Rating: 
Summary: So much, and yet so little
Review: I am a fan (almost a fanatic) of Harry Potter, and yet Book 5, for all its excitement and tragedy, disappointed me. My major gripe with JK Rowling is that she creates intriguing, obsession-worthy characters almost with the swoop of a pen: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Charlie Weasley--all with such immensely rich backstories that we spend years waiting to hear more. Then what do we get? Another mass of colorfully-drawn, interesting enough characters, but no depth. No building upon years of speculation. Why should I bother to love Luna or Tonks or Kingsley when I can be pretty darn sure I'll never learn anything more about them? Even Ron remains rather one-dimensional, and I'd rather hear about him in depth than about 5 new characters with clever names.On the other hand, angry Harry was great--it seemed very real. (...) Umbridge I loved-to-hate, and having worked for NASA, I can easily believe in the corrupt and incompetent Ministry. So: 2 stars for metaphor, one for just rockin' good storytelling, but none for characterization. We don't even get a glimpse of Peter or "evil" Percy! Sigh.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!!! Excellent!!!....but not the best
Review: I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and personally I thought this book was amazingly great, despite some slightly annoying aspects (the new horrible, obnoxious teacher being the main reason I say this). It becomes intense, and you learn SO much new important information that explains a great deal of things and makes you anxious for the next 2 books in line. As several are saying, it is definately the darkest of the series so far, and you actually might feel sorry for Snape, AND I was devastated by the death of someone! Still, I loved reading it, although it is not my favorite (that would be number 3). When you finish the book, you'll be amazed at everything you've found out. It is a lot to take in (length-wise and information-wise) but I got through it within a few days because I never wanted to put it down, just like the other 4 books!
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner for Rowling, An Amazing Read
Review: This book is absolutley fantastic. J.K. Rowling really captures the way a 15 year old would view and react to the torments harry and his friends are put through in this book. Harry finally becomes the adolescent that he is and lashes out at enemies and friends alike. The corruption in the Ministry of Magic is evident from the beginning and plays an important role in the way the book evolves. Book 5 begins the transformation to the end of the series with a new focus, even though the structure remains the same. A whole new cast of characters, bad or good, create a great atmosphere in the book. With a fair amount of action, J.K. does a wonderful job of keeping the readers intrest through the 870 pages. If you're a fan of the series, this book will not give you any dissapointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Overall Pretty Good
Review: Harry Potter is an overall good book. It's exiting and full of suspense. I am getting quite tired of the battles with Voldemort at the end of each book and the "You're my favorite student,Harry" act from Dumbledore and how he tells Harry "Something I've never told you before about your early childhood and Voldemort" at the end also. It's a pretty good read.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing book!
Review: I preordered this book three months before it finally got out. When I found it in my mailbox I ran to my bedroom and started to read. I couldn't stop reading it. I haven't slept all night (I slept in school though). It was worth it. The book is almost twice as big as the previous one, but when you start reading it you won't notice how much time passed.
The only thing I don't like is the death of ... hmmm... I think it's better you don't know (it's more interesting that way). The characters are again the most interesting part of the book. They're actions keep surprising us. And new characters aren't just a decoration. They're here because they're important (when you read the first book did you ever thought that Sirius who borrowed Hagrid the flying motocycle was Harry's uncle?).
Joanne again surprised us with a great novel, and judging by the quality of the HP books by now, I bet she won't fail to do something special with the two last parts. I recommend this book to anyone, you'll have fun reading it, I assure you.
Rating:
Summary: It must be done- unavoidable changes
Review: Many Harry Potter fans are disgruntled about the character, and plot line developments in book 5. Harry becomes very resentful, and has a hard time putting up with every thing, and more than he has in the past. This was a necessary character development, nobody can reasonably expect him to act like he is 11 for the rest of his life, he won't just take everything that others dish out any more (do you know any 15 year old boys who will?). I don't think he has changed into a horrible person, he is just going through a rough spot in his life, and is learning important things (i.e. nobody is perfect, how imparative it is for him to become a great wizard, how to deal effectively with the problems of life). Dumbledore is a great wizard, but Harry will need to become greater- which is quite a challenge. Don't give up on Harry I have great hopes for him in book 6.
Despite the controversy over Harry's personality this book was pinacle, a very fulfilling read. Book 4 was huge action wise, but book 5 is huge with informational value. I loved all of the different developments in this book, especially Ginny! She is awesome! You must read this book, and give Harry a chance to redeem himself in book 6.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece---with reservations
Review: If you haven't read this book yet, don't hesitate to do so. If you've been a fan of other books in this series, odds are you will like this one as well. Let's address some issues: 1. "But the books are written for kids!!" Yes, it's true. (...), the reading level advised is between the ages of 9-12. So if you're older, should you skip this and look somewhere else? (...) When it comes down to it, the majority of readers are people older than the advised ages.
2. "The book's long and tedious." It's 870 pages, and the plot is very thick, with many subplots and characters to keep track of. Some may find it "boring," while others will wonder what it's leading up to. Truth is, Order of the Phoenix is more of a psychological novel than a children's thriller/mystery; it ventures into the psyche of a teenaged mind wrought with responsibility and problems that are sometimes of a life-or-death matter.
3. "The writing is anything but commendable. It's full of cliches, it's predictable, and each book is the same thing over and over again anyway." While many would like to think this is true (and it is as far as organization of the story goes), each book builds up on the last, and from the larger perspective there's an underlying story. Try reading Prisoner of Azkaban without reading the first two. It's possible, but highly unlikely you'll truly understand what's going on. The plot, the names, the events are full of ties to mythology and other great works of literature (intentionally so), and Rowling manages to make her novels two-sided: one for the casual reader and another for the sharp-eyed one (who inevitably will get more out of them). (...)P>Bottom line -- it's a good book, read it when you have the time; but its implications as a stand-alone story will only be seen once the rest of the series has been completed.
Rating: 
Summary: I will never again respect Albus Dumbledore.
Review: I admit that I'm biased. I love reading fantasy books, but only so long as I can respect the characters contained within. To this day, I have had many reasons to not respect Harry Potter as a character, though precious few to not respect Hermione Granger, and not a single reason to not respect Albus Dumbledore.
Then I read this book, and now, I will never respect him again.
Albus Dumbledore is still a wizard of the highest order in this book, and he still seems fairly intelligent, but my professional respect for him has dipped a great deal.
There is no fictional character that I respect more than Jean Luc Picard, of Star Trek; The Next Generation, and the reason why is that he always knows how to exercise his authority, and when to stand up to a higher-ranking official and say "enough is enough. I'll take no more of this."
Albus Dumbledore displays, in this book, an uncharacteristic lack of the ability to do this, as do Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Trelawney and surprisingly, the one man who was once the sole champion of no-nonsense, Professor Snape.
90% of this book is spent watching a weak little bugger called Umbridge tormenting everyone and everything, (including the reader, seeing it from Harry's perspective,) as she marches into school and legislates her way into absolute power over Harry's world to more efficiently torment. Now, I think people can agree with me that politicians are just about the most evil thing in the world, defying both human justice and natural selection, and Umbridge is a prime example of this. You'll find yourself wondering why the heck, if nature is governed by survival of the fittest, she is still around! You'll also be searching the chapter index over and over for a chapter entitled "Umbridge gets hers."
Unfortunately, this book fails to deliver the bloody death of Umbridge, her employer, or in fact, anyone the reader has a reason to hate by the end of the book. To cut a very, very long story short, good people die, wretched people live, and in the end, all the reader is left with is a feeling of strong irritation at Rowling for using her undeniably ingenious writing style to make them suffer. Someone told me this book was darker than the others but... I just found it annoying myself. Definitely the worst one in the series so far, or at least the least enjoyable, almost entirely devoid of both pleasure and tension. It's like spending a whole year with the Dursleys. If you like that sort of thing, you can read it if you want, but letting a kid read it won't help their psychological development. Kids'll be better off reading something like "The Princess and the Goblin" or "Alice in Wonderland" that won't depress the pants off of them and make them see the world as a more wretched place to live than it obviously is.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing wrong with second best...
Review: if you ask me, nothing can top the fourth book. Perfect in every way. Couldn't change a thing. But, however, this review is about book #5, huge in length, and also in enjoyability. Whether we like it or not, Harry is growing up. Gone is the small, always optimistic boy, and suddenly we are thrown a moody teen who takes out his frustrations on his friends, and a severe dislike for authority. Well, he's 15, hormones are kicking in. He lashes out, then realizes how horrible he's been. The life of a hormonal teenager. Rowling has aged him perfectly, and if nothing else, this book can be appreciated as a wonderful coming of age story. But it's so much more then that, too. The darkest of the 5 books leads us deeper into the battle against the wizarding world and the evil wrath of voldermort, who is back and badder then ever, even though the Ministry of Magic won't believe it, and paint harry and dumbledore in a rather unattractive light...corruption and hypocracy in government? It's something the adults will pick up on right away, but explained easily enough for the children to understand. There's a new fascist-like DADA teacher you'll love to hate, strange dreams, a prophecy, problems with girls (yes, you will see a lot more of Cho Chang), drastic changes in the Quidditch lineup, a meeting with James Potter and the others as they were at Harry's age (and he's not the person Harry thought James would be) and the stressful preparation for the O.W.L.'s. Rowling definetely hasn't lost her touch. There are little twists, big suprises, and little laughs that will make the 800-something page book a joy to read. note: Readers new to the series may need the backstories of the first 4 books for this one to make complete sense, but that time will be well invested. Get this book now!
Rating:
Summary: An excelent literary masterpiece!
Review: I thought the book was so good I'm 13 and starting reading the series after the 1st movie came out my aunt then got me the second book which i loved and then the second movie came out but the book was a hundred times better mainly because the way she writes is ..... there is no one word to describe these books because there are so many layers to each story and theyre so facinating and intreaguing thats its quite impossible to capture it on film because the imagination this woman has is incredible!!! how is it possible for someone to write a story like this and make it as though anyone reading it is standing there witnessing the whole thing!! the order of the pheonix was great because i went through soooooo many emotions reading it. i couldn't stop reading it it went to school and i read it home whenever i had a spare 5 mins i'd read the page and be trapped in again everytime. 3 was great cuz it's so funny in the beginning and my heart was beating 180 at the end ,same with no 4 except the end was more scary which ,is good cuz it'd shown the story had grown. number 5 was excellent because all the characters had grown so much and so are we so, shes keeping us entertained but you totally understand what hes going through and relate to him during things like his crush and his dates and tension over school and more things that i dont think a lot of us are going through like, a load of strangers knowing more about him than he does which totally changes in the end. the end is sooooooo sad which i cried sooooooo much i cant even tell you. the last 5 chapters i read in one night cuz i just had to know what would happen i was amazingly pleased with book that i dont think i'll be able to tell you in this review although i will tell you that it was the on ly thing i could think about for days afterwards and because i laugh and cry soo much while reading the books my family and freinds think i'm crazy furthermore,she's set such an amazing plot for the 6th book that i cant wait for it to come out and i'm gonna be first in line to get it!! i just hope she releases it soon but i do recommend this book and the series to anyone .
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