Rating: 
Summary: Exceeds expectations
Review: This book delivers. It was worth the wait. There is a possibility that the style may be different to what many readers were expecting, but in my opinion, that is a strength - I think it would be unrealistic to expect Harry's life to continue in the way it had before.I do have some concerns about continuity issues with the previous books, but these did not detract from my overall enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: Wanted to be the 1st
Review: Wanted to be the first.....I bought this at 12:01 am EST, just finished it, thought it was great, now, I'm going to bed!!! North Attleboro, MA
Rating:
Summary: She has kept up her end...
Review: For a fifth book in a series so highly scrutinized, J.K. Rowling has not disappointed us. I only wonder how she plans on ending this historical series in just two books.
Rating:
Summary: oh my god
Review: This is amazing. I didnt know i could read that fast. wow. you know it. you love it. wow
Rating: 
Summary: Just like the others
Review: I am amazed - but I shouldn't be. This book is no more and no less (at least, by volume) than the others. And its ... how many? six? No, five books now. It's very easy to speed read this, but I didn't do that. I actually took the time to read the whole, ponderous first chapter to my kids, who, one by one, wandered off to bed, leaving eventually my older son, who gave up in some sense by making a cup of tea, probably out of desperation. This book is undoubtedly a product of the times- this is a world, forsooth, where a white knuckle drunk could become president,and actually did, of course - and an England where a guy who failed his bar exams could become Prime Minister, and start rewriting a constitution he doesn't even understand - and where an idiot footballer can have the respect usualy accorded to Ghandi, or Einstein, maybe both at the same time. Also, and more relevantly, a badly written book can attract massive hype for NO good reason - kids that read Harry Potter are described as being "woken up to books", of all things.Yes, Harry Potter books to be sure, buts thats a little narrow for the demands of a harsh world. Written in a state of profound depression in a cafe that still haunts her, the book has done little for the authors feelings that working through a cook book or car maintenance manual wouldn't have done. If in doubt read the latest tragic interview. In a world where almost everything without exception has been levelled down to the height of 1 mm, someone 2mm high appears to be a giant. We are in unique times, where nothing is sustainable, where nearly everyone has forgotten how to build bridges, or write novels, or look after kids, run a country, balance the books, where nearly everyone has a degree, albeit a meaningless one, and where JK Rowling can make money out of Harry Potter...
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Summary: Read The Whole Thing In One Night!!!
Review: I love this book. When I read this book, it completely transports me to another dimension. ...
Rating:
Summary: A great read!!
Review: The fifth and thickest book in the popular series, The Order of the Phoenix brings about our hero Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. After witnessing the return of He - Who- Must-Not-Be-Named, Harry is faced by the task of alerting the wizarding world of the dangers lurking around. Being enjoyed by tabloid writers, he is now pictured as a lunatic, struggling in his subjects in school plus the continues blasts from the press. He though finds strength in his friends to overcome this evil and finally succeeds and escapes again from certain death brought forth by the Dark Lord. This chapter of Harry's life is one that is darker and more mature. Here,we see the wholeness of the series starting to take shape, answering questions left unanswered after closing the previous books in the series. As Harry is brighter and braver, the growing threat of the antagonist also grows more vile than before. Voldemort, now equipped with a body, possessess our hero!! Also, the book takes twists into showing how unreliable the once honored Ministry of Magic is. The school also, which was once a beacon of hope, now falls into evil's hands and itself is faced into decay with the sitting of the new headmaster bent on making Harry's life hell, thus preventing his message of Voldemort's return impossible to be announced. The richest book, yes I think so. The characters are well written and come alive with vivid descriptions. More adult themes appear in this book, pain, anger, and rebellion. Death also come in this with the passing of some one special to our characters and dominates the final emotion of the book. Readers will speed through the 870+ pages of this book, wishing only for the next one to arrive.
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Summary: Can't wait for the movie...
Review: I'm a huge fan of the horror genre and am a huge King fanatic, but I couldn't resist reading this book after seeing the Third film. I'm 17 and I found unbelievable that these books are aimed at 9-12 yr olds. The vocabulary is fantasic and Ms Rowling is quite an inticing writer.
I should have read the fourth book first, that's a little advice for the rest of ye, because now I know the general outcome of that book - so I think I'll wait for the fourth film rather than read it.
Anyway, being such a huge King fan, I can't help comparing different writers to him. He is - to me - the best writer in the world, just just at horror but at everything, and I found J.K Rowling right up his alley. She's brilliant, the book's brilliant, cant wait for the film!!! :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but dark
Review: There's a good reason most of us cannot recall being 15 very well and the latest Harry Potter book will show you why: his heroic behavior is being marred by hormones that make him confused, angry, and irrational. The blue cover should give you an idea of the darkness of this 5th and darkest year of Harry's schooling at Hogwarts. I was so enraptured by reading book #4, Goblet of Fire, that I paid the $30 to get an advanced hardback copy of this book. I would advise against that; it's not worth it, but is worth reading. It's nearly as long, about 700 pages, but you'll find yourself wizzing through them. The author balances action with description and lets her imagination run wild with this fantasy world. The dark tone of this book and the surprising twists will have you anxiously reading to find a good place to stop, but the evil does not let up until the final pages. Phoenixes, like the human spirit, rise perpetually, and in this book we get some long overdue explanations, but at the cost of someone's life. In this book, Harry has a complete reversal of fortune and becomes the laughing stock of the school. New characters are introduced, there is some serious espionage in this book, and the book mainly centers on the war between the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. We learn much in this book and even get to see Harry's dad who is less the saint then Harry has been told. The book also seems to be a scathing social commentary, in typical English style, against the government and the media. In this episode, they suddenly become unthinkably evil, twisting facts, commiting gross injustices, physically hurting people, and manipulating public sentiment. In this novel, the good guys get put on trial for crime, and it is mindboggling. Overall, a very imaginative book, different in tone from the rest, that both captures teenage angst and the disruption to daily life caused by the Dark Lord. If you love the series, buy it but don't rush to do so. It's not as good a read as the other books, and is very dark, almost depressing. It's all bad news until the last few pages, and the kids cause some terrible trouble this time. I have always taken issue with these stories as "childrens literature" for their moral content and bad role models. These kids break rules, lie, sneak around, and singlehandedly confront the dark lord on a regular basis. Perhaps this is why China has banned the books. Well, I think that Rawling has simply put aside these moral issues to tell a good, compelling, imaginative story. Harry is not every man, he is a very special kid, a sort of christlike lowliest child. If the kids were constantly telling Dumbledore what was going on, the story would get dull. In this book, you get a good sense of how annoying it is to constantly have adults intercede. And of course the overall moral tale is that good always triumphs over evil. In the end, it is for parents, not books to teach values.
Rating:
Summary: Gets better every time I read it
Review: Other reviews have hit this nail on the head. After my first marathon reading of Phoenix, I wasn't thrilled with it. It was entertaining, sure, but I was dissatisfied with the characters--especially Harry. He had a bad attitude, did stupid things, and generally annoyed me. The next time I read Phoenix, however, I was able to appreciate Rowling's brilliant character development, and the plot twists that I had at first rejected as contrived made sense in light of my new understanding. (If I read this book enough, it might eventually become my second favorite of the series--after Azkaban.)
Why did I have a hard time with Harry? Because he's an angry adolescent, of course. And why shouldn't he be? He's a 15-year-old orphan with an abusive home life. He's always in danger, under constant (often malevolent) scrutiny, and is gradually discovering that the adults in his life are just as fallible as he. Rowling portrays that beautifully, letting him grow up with all the awkwardness and angst we all felt at that age. She allows him to make mistakes, based on his own arrogance, fear, mistrust, and sheer bloody-mindedness--and some of those mistakes have dire consequences. That's life, people.
With each book, Rowling's characters become more nuanced and complex. As Harry matures, his charming, enchanted black/white world of Book 1 starts to show its gray areas (both sinister and mundane), and Rowling reveals them to us as they are revealed to Harry. Better still, if you reread the earlier books, you realize that those gray areas were there all along (eg. the thestrals, Sirius' hamartia). Rowling's ability to keep her readers in the mind of--and see through the eyes of--a child, while at the same time maintaining the omniscience of a third-person narrator, is a rare skill, indeed. I can't wait for Book 6.
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