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

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Summary: Book 5 Amazing!
Review: This book is very intense,and very amazing. I cried when a character died, they become a part of you while you are reading. I can't wait for the next to. Hopefully J.K. is writing quickly.

Rating:
Summary: This book ROCKS!!!!
Review: I started reading these 4 years ago, and they have just been getting better and better!!! I can't wait for the next 2 books and the movies!

Rating:
Summary: yawn
Review: hardly worth the wait. the story barely progressed. the only suspense was waiting for the story to pick up which it never did. we already know that the scar is a link between harry and voldemort but it was presented as if it was supposed to be earth shattering news. voldemort is looking for a weapon, but its never explained exactly how he plans to use this weapon thus the significance is lost. new magical creatures are introduced but they seemed to be forced upon us. the story could easily be developed without them. harry is offered "tools" to cope with some situations but he manages to not make the best of them. the few interesting tidbits that are offered such as the truth about harry's old baby sitter are not explored, but perhaps there will be more to it in the next two books. we love harry because he is ordinary yet rises above all obstacles as a true hero would. in book five he's just an average angst filled teenager with hardly any trace of the hero we've come to know. in short the entire story is an exercise in frustration for the characters and the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait!
Review: I'm a public librarian and a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. Due to the long wait for this fifth installment, I was worried that the bloom might be fading from the proverbial rose. I'm very glad to say that I was wrong -- J.K. Rowling has done it again! Harry is now obviously growing older -- we see sides of his personality that could only belong to a teenager, as his unofficial "hero status" is called into question. All of the characters develop more depth; the adult wizards and witches in particular seem much more human and fallible. We as readers "grow up" a little bit with Harry, and find that even in a world suffused with magic, core values such as good/evil/right/wrong are sometimes hard to see. Rowling has maintained the humor that has delighted us in all the previous books, while simultaneously delivering a "coming of age" story with all the bittersweetness that entails. I am honored to be the first person to review this book, and am now back where I was last week -- anxiously awaiting the next one!

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Summary: Empire Stikes Back?
Review: I have followed this series for quite a while now. I began reading them to my son when he was 3. I finished book 4 in January and have been on pins and needles since. My husband and I both had copies of the TOOTP in our hands by 9:30 am release day and were both well into the book (~500 pgs)by bed that night.
We both have this feeling that in Goblet there were problems but at least there were pick-me-ups in between. There were not nearly enough pick-me-ups in this book. It is a great book, very descriptive and gives a LOT of background to the story, but it gave me the same feeling of wanting when I finished reading it as Empire Strikes back the movie did when I was a kid. You want more, you need more and you feel like you got to the climax but did not get to see the outcome. I think this is probably intentional to give the final two books someplace to go...but I don't want to have to wait three years to see what happens next!

Rating:
Summary: A standing ovation!
Review: This book is the best, i could not put it down. I read it within 24 hours i suggest to any one who hasen't yet picked up this book to do so now. This book is definetly an eye opener it fits so well with the rest of the series. I do not have a favorite but i can say that this book deserves a standing ovation! Great Job JK Rowling i admire your work.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't get much better. . .
Review: J.K. Rowling did it again. She wrote a novel millions of fans were anticipating to the point of insanity, under pressure, hurried, and she STILL managed to write the best novel of the year. From the very beginning of the novel, where the action starts right away (two words- Dudley & Dementors), to the overwhelming conclusion, this volume is evidently stepped up a scale or five from the previous books. This time around, Harry has to deal with the small things as usual, but all that is put aside by the looming war with the recently-returned Voldemort. But those small things are bad enough in themselves, including a stressful new academic schedule, the thing Harry loves most about wizarding being taken away, by the most evil character Rowling has ever written about, period. That would be Professor Umbridge, the toad-like woman who causes more trouble than ever before at Hogwarts. And finally, Harry has entered puberty at full force, evidenced by his lack of knowledge about girls (Cho. . .) and his ever-continuing teen angst. Speaking of which, if there is one thing i didnt enjoy in the novel, it is Harry's endless "I am a teen. I think I know more than adults. Blah, blah, blah." But if that's the only thing thati can complain about, this is one spectacular novel. And about the rumored death in the novel, Ms. Rowling didn't lie. A main character DOES die, and it is quite unexpected. Basically, this is everything that Harry fans wanted. It exceeds expectations in all respects. Year 6 cannot come soon enough. . .

Rating:
Summary: I don't know if I can handle the wait for Book 6....!
Review: It's been exactly 2 days, 13 hours and 5 minutes since I got my copy of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". I would've finished it a long time ago if I didn't have the unfortunate interruptions of work and sleep. But I'm finished now and...WHOA.
True to the book description, the 5th book is the "richest installment"; it picks up from the first chapter and keeps racing to the last page. It's hard to say whether this is my "favorite" of the books, but it certainly exceeded every expectation!
(Don't take these comments the wrong way - they aren't complaints about the book or the series, just some of the elements that really set it apart and stuck out in my mind.)
I found the most disturbing element Harry's horrible attitude towards everyone - Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, even Sirius. In the previous books, Dumbledore has always been the person that Harry can trust when Hermione is disapproving, Ron is scared, Sirius is out of reach, etc.... Harry's resentfulness towards Dumbledore in particular certainly changed the tune in this book.
This book has a far darker tone than any of the others. I found Harry's detentions with the DADA teacher particularly alarming and morbid. I'm glad Rowling chose to include some lighter elements from previous books, like "S.P.E.W", and Lockhart's unfortunate memory problems. :o)
I also wish I hadn't known before I even bought the book that "a major character will die", because it made me nervous and even reluctant to read at night when the rest of my house was asleep :o) but it did pull the story on even faster. I won't ruin it for any of you who haven't read it yet...but as I feared, one of my two absolute favorite characters was the one to kick the bucket. And some of the events following this character's death made it even more depressing.
Finally, in the chapter entitled "Snape's Worst Memory", I was also quite distraught over the behavior of James...I really hope this is explained further in the next two books and that this was just a temporary lapse :o) Harry's world seems to be sliding out from under him.
This book has been built up so much over the last few weeks and months, and it lives up to and surpasses every expectation. It's FANTASTIC!!!!! Every Potter fan will be anxious for the next installment!

Rating:
Summary: Pure Greatness
Review: An adult reader, I finished this one within hours of its release. Well worth the loss of sleep. Rowling has "teen angst" pegged, stays on track with story line, and continues to paint the vivid imagery we love in her books. She brings many issues to closure, yet sets the stage for more heart-stopping "good versus evil" action to come. Harry must next grow up to accept his newly-defined responsibility, and to this reader, the notion of the ultimate showdown is immensly appealing. Brava!

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Summary: Dark, sad, exciting...
Review: I just finished the book, and it was worth the wait! Great villains, a closer look inside the Ministry of Magic, and it turns out that several characters we thought we "knew", are more multi-dimensional than we once thought. Complex, layered, disturbing...so when's that next book coming out, again?