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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5 Audio CD)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5 Audio CD)

List Price: $75.00
Your Price: $47.25
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: too depressing, but I still love the gang..
Review: I am a grown-up reader who can't get enough of the lot at Hogwarts. I have been waiting a very long time for this book to be published. I finished it in 3 days and was not pleased(even read it a second time, incase I missed something important). I think there was way too many bad things happening all the time. I was so desperate to hang on to any happy moment, but that was lost almost as soon as it started with some tragic happening. I still love this story and hope that in the 6th year, Harry finally bumps off He-who-must-not-be-named and the students can have some happy Hogwarts moments.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Too long, too upsetting..
Review: Harry potter and the order of the phoenix... dont even remind me! After waiting a while, I was enthusiastic about finishing off the book, and it took me a few days. However, i felt that the story wasnt anywhere near the previous four books. The previous four were more like childrens books, with a resaonable balance between happy events and upsetting ones, but the fifth book is nowhere near balanced. Since Harry is now a fifteen year old, he is bound too have the makings of a teenager, yet Rowling goes through his feelings in such detail, that is not at all necessary. During the story, many different events take place, and it is hard too keep track of them all in sufficient detail, that losing the plot isnt as hard. The death of a character adds to the thoroughly dissapointing events that take place in book 5, and although we now know how Harry has got through his fifth year at Hogwarts, i cant help feeling like ive read nothing, but a whole load of facts just chucked in a book anyhow, therefore making the ending very abrupt, and very unsatisfactory. However, the events in the book will keep you reading, and overall Harry Potter is a great story.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Book Yet
Review: This is a really good book and I think that it is the best Harry Potter booki ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a lot more detail and there is more characters.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A dissapointing mess
Review: I have been an avid Harry Potter fan since the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and I will, of course, continue reading the series. However, I can't help but wonder if J.K. Rowling's creative juices may be running dry, and that that may account for the long delay in publishing this book. I hope that her public will let her take five years, or ten, to write the next one if that will allow her to create something more convincing and well constructed than this mess of a novel.

The problem that began to become apparent in Book IV becomes overwhelming here. That is the fact that, with the resurgent Lord Voldemort becoming a major driving force in the plot, it just isn't very convincing to locate the story with Harry at Hogwarts. To some degree the problem is unavoidable, but it could have been handled much more gracefully. The narrative is disjointed and sloppy, and not nearly enough happens to justify the book's immense length. The climactic battle is just laughably bad.

All of that would be ok, given that much of these books' appeal lies in the characters. However, there is a second major problem, one which Rowling could easily have avoided. That is the fact that Harry spends the entire book in a profound case of the sulks. It's as if the author read in an adolescent psychology book that 15-year-olds are moody and self centered, and got completely carried away with the idea. Yes, Harry has reason to be frightened, frustrated and unhappy. But he's also a kid with his friends at school, and there must be some moments of fun in his life. An 870-page adolescent snit is a tedious ordeal for a reader to undergo. All the pranks and jokes that made the other books such fun are missing here.

And as for Harry's frustration at being left out of things, there is one thing he is asked to do in the fight against Lord Voldemort. It's very important. Harry can't be bothered to do it. He doesn't learn, he doesn't apologize, he doesn't grow. He just sulks even more at the end of the book than at the beginning.

Hopefully things will get more interesting in Book VI.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I truly enjoyed the book. The pages went by really fast. The first few chapters are typical for Privet Drive but in one moment all that is changed and like Harry I was knocked off my feet!

Rowling is very good at evoking emotions from me. I was angry, sad, curious and impatient. I was obsessed for a couple of days!! There were many parts where I laughed out loud, gasped and cried. The book was very imaginative and other than the new teacher (that always infuriated me!) I liked the new characters! I truly recommend this book to anyone who likes reading either after reading the series or as your first experience with Rowling!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another great book in the Harry Potter series!
Review: This book definitely did something the others hadn't done, it brought out much more emotion in the reader. During the course of this book I found myself actually angry and hating some of the characters such as Draco Malfoy, Crabb and Goyle, the rest of the Slytherins, and especially the new Professor Umbridge. Although they are only characters in a book, you feel animosity towards them for some of the things that happen. This book has a great plot and some of the things really make you think twice about the attitude you've had during the first 4 books. For example the chapter titled "Snape's Worst Memory" really makes you think twice about how you feel about Snape. Just one of the many things in the book that makes you think. The only downfall is that Harry fights Voldemort at the end of every school year!! Do you think that by his 6th year, he'll realize that "I've fought him the past 5 years in a row, maybe I'll fight him this year too!" That is Rowling's downfall is that she makes it seem like Harry doesn't expect to fight Voldemort when he ALWAYS DOES!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well worth the 870 pages!
Review: The Order of the Pheonix was EXCELLENT! I don't know how anyone could critisize this book. Rowling was able to keep her main plot and storyline running strong while keeping in small side-stories to give the novel a more human effect... and she could fit them in without them getting in the way! I do have to admitt though, I do think that she had a few ends that didn't meet in the novel. In The Prizoner of Azkaban (my fav. HP book)
everything fit together PERFECTLY like a puzzle, it was amazing! OotP does seem to be lacking a few details but who cares! J.K. also turns Harry into a way more realistic character with his mood-swings and his temper-tantrums. I also think that Rowling is extremly brave to kill off such a huge and widely admired character. (I won't say who died, but I'll tell you that it comes very unexpectedly. You think you know exactly who's gunna leave untill someone else actually kicks the bucket. I was close to tears by the end of the book.) J.K. chose exactly the right person to bring to their demise. The book ended with an action-packed last 100 pages and the last chapter of the book is truly depresing... in a good way. I also think that it was really interesting how in the chapter "Snape's Worst Memory" J.K. has a little mini-story in there that shows the true colors of some of our favorite characters. Read the book!... you'll love it! Just take my word for it when I say: You will not be dissapointed. Good day!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best book in the series!
Review: It's pretty hard to pick a favourite Harry Potter book of mine, but "Order of the Phoenix" is definitely a contender. The book has more twists and turns than the previous books and it will certainly keep you interested throughout the entire 768 pages (the Canadian and British versions have fewer pages). I cannot wait for the sixth book of the series!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Smashing Followup to Book Four, But....
Review: After the horrific waiting period for boom five to be published, I got my hands on a copy and read it in two days. This chapter of the Harry Potter saga is as dark as ever, and excells from great new characters(especially the utterly appalling Professor. Umbridge), a rip-roaring and mysterious beginning, and several funny run-ins, as well as the start of Harry's dating life. However, I was disappointed by the end of the book. From the previews, it appeared that the end of this book would be jaw-dropping and beyond shocking, but it really wasn't. The beginning of the book is very good, implying that soemthing enormous is about to take place not only in Harry's life, but in the entire wizarding world itself. The climax was predictable, and I won't say what Dumbledore should have told Harry five years ago, but I will say it's no huge twist. To me, this book felt like a filler after reading it. It was very well written and interesting, but at the same time, extremely slow paced and almost a copy of book four with some changes. However, it did leave the stage set for book six, and hopefully, we will see a much more dynamic story from JK whenever it is published, which will hopefully be considerably sooner than the fifth one was.

CAUTION: SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
Also, am I the only one who thinks this, but this book had some definite similarities to The Matrix movies? Kingsley Shacklebolt's description sounded oddly similar to that of Morpheus, the point of access to the ministry of magic was a phone booth, and the "lost prophecy" at the end of the book is the same as the prophecy in The Matrix. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but if anyone agrees with me, write a review and say yes or no and why in it. Thanks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: JK Rowling, a psychologist? Who knew!
Review: When I finished the 4th installment in the series I, like the rest of you out there, felt very expectant and anxious for the next. The last chapters of GOF left Harry with quite a weight on his shoulders; he had just battled Voldemort in what was by far the most gruesome and challenging battle he had to face yet, he witnessed the death of his friend and also had to face the questioning and ever-fascinated attitudes of all of his Hogwarts peers when Dumbledore revealed the return of Voldemort (this made doubly difficult in the aftermath of Skeeter's horrible caricatures of him. . .). Finally, Harry had to leave Hogwarts with the knowledge that his enemy and killer of his parents was back on the loose coupled with the fact that Fudge simply didn't believe a word of it. Basically, Harry had alot on his shoulders.

The thing I feared as I opened the cover of book 5 was that Rowling was going to bring us back into Harry's world with a light air, simply disregarding all of the highly traumatic events that ended book 4 (Harry might be extraordinary, even in the wizarding world, but no one can simply rebound from those types of events). I feel very guilty for doubting her - I should have realized that she was better than that. I have read some reader reviews that criticize Harry's moodiness and snippiness and the dark feel of book 5 but I have to say that I expected no less. Rowling out does herself in this latest HP installment for while she shows us once again that she can write a wonderful, magical story she also reveals her truly insightful knowledge of human emotion, understanding and, well, psychology in her portrayal of the state of Harry following book 4. Her ability to keep her fantastical, other-worldly characters REAL is what makes her stories truely superb.

Rowling is a master storyteller and does not disappoint with this newest gem.


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