Monday, April 25, 2011

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Rowling


JK Rowling

Year six at Hogwarts brings some unexpected twists and turns. Harry's NEWT courses are harder than ever and   his added lessons with Dumbledore to uncover Voldemorts past can sometimes be more than he bargained for. On top of this is the monster inside him that has recently taken notice of Ginny, Ron's little sister, and romance has finally hit Hogwarts.

In many ways Half Blood Prince accomplishes everything that Chamber of Secrets doesn't. It succeeds in getting Harry to notice Ginny, helps Ron to grow up and Hermione to acknowledge her feelings, and explains a multitude of things about Tom Riddles(Voldy's) past that connect directly with Chamber. All in all, Half Blood Prince is about characters, and if you've been following this blog at all, you'll know that's pretty important to me.

Overall, I find Half Blood Prince to be one of my favorites. This may be because it is also one of Harry's best years at Hogwarts. Until  the very end, his biggest problems consist of choosing a Quidditch team and dealing with the "monster inside" of him whenever he see's Ginny. I'm also a big fan of the romantic aspects of this book, as they had been pretty sparse in the proceeding five, and I feel like it really rounded out the series.

The other thing I love in Half Blood Prince are Harry's lessons with Dumbledore. Diving into various peoples memories can be fun, and helps to add new scenery to the typical Hogwarts sets.  Oh, and did I mention that Voldy's back story is actually pretty interesting? Love potions, death, antiques. It's pretty cool stuff.

Half Blood Prince is the perfect set up for the final book in the series, Deathly Hallows.  If you're one of those people who's been reading the books out of order, or using the movies as supplements, this is not the one to skip.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Along with CoS this one is my favourite, I like the bits about Voldemort's past