Rating: 
Summary: The Fast Paced Fifth
Review: The plot of this book has the potential of an intricately woven tapestry. It shows a small portion of the wizard world and a brief glimpse into the uproar that has occured, through Harry's eyes. Attacked by dementors and threateden with expulsion for use of underage magic during the summer, Harry is taken under guard to stay at a strange eerie house called grimmauld place, which is not only the current residence and secreat lair of the long awaited "Order of the Phoenix", but Sirius Black's childhood home. It is here that he meets members of the order, but he, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins are too young to be allowed in as members, and therefore, are not allowed into the secret meetings. They manage to overhear enough to divulge that Voldemort is after some sort of weapon, and that is what order members are frequently on duty guarding. When he returns to school Harry recieves hostility from some of those around him in the beginning, including Seamus Finnigan, his peer of four years, and is openly ridiculed in the wizarding paper, the daily prophet. Also, added as a side dish, is a little romance for Harry with his crush of two years, Cho Chang. More in the front center of Harry's world is the peril of Hogwarts, as it is taken over by a ministry 'representative'(also the new defense against the arts teacher), named Dolores Umbridge (a friend of Cornelius Fudge), leaving Dumbledore headmaster in name only. There is also a strange girl named Luna Lovegood, nicknamed "Loony", and the appearance of dark willowy flying horses pulling the carriages, which had previously seemed empty of driving force. Harry learns later in the novel that you can only see these animals, called thestrals, if you have seen death. Overall it was a very complex plot, full of twists and turns up to par with Rowling's usual. However, it was also so complex that it was hard not to completely forget about strains of the plot when moving through the book, as she would completely drop them and pick up where she left hundreds of pages later, with relatively no continuity and sometimes randomly. The first half of the book is literal purgatory for Harry, and almost as much for the reader, who suffers with him and wishes to god for a bit of comic relief. Old characters, such as the centaur Firenze from the first book, return, with little to anything said about them to satisfy the reader's thirst, and though I understand why, being that there were so many other things the explain and tie up, this erks me. It was a good book, and alltogether much better than the wretched second, but I gave this one four stars, becauseit is not up to the standards of the other three, and was often given the distinct feeling that some parts could have been done much better, and that Rowling had been in a rush when writing it, and though it posses the potential of a great tapestry, it does not live up to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Make Us Wait Another Three Years!
Review: This was stunning! I was sucked in from the first page to the last. I have already heard some people complain that some were portrayed in a less than complementary light. But, it is so very consistant with the end of Book 4. I was more than pleased. I only want to know what's going to happen next!
Rating:
Summary: All I have to Say is WOW
Review: This has to be one of my new Favorites. The new attitude of harry really shows what he's going through. The twists and turns in the Plot from the very first chapter keep you turning the pages and not wanting to put it down. And once again J.K. Rowling delivers a great book, that makes you want the next one right now. I finished in a little under 9 hours, but I plan on reading it over and over again like all the other books
Rating:
Summary: After all the hype, a lull, or even a letdown
Review: I guess "ponderous" and "dark" best describe it. Gone are the moments of unadulterated (no pun intended) delight we experienced in the first couple of books. Evil is afoot. And a cast of well-intentioned misfits must confront it. In short, to paraphrase Steven Segall rather freely, "The anticipation of a novel is better than the novel itself".
Rating:
Summary: Good read for all 870 pages
Review: I went to the midnight release party Friday, was home by 12:30 and read the first 200 pages by 2 a.m. I finished up Sunday morning around 2 a.m. and it was an enjoyable read. The reviews that Harry is angrier and definitely more frustrated in this book are quite true. Very little seems to be going right for Harry this time around. So much happens over the summer, that the students don't even get back to Hogwarts until page 200! Harry meets dementors again, gets very close to getting expelled, doesn't make prefect, goes through the normal teenage angst of first date, needs to worry about his fifth year O.W.L.S., there's a new 'Grand Inquisitor' at Hogwarts threating to sack some of Harry's favorite professors, Hagrid is nowhere to be found for quite a bit in the book, several death eaters have escaped from Azkaban, no one believes Harry that Voldemort is back and Voldemort, is as usual, up to something evil and on top of all of this Harry has to take extra Occlumens lessons with his least favorite professor, Snivellus Snape. It was a good read, but I didn't overall find it as entrancing as book 4. It was far easier this time to put the book down and go do something else for a little while. I read The goblet of Fire in one night and didn't let anything else distract me. This one seemed to have so many subplots, it was tiring to read.
Rating:
Summary: Did you queue at midnight? We are glad we did...
Review: Order of the Phoenix was a brilliant read and an improvement on the Goblet of Fire, which needed better editing. Although the formula is still there (Start at the Dursleys, end of school year defeat of Voldemort) the elements have been well varied and a pleasing additional amount of back story included. The characters are more complex and Harry (who seems to be angry for a large part of the book) is growing, as he realises that his view of his father (and his hatred of Snape) needs to be reappraised. The story continues the darkening of tone begun in Azkaban and the wizarding world is now a more complex and political place than it may have seemed in the first few books. It is good to see the characters growing up and their perspectives adjusting. Although the writing style is still two-dimensional, the story and ideas made the book impossible to put down. JK Rowling has done amazingly well to come up with another book in this series which maintains such a hold on the reader. We are now reading it again. (PS contrary to the first reviews on BBC's Today programme, we thought the story got off to a gripping start, with a couple of surprises in the first 2 chapters.)
Rating:
Summary: A book that does not disappoint
Review: This book could have been the over-hyped book of the new century, the good news is that the hype generated was justified. There is a total of 766 pages which will take both the adult and younger readers some time to digest,but be assured, this book is well worth reading. I am not going to reveal any of the plot (only mean people do that), there is a death, but the character who dies is a surprise and also Harry finally learns a secret, so buy or borrow the book for yourself to find out what happens. I only managed to read this book so quickly by speed reading which took away some of the pleasure. I am now going to spend the day reading the book again from the start at a slower pace. Finally,I have to thank J. K. Rowling for creating a world for both childen and adults to enjoy. I get a great deal of pleasure out of reading and her books are among some of the best I have ever read. Continue the good work.
Rating:
Summary: Long Awaited - But Worth It!
Review: Like many others; I put Goblet of Fire down a couple of years ago; and asked "Okay; what happens now?" We finally get the answer in the latest book; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And it's quite a story. I'm not going to discuss plot details, since many folks do want to be un-spoiled. But I will say; you get to see a lot of old favorite characters again, like Sirius Black, Professor Lupin, as well as meeting quite possibly the clumsiest witch in literary history *GRIN* You can get the gist of the story from the editorial comments; but; here is one personal comment. I purchased the book at about 11am on Saturday, June 21st; I had finished all 870 pages of it by 8:30 that night. It is very fast reading; because you just have to see what happens next. Thankfully, the beginning sequence with the Dursleys is fairly brief, and livened up with a interesting conversation between Harry and the pig-boy. Get this book, read it, enjoy it!
Rating:
Summary: Very Dark
Review: TO start off with the book itself is huge! house brick size,lol. Yet again Rowling is able to capture you in the story and make it so you never want to leave the book alone. Like me who read it in 2 days! I do not want to ruin the story for anybody so all i will say is that the book is very dark but does have some extremely funny moments but i am looking forward to book 6 already.
Rating: 
Summary: Rowling was straining...
Review: And it shows. The pacing at points is very good, but too often there are long boring stretches; I don't mean the expositions of the previous books, either; I mean info-dumps that are not as well structured, and therefore, less enteraining. Harry has become quite whiny, even a little manic depressive, as puberty begins to take hold. This can deepen his character, but it is also bound to annoy. Much of Harry's charm has always been his easy-going attitude. The lessening of that aspect will no doubt bother some, as it bothered me, because Harry was slightly less sympathetic, and maybe a bit asympathetic. The smoothness of the previous books has also diminished somewhat; you can almost hear Rowling's labored breathing as struggled trying to add suspense to the scene when the big lummox gets whacked. The dialogue is often very stilted, and this was alarming to me. You'll notice it too, particuarly when Hermione is speaking. I hope Rowling didn't think she was writing a film script. Maybe the biggest problem is the lack of focus. The story goes off on several tangents, as usual, but unlike in the past, the "side-quests" as it were, are not integral to the story. This accounts for the bloated page-count. There was a lot of extraneous stuff going on. Maybe the most interesting thing is the new role of the house elves and how they will affect the fight with ole Voldie. Overall, OotP just isn't smooth. The thing about the series is that the writing has been so clean, so unfettered, that the reader became entire immersed. Now, too must of the story is throwaway tripe, stuff that should have been edited out or saved for the next book; God knows Rowling will need some ideas. There is some new stuff, but none of it is terribly interesting, barely enough to justify forcing 900-odd pages on readers. The only reason you should read this is if you've read the others books or plan to. In fact, if you even plan to read the others, don't even pick up this book. Don't even read the jacket. You'll be turned off from the series. This is easily the weakest book, style and content-wise. That shouldn't be surprising. Rowling did show signs of weakness when she repeatedly delayed the release date. The desperation shows in this book all too clearly. I only hope she can recover.
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