone 5th.
I think that's all for now. Can someone bring back Sirius though? Now, please?
Anyhoo, random thoughts and grievances here we go:
Well, the major one that I guess has everyone raging or sad or something is that they killed one of my favourite characters. I liked him and now he's not there. Although, if various other fandoms *cough*X-Files*cough* have taught me anything, it's that The Person isn't dead until they've found the body. I mean, tell me that it wouldn't be possible in some way, shape or form for him to come back in some sort of fashion. Ykwim, blue-sparkly Obi style or something. My fingers are crossed for that.
Generally...the plot didn't seem quite as solid as the others. This may be due in part to my taking a 5 day break in the middle of reading, but it just seemed to be a lot of build-up to...a fair bit, don't get me wrong, but it just didn't seem as cataclysmic as the others. Sure, it was life and death...but...it just wasn't as heart-wrenching as I found GoF to be. Although, I may change my mind on this.
One thing that it was though, was very teenage angst. Particularly from Harry. Hermione is turning out to be all thoughty and very maturer-than-boys type thing and Harry and Ron tend to be emotionally inept. Harry is doing the angst thing very well, as we saw at the end of the book. In the last chapter when he was in Dumbledore's office, I was raging with him and at him...I didn't know whether to cry or even have a sense of fulfilment. I felt really up in the air at the end of GoF, but here...well, it's the proper start of the war and the ends are kind of tied up, but it just doesn't feel right on the whole. I wasn't really expecting plot-arc satisfaction from this book, but I wasn't really expecting it to be so completely...well...confusing, all over the shop...
Dumbledore's All Placating End of Book Explanations just didn't sit well for me this time.
That, and I felt that Dumbledore is really becoming a bit of a senile old git. Like Harry, I felt a bit cheated by him, but can understand where he was coming from in ignoring Harry. It's understandable, but it's just a weak excuse for some of the events of the book. I kept expecting for us to find out that Dumbledore really wasn't himself, that he had been possessed or replaced or something (obviously knowing that this wouldn't happen to characters 2 books in a row).
Things that I liked:
- The way that Snape and Harry's relationship is turning out. No, you fandom-addicts, I am not talking about Snape/Harry, just Harry and Snape in general. I like the twists due to James and the whole school thing of the past, I found that really interesting as it shed light on not just Snape but the whole gang.
- I also liked Moody, Black and Lupin and the whole gang being there for Harry.
- Tonks. I like that she has bright pink hair when she chooses to, and that she is kinda funky. In my head she is anyway :) Seems a bit of a token young thang though, so we shall have to wait and see what happens to her in the next book..
- Finding out more about the Black family and how all the purebreds might as well be called Inbreds.
- Professor McGonagal kicking Umbridge's ass in the Careers meeting and just being a bitch to Umbridge the Toad in general.
- Ginny. I like this Ginny. I like that she dates and isn't some sort of emotionally stunted person. I like that she has the guts to say certain things and be different. She struck me as quite different to what we've seen of Hermione, Ron and Harry so far. Breath of fresh air.
- I also liked that we didn't have to go through Harry's whole backstory at the beginning of the book. Good as it is as a catchup in the others, I liked this better. Also, this book felt more like a sequel to the 4th, rather than a standalone 5th.
I think that's all for now. Can someone bring back Sirius though? Now, please?