Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
I finished Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince the morning it came out because I'm a loser and stayed up all night reading. And I'm very glad that I did since I've seen countless spoilers ALL OVER THE INTERNET because apparently we Harry Potter fans are complete and utter morons for wanting to be SURPRISED at how the books end. Because, y'know, the point of reading ISN'T to be surprised by plot development. *eyeroll*
Now that I've had a few days to let my reaction to the book simmer, I am now prepared to write up my GREAT HARRY POTTER RANT OF 2005! When I first finished HBP, I was too shellshocked to write anything coherent about it. For about five hours, it was my favorite book in the series. And then the afterglow wore off and I realized that I still love my precious OotP (shut up, I know you all hate it XD). All in all, Half Blood Prince was, as usual, worth the wait. However, while there were some things that I absolutely LOVED about it beyond rationality, there were also some things that disappointed me. Like, a lot. And thus, I ramble:
The Overall Feel
The atmosphere of this book was distinctly different than that from the other HP novels. I'm assuming that she was intentionally drawing away from the usual Hogwarts details since the seventh novel is apparently going to take place on the road. Also, almost all of the magic dealt with in this novel was dark, dark, evil magic as opposed to the cute and gimmicky magic that dominated previous books. There was also something odd and detatched about the novel, but I'm assuming that it had everything to do with my inability to relate to Harry in HBP. There were a few traditional aspects absent, but I didn't find myself missing them until Harry, Hermione and Ron decided to skip out on Aragog's funeral. Their uninteional dissing of Hagrid made me long desperately for the days of sneaking around after hours underneath the invisibility cloak trying to solve mysteries that no one else cared enough to solve.
Harry
This was the first book in the series where I found myself disliking Harry at certain points in the narrative. I have always adored Harry- in fact, he was my favorite character in the series for a very long time. I never quite understood people's neagtive reaction to his (quote)"over the top angst"(end quote) in OotP- personally, I found his attitude in that book to be perfectly undersandable and justifiable considering everything that had just happened to him and everything that was continuing to happen to him. I would have been shocked if he HADN'T cracked the pressure. The position she put him in during the course of OotP was an isolated one- both respected and resented by two different groups of people. At one end he was a leader and an idol, at the other, a scapegoat and laughing stock. I loved Harry in OotP and sympathized with him deeply.
Unfortuantely, I found that difficult to do in HBP. I'm not certain why this is. JKR worked very hard to cut him off from others in OotP, only to bridge stronger connections in this book. Which wasn't the problem of course- I always love Hermione and Ron getting in on the action and I can't even express how much I loved the way she developed Dumbledore and Harry's relationship in this book. Perhaps it was the fact that he seemed a litle too emotionally unaffected. Considering everything that's happened in the past five books, and everything that he learned from Dumbledore at the end of is fifth year, you'd imagine him to concentrate less on... gah, I can't even explain it. The entire time I was reading the book, I found myself detatched from Harry for the most part, which was distressing and unnerving considering that has never ONCE happened to me before during a Harry Potter book.
But it's not all bad. There were those moments in this book where I love, love, loved Harry. Those moments when he was so completely and utterly adult. When his deep set battle scars- both psychological and physical- showed and I was just so proud of him. The best example I can think of this was during Dumbledore and Harry's attempt to get the Hoarcrux near the end of the novel. I'm still a sucker for Harry during his mature, heroic moments. ^___^
Human
JKR may have based many of her characters on very basic and formulaic archetypes, however they have become much, much more. This book in particular was a breakout for a few of those key characters who have been sorely lacking in emotional depth for the entire series. I'm talking about Dumbledore, Draco and Voldemort in particular. Dumbledore's quiet moments of vunerability; the revelation of Tom Riddle's unsettling (and sociopathic) childhood habits; and the sight of Draco Malfoy sobbing in absolute despair in the bathroom were all important scenes that broke through the veneer of magic, broke through Harry's preconcieved conceptions of these characters and showed us that Rowling is perfectly capable of writing very human characters. Even the way Ron and Hermione tore each other up through petty jealousy was very true to their nature, even if it was annoying as heck. -__-;;
Dumbledore
I loved Dumbledore in this book. Absolutely found myself DROWNING in my adoration of the man. There were a few small, but terribly important scenes in the book that betrayed a man who, in fact, wasn't God. As much as we all loved Dumbledore the invincible, all knowing, sagely wizard there is something else entirely about his scant moments of fragility JKR painted for us in HBP. It's a testament to how much I, as the reader, admired and respected a fictional character that when Dumbledore was sobbing and screaming that he wanted to die while drinking Voldemort's potion, I could hardly breathe. JKR put Dumbledore up on quite the pedastal. I'm impressed that she managed to bring him down to our level without tearing him down. It was more like a gentle hop, skip and jump.
And, of course, the brilliance in all of this was that she only showed us this more human side of him to make the great betrayal all the more painful. She shows us that Dumbledore is capable of making mistakes- and then she shows one of the greatest mistakes he ever made.
(... well, two of the greatest mistakes actually. Silly Tom Riddle.)
SNAPE
Severus Snape is the most fucking brilliant character in the entire series. That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about him anymore. He's been one of my favorite characters for a long time, and never once have I even considered that he might still be on Voldemort's side. But then again, that's exactly what JKR was aiming for. His loyalties were so often in question that we, the readers, simply did not question it ourselves. After reading the end of HBP, I felt personally betrayed. Like someone had come along and kicked me in the gut, and then smacked me across the face with a brick. I didn't want to accept it. Truthfully, after reading five of JKR's marvelous books, I saw it coming after the second chapter.
BUT THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT ANY EASIER WHEN IT HAPPENED.
Despite everything, Snape is still one of the most facsinating characters in the series. I've got a lot of complicated thoughts about him now, and am very, very interested in seeing what they do with him in the next book. Right now I'm just slapping myself in the face and wondering why the hell I didn't see it coming. Just when you assume that Rowling's characters are almost too archetypical, they go and pull something like this on you.
Oddly enough, scrolling though my flist, I've noticed that a lot of people seem to be convinced that Snape is still on the good side. This is just making me go: "Buh?" and wonder whether or not I've missed something. They seem to think that when Dumbledore muttered: "Please, Severus..." he was telling Snape to kill him. I thought it was perfectly clear what was going on- Dumbledore's heart was breaking. He was begging Snape not to betray him. I'm pretty secure in my ability to properally understand passages of JKR's writing, so I'm just going to assume that all of these people are either morons, or in denial. I'm not sure whether to laugh, or feel pity. o__O
Draco Malfoy
Ever since I read the fourth book, Draco Malfoy has been, by far, my favorite character in the Harry Potter series for reasons I was unable to define or particularily defend. However, lets just say that what happened with him in this book was more or less EXACTLY what I was waiting for in regards to his character development.
And the parallell was brilliant. During Draco and Dumbledore's confrontation, there is the prevalent feeling that Dumbledore has already had this conversation (or, one very similar to it) with one Severus Snape. The tradgedy here is not only that Dumbledore is mistaken about Snape's loyalties, but rather that Draco probably COULD have been saved. Draco can be a horrible person sometimes and has some very skewered views about life and the world in general, however he is only sixteen years old and... well, there's a lot of reasons Draco Malfoy probably could have been turned against Voldemort, one being that he's somewhat of a coward and probably will never be prepared to sacrifice his life for someone else's. Dumbledore's clever and well meaning bribing most likely would have worked like a charm had the other Death Eaters not shown up.
It makes me wonder what JKR is going to do about the OTHER Death Eater children (*coughcough* 90% of Slytherin) come book seven. I'm sure most of them are like Draco- eager at first to follow in their parents footsteps, but hesitant once they realize what following Lord Voldemort really entails. The views of Voldemort do not resonate with the younger generation- that war was NOT their fight. I doubt many of them really understand why their parents are so viciously loyal to the mysterious Dark Lord, only that similar loyalty is expected of them. Now that Draco is gone, I'm curious as to what Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy ect. are going to do with themselves. *sigh*
< /SLYTHERIN FANGIRL >
Love
The romance was so poorly handled in this book that I don't even want to talk about it. For the record, my stance is this:
* Ron and Hermione? Just snog already and spare us the annoying UST.
* Lupin and Tonks? I honestly don't have much of an opinion. It doesn't bother me, nor does it thrill me. It seems a bit irrelevant, but honestly, I picked up on it in OotP.
* Bill and Fluer? Made me go: "Awww." (and, was the only decently handled romance in the entire novel).
* Harry and Ginny? If posisble, this was handled worse than I expected it to be. And I wasn't expecting much.
Also, I must note now that Draco/Moaning Myrtle is my new OTP. Am I being serious? Even I don't know. o__O
Random
Ahahaha, Peter is Snape's bitch. ^__^
Also, Regulus Black, yo!
And yeah. No more Harry Potter obsessing from me until book seven comes outin fourty years. Unless the fourth movie is really good. Which is probably won't be. But if they do Mad Eye Moody, Viktor Krum and Draco, the amazing bouncing Ferret to my satisfaction, that may be sufficient grounds for fangirling. Maybe.
Now that I've had a few days to let my reaction to the book simmer, I am now prepared to write up my GREAT HARRY POTTER RANT OF 2005! When I first finished HBP, I was too shellshocked to write anything coherent about it. For about five hours, it was my favorite book in the series. And then the afterglow wore off and I realized that I still love my precious OotP (shut up, I know you all hate it XD). All in all, Half Blood Prince was, as usual, worth the wait. However, while there were some things that I absolutely LOVED about it beyond rationality, there were also some things that disappointed me. Like, a lot. And thus, I ramble:
The Overall Feel
The atmosphere of this book was distinctly different than that from the other HP novels. I'm assuming that she was intentionally drawing away from the usual Hogwarts details since the seventh novel is apparently going to take place on the road. Also, almost all of the magic dealt with in this novel was dark, dark, evil magic as opposed to the cute and gimmicky magic that dominated previous books. There was also something odd and detatched about the novel, but I'm assuming that it had everything to do with my inability to relate to Harry in HBP. There were a few traditional aspects absent, but I didn't find myself missing them until Harry, Hermione and Ron decided to skip out on Aragog's funeral. Their uninteional dissing of Hagrid made me long desperately for the days of sneaking around after hours underneath the invisibility cloak trying to solve mysteries that no one else cared enough to solve.
Harry
This was the first book in the series where I found myself disliking Harry at certain points in the narrative. I have always adored Harry- in fact, he was my favorite character in the series for a very long time. I never quite understood people's neagtive reaction to his (quote)"over the top angst"(end quote) in OotP- personally, I found his attitude in that book to be perfectly undersandable and justifiable considering everything that had just happened to him and everything that was continuing to happen to him. I would have been shocked if he HADN'T cracked the pressure. The position she put him in during the course of OotP was an isolated one- both respected and resented by two different groups of people. At one end he was a leader and an idol, at the other, a scapegoat and laughing stock. I loved Harry in OotP and sympathized with him deeply.
Unfortuantely, I found that difficult to do in HBP. I'm not certain why this is. JKR worked very hard to cut him off from others in OotP, only to bridge stronger connections in this book. Which wasn't the problem of course- I always love Hermione and Ron getting in on the action and I can't even express how much I loved the way she developed Dumbledore and Harry's relationship in this book. Perhaps it was the fact that he seemed a litle too emotionally unaffected. Considering everything that's happened in the past five books, and everything that he learned from Dumbledore at the end of is fifth year, you'd imagine him to concentrate less on... gah, I can't even explain it. The entire time I was reading the book, I found myself detatched from Harry for the most part, which was distressing and unnerving considering that has never ONCE happened to me before during a Harry Potter book.
But it's not all bad. There were those moments in this book where I love, love, loved Harry. Those moments when he was so completely and utterly adult. When his deep set battle scars- both psychological and physical- showed and I was just so proud of him. The best example I can think of this was during Dumbledore and Harry's attempt to get the Hoarcrux near the end of the novel. I'm still a sucker for Harry during his mature, heroic moments. ^___^
Human
JKR may have based many of her characters on very basic and formulaic archetypes, however they have become much, much more. This book in particular was a breakout for a few of those key characters who have been sorely lacking in emotional depth for the entire series. I'm talking about Dumbledore, Draco and Voldemort in particular. Dumbledore's quiet moments of vunerability; the revelation of Tom Riddle's unsettling (and sociopathic) childhood habits; and the sight of Draco Malfoy sobbing in absolute despair in the bathroom were all important scenes that broke through the veneer of magic, broke through Harry's preconcieved conceptions of these characters and showed us that Rowling is perfectly capable of writing very human characters. Even the way Ron and Hermione tore each other up through petty jealousy was very true to their nature, even if it was annoying as heck. -__-;;
Dumbledore
I loved Dumbledore in this book. Absolutely found myself DROWNING in my adoration of the man. There were a few small, but terribly important scenes in the book that betrayed a man who, in fact, wasn't God. As much as we all loved Dumbledore the invincible, all knowing, sagely wizard there is something else entirely about his scant moments of fragility JKR painted for us in HBP. It's a testament to how much I, as the reader, admired and respected a fictional character that when Dumbledore was sobbing and screaming that he wanted to die while drinking Voldemort's potion, I could hardly breathe. JKR put Dumbledore up on quite the pedastal. I'm impressed that she managed to bring him down to our level without tearing him down. It was more like a gentle hop, skip and jump.
And, of course, the brilliance in all of this was that she only showed us this more human side of him to make the great betrayal all the more painful. She shows us that Dumbledore is capable of making mistakes- and then she shows one of the greatest mistakes he ever made.
(... well, two of the greatest mistakes actually. Silly Tom Riddle.)
SNAPE
Severus Snape is the most fucking brilliant character in the entire series. That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about him anymore. He's been one of my favorite characters for a long time, and never once have I even considered that he might still be on Voldemort's side. But then again, that's exactly what JKR was aiming for. His loyalties were so often in question that we, the readers, simply did not question it ourselves. After reading the end of HBP, I felt personally betrayed. Like someone had come along and kicked me in the gut, and then smacked me across the face with a brick. I didn't want to accept it. Truthfully, after reading five of JKR's marvelous books, I saw it coming after the second chapter.
BUT THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT ANY EASIER WHEN IT HAPPENED.
Despite everything, Snape is still one of the most facsinating characters in the series. I've got a lot of complicated thoughts about him now, and am very, very interested in seeing what they do with him in the next book. Right now I'm just slapping myself in the face and wondering why the hell I didn't see it coming. Just when you assume that Rowling's characters are almost too archetypical, they go and pull something like this on you.
Oddly enough, scrolling though my flist, I've noticed that a lot of people seem to be convinced that Snape is still on the good side. This is just making me go: "Buh?" and wonder whether or not I've missed something. They seem to think that when Dumbledore muttered: "Please, Severus..." he was telling Snape to kill him. I thought it was perfectly clear what was going on- Dumbledore's heart was breaking. He was begging Snape not to betray him. I'm pretty secure in my ability to properally understand passages of JKR's writing, so I'm just going to assume that all of these people are either morons, or in denial. I'm not sure whether to laugh, or feel pity. o__O
Draco Malfoy
Ever since I read the fourth book, Draco Malfoy has been, by far, my favorite character in the Harry Potter series for reasons I was unable to define or particularily defend. However, lets just say that what happened with him in this book was more or less EXACTLY what I was waiting for in regards to his character development.
And the parallell was brilliant. During Draco and Dumbledore's confrontation, there is the prevalent feeling that Dumbledore has already had this conversation (or, one very similar to it) with one Severus Snape. The tradgedy here is not only that Dumbledore is mistaken about Snape's loyalties, but rather that Draco probably COULD have been saved. Draco can be a horrible person sometimes and has some very skewered views about life and the world in general, however he is only sixteen years old and... well, there's a lot of reasons Draco Malfoy probably could have been turned against Voldemort, one being that he's somewhat of a coward and probably will never be prepared to sacrifice his life for someone else's. Dumbledore's clever and well meaning bribing most likely would have worked like a charm had the other Death Eaters not shown up.
It makes me wonder what JKR is going to do about the OTHER Death Eater children (*coughcough* 90% of Slytherin) come book seven. I'm sure most of them are like Draco- eager at first to follow in their parents footsteps, but hesitant once they realize what following Lord Voldemort really entails. The views of Voldemort do not resonate with the younger generation- that war was NOT their fight. I doubt many of them really understand why their parents are so viciously loyal to the mysterious Dark Lord, only that similar loyalty is expected of them. Now that Draco is gone, I'm curious as to what Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy ect. are going to do with themselves. *sigh*
< /SLYTHERIN FANGIRL >
Love
The romance was so poorly handled in this book that I don't even want to talk about it. For the record, my stance is this:
* Ron and Hermione? Just snog already and spare us the annoying UST.
* Lupin and Tonks? I honestly don't have much of an opinion. It doesn't bother me, nor does it thrill me. It seems a bit irrelevant, but honestly, I picked up on it in OotP.
* Bill and Fluer? Made me go: "Awww." (and, was the only decently handled romance in the entire novel).
* Harry and Ginny? If posisble, this was handled worse than I expected it to be. And I wasn't expecting much.
Also, I must note now that Draco/Moaning Myrtle is my new OTP. Am I being serious? Even I don't know. o__O
Random
Ahahaha, Peter is Snape's bitch. ^__^
Also, Regulus Black, yo!
And yeah. No more Harry Potter obsessing from me until book seven comes out