Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I fell head over heels with the first four books but I have to say the fifth came as a huge disappointment :( The ingenuity that captivated me in previous books is gone in this one, unfortunately. Magic from the wizarding world seems to have reached its utter limit. Besides, I can only see Harry grow into this hot tempered teenager all of a sudden while his peers stay pretty much the same characteristic-wise through out their five years at Hogwarts, such as Fred, George, Ginny, Malfoy, etc. , who would only pop in and out of the context at the author's/story's convenience. The plot in this book is also questionable. What's the point of retrieving that prophet anyway? With it or not, Harry and Voldemort will try to kill one another as long as they both shall live. And as a powerful wizard as Black is, how on earth should he die while all the teenage kids suffer no lasting damages at the presence of a whole bunch of death-eaters? I hate to say this, but I think great works can be produced from only pure passion instead of any other motivations. Remember when Rowling was a poor single mother struggling for a living, she wrote the first Harry Potter book as her pastime that won the world over. Now that she's happy and richer than the queen of Britain, her fifth books seems to be simply prolonging the whole story.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wealth of Information And A Transation Book
Review: Before I get to the heart of my review let me just say this. I will be the first to admit that the OP is the longest of the five so far. And I'm sure that the story could have been edited down to say 300-400 pages. On the other hand, there would be so many aspects of the book that we would miss. There are many subplots that all work together. My other comment is that many review s blast this book for its predictability... And it is. That is the whole idea of the series the battle of good over evil. Now with that said I'll give you a review. I'm a huge fan of the books. And, the OP is no exception. JKR's use of mythology and myths is the beauty of this, and the rest of the books. This OP we find Harry going under a transition. With not hearing from his friends Ron and Hermione, Harry starts getting the idea that either something has happened to them or that the "Chamber of Secrets" scenario in that Dobby is holding letters from him. On top of that Harry is finally hitting his growing pains. He does lose his temper quite often. We also learn how the death of Cedric still haunts Harry. Yet the one thing that took me by surprise Petunia knows more about the magic world then we previous thought. The story is tight. As we have find out the book like Harry, is full of transitions. Both in tone and in Harry. The one thing that notice is when Umbridge , takes over the school, it reminds me of Orwell's "Animal Farm." Only in terms of how a small few hold and control every aspect of the school, which parallel to the farm. In this book again Harry must deal with death. This time it is the death of a person whom is loves and cares deeply for. The idea of trust also plays well into the story, this referring to Dumbledore's Army and with the Prefects. One idea that plays well in the book is the idea of power and control which is countered by love and inner strength. Power and control coming from the information that the Ministry of Magic has over the media, The Daily Prophet also with in the school and how Umbridge tries to "suppress" free thinking and gaining information. One more example of this is the division between Percy and the rest of the Weasley's. Love and inner strength coming from Harry going out on a date with Cho and even though Harry does get very angry at various people what he learns in the by the end of book will have your head spinning. I had to reread the book twice and a couple of chapters to fully grasp what I was reading. Not that it was hard, but just what we find out. This book is truly setting us up for last two books. In some ways the story is secondary to what new information we learn. At the same time we can make a couple of assumptions, like Aberforth Dumbledore may be the bartender at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade. I don't want to get too much away. Over all this is the best so far in what we find out about the wizard world and Harry's history and another boy's possible history. For story I give it four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: needs more editing
Review: I liked this book. My problem is not with the length but with the editing and feeling like I've read a lot of this before. I went back to the first book and it was tightly written and fun. The Order of the Phoenix feels slightly bloated with way too many adverbs. I understand that Rowling is now possibly the best selling author of all time. That doesn't mean that her editor should not get her to write with more discipline. The deja vu aspect is that the Dursley's are still dispicable, the Slytherins snicker and make fun of the gang, and Snape still is unfair. I guess I'm looking for a little more complexity. Are all Slytherin's evil? That wasn't the original premise. Is Snape still out to get Harry? The end of the 4th book indicated some new role for Snape which is never revealed in the 5th book. There are surprises here as far as the plot goes. But it would be great if the old, familiar characters surpised us as well.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book from Rowling
Review: Unlike some authors, Rowling keeps the uniqueness of this series throughout all of her books. None of the charm of Harry Potter has been lost. The overall plot of the Harry Potter series begins to make more sense, and a fairly important character even dies.
This book would make a great gift. I've been reading the series since I heard about it before it became very popular. Even in fourth grade, I loved the first one. Now I am in ninth grade and I still enjoy these books!
Rating:
Summary: Best HP book yet!
Review: I think that this is without a doubt, the best HP book yet. I know other reviews say differntly but I feel that this one leaves you with the most questions. This book deals with Harry and his friends at the 5th year at Hogwarts where new horrors erise. It was full of action, adventure, mystery, humor, darkness and more. I know people are saying that Harry was so upset in this book, but I say this: OF COURSE HE IS GOING TO BE ANGRY! NOBODY BUT HIS FRIENDS BELIEVE THAT VOLDEMORT ROSE AGAIN. HE IS GETTING FRUSTRATED KNOWING THAT HE MUST FACE VOLDEMORT. I know that people are also upset about Harry getting older. He can't stay 11 years old for all his life. I think that some readers were dissapointed because this books left them with tons of unanswered questions. Personlly this is my favorite book in the series. If you are truly a dedicated HP fan, you'll love this book as much as you do the other 4. Can't wait for book 6&7!
Rating:
Summary: Dave Agrees - Harry Does It Again!
Review: J.K. Rowling has once again outdone herself. This book is by far the best out of the Harry Potter series. It has everything a great story should have from intense plots to breathtaking action, from comedic parts to dramatic flair, from budding romance to bitter heartache between Harry and Cho Chang, just to name a few. You don't have to be a fan of magic to enjoy this fifth installment of the Potter books. I was at first skeptical that this book would impress me as much as the others. I was sure the length would turn me off as more does not necessarily mean better - it just means more. This time quantity and quality were one in the same as each page was filled with clues towards a climactic end. I wanted to delay reading to the last page because I did not want it to end, but at the same time couldn't put the book down. Rowling faces a difficult task of writing numbers six and seven, as this one will be hard to top. I can't wait to see what she's got in store for us!
Rating:
Summary: Honestly Captivating
Review: This is the longest book I have ever finished. This story was excellently written, brilliant and captivating. I read ths entire Harry Potter Saga all at once, book 1-5 in 5 months. I feel like I have watched these movies, when they haven't even been made yet! This book, following the previous 4 books of Harry Potter, Rowling truly shows her talents. Children and adults alike can enjoy and escape by reading this book. I wish I would get my letter from Hogwarts! In a way, I feel like I already have. I am waiting impatiently for book 6 & 7 to be released. I highly recommend them to anyone with an imagination!
Rating:
Summary: Why Do Some People Hate This Book?!?!?
Review: I have just finished reading this book for the third time, (mostly because I read it to my little bro, he loved it too) and can say I couldn't be happier... except when the dang book makes me CRY!!!! Ok, the ending explained tons... BUT SO MUCH PAIN! I CAN'T STAND IT!!! WHEN'S THE NEXT BOOK?!?!? I NEED TO KNOW!!! Alright... I'm calming down. I'm a writer. Being fourteen this surprises some people. I am also a Christian, not "Catholic" not "Anything else", just a person who searched for the truth, found God, and believed. I still love the HP series, couldn't live without it! (And for all those out there I have never had anything wrong with "someone going bad" as Harry has slowly been doing. I'm a Christian who is writing a series about vampires... ok? We have to accept that not everyone in the world is a Christian and we don't have to be upset by these things, alright?) Ok, out of that chapter. I'm fouteen. I'm Christian. I'm a writer. And I still can't figure out how she made this series so good!!! How could anyone hate it? I think the character development is going along perfectly... not to mention breaking our hearts (I'm ok with that, in all truth I love writting something that can make a person cry. It satisfies me so much to think that you are actually causing such vivid emotion through your words and characters!)... the way Rowling writes is captivating. Some writers... me for example...(Though I'm squeezing it out of myself) have problems writting continually intresting words. The way you can string them together has to be sophisticated yet fun, so as not to lose the readers intrest (unfortunatly, I have too much sophistication and not enough fun... working on it). Yet she manages to mix exactly the right amount together, throwing in a story line that continues to throw our minds into a whir of excitment! This book had so much emotion, much more than the others (especially with that "death" that was so unexpected). You can't help ending the book feeling a little sour though. "I'm gonna cry! Poor Harry! WHAT?!?!? THAT'S THE END OF THE BOOK?!?!? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" That's my comments, hope they help. P.S.
Rowling... from the heart of both writer and reader I say, "BRAVO!" and "ENCORE!" Please ignore all spelling mistakes... for being a writter
I'm a horrible speller. :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Does not seem to be for kids anymore, but good for Adults
Review: When I read "The Goblet of Fire (Book 4)" I felt that the themes were becoming more mature. Perhaps as Harry matured the themes do too? Book 5 seems to follow this trend. The book has taken on an even more mature theme dealing with aspects such as death, anger, frustration, changes and unpleasantness. I enjoyed it but it felt dark and serious most of the time. I would be hesitant to give this book to a child under 14 to read, which is why I gave 4 stars instead of 5. As an adult reader I would give it 5 stars however.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete Garbage
Review: This book's problems are too numerous to count. It is overly long, the characters don't seem to be themselves, the 'plot' seems contrived and forced, and it is obvious that the book's author is suffering from timid writers' syndrome.
The novel's gratuitous length is its biggest problem. This book does not have enough worthwhile material to fill its 800-odd page count. It is full of irrelevant events such as the characters trying to get some creature out of window curtains. Scenes like this do nothing to help the plot or develop the characters. While die-hard fans will likely appreciate such sections, the regular reader wants a story, not a how-to manual about tasks they'll never attempt. These sections of the book should have ended up in the garbage heap and been burned.
I believe that the novel's length is a factor of bad editing, and Rowling trying to one-up herself. The editors must have allowed these extraneous passages and chapters to remain in the book out of awe for the author's celebrity. The other factor is probably Rowling's realization that each of the 'Potter' books has been longer than the previous, and a desire to keep that tradition intact. Fans of the series had a long wait for this installment, and while Rowling's claimed that it took a long time to write, I believe that what took long was finding enough garbage to cram into the book so it would be longer than the previous.
I was also disturbed by the portrayals of many of the characters in this book. I found that in many cases, characters were treated inconsistently with how they had been in the past, including cases of them being out of character, and being made to do whatever the author thought would accomplish whatever she wanted. In good writing, characters react to the situations presented to them. In this book, they act as if they are controlled by the author.
Harry Potter himself is the clearest example of this. Rowling mentioned in many interviews before the book's release that she was making Harry seem like a realistic teenager by making him have mood-swings. It is ironic that she seemed proud of such a big failure. The idea of making Harry moody was not bad, but Rowling lays it on too suddenly and heavily to be believable. The reader is supposed to believe that Harry has transformed from an always mild-mannered, polite boy, into one who throws a temper tantrum every couple of minutes, within the few weeks since we saw him last. Any reader should realize that, short of a brain tumor affecting his personality, Harry's sudden changes are ludicrous in both the relentlessness with which they are forced upon the reader, and the reminders of them given every page or so.
Many other characters seem to have been forgotten during the book's writing, and placed in as a mere afterthought. The main instances of this are Hagrid, and Dumbledore. They both figure into the story far less than in previous installments, and no good reason is given (although some pathetic ones are) for this. Their brief appearances seem as if they were placed in a few scenes just so they'd be in the book.
The plot of the book is also bad; it seems forced, and stretched across 800 some pages, when the most it should take up is 2 or 3 hundred. The last book ended on a high, exciting note: Harry's nemesis, Voldemort had just been resurrected, and a war was imminent.
In this book, however, that seemingly imminent struggle never takes place. After setting up a huge war, Rowling probably realized that she didn't have enough material to fill three books. Therefore, she decided to delay it throughout at least this book. What we are left with is a largely unnecessary first quarter of the novel, followed by a series of short stories about how a new teacher at the school is mean (after a couple examples of this characters' cruelty, I wanted to shout at the book that 'yes, I get the picture!) Rowling does not give her readers much credit, and proceeds to drill this fact into their head over and over.
The last fifth or so of the novel is decent and exciting. However, it is not good enough to redeem the pages preceding it. At best, the plot of this book would be enough to write a good short story or possibly a novella.
The final nail in the book's coffin is Rowling's case of timid writers' syndrome, meaning that she tries to improve her descriptions when they are already self explanatory. The main case of this is her gratuitous use of adverbs in dialogue attribution.
Several times per page, a character would say something 'sheepishly', 'boastfully', etc. 'Coolly' and 'coldly' seem to be Rowling's favorites. However, adverbs shouldn't be necessary, as the writing preceding them should imply how the characters would speak. If a character's pet has just died, a reader could infer that the character would talk sadly. It is obvious that Rowling does not believe she has created characters and situations well enough for the reader to know if the character would be feeling.
Also showing Rowling's lack of confidence is the publicity that she would kill a character. Several hundred pages into the novel it becomes obvious that she only issued that statement to garner concern for her characters. Several times, characters are implied to be in danger, but end up being fine. It is obvious that Rowling did not believe she'd drawn them well enough to merit the readers' concern. The publicity statement was meant to make readers fear for the characters, which Rowling did not believe her writing accomplished.
It's ironic that these areas were two of the only areas that were somewhat good. Unfortunately, her timidity added more trash to an already bad book.
If this is an indication of what's to come, Rowling should quit writing and save some trees.
|
