Rating: 
Summary: FIVE STARS +++ BY FAR EXCEEDED MY EXPATATIONS
Review: HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.. TRUELY A NONE STOP ACTION STORY. I FELT LIKE I WAS ON A ROLLERCOASTER, IN A MAZE AND IN A FUN/HAUNTED HOUSE ALL AT THE SAME TIME.!! I HAD TROUBLE PUTTING THE BOOK DOWN.. EXCEPT FOR TWO THINGS (I AM A MOTHER OF THREE AND THE BOOK ITSELF, WAS TOO HEAVY TO HOLD) OR I WOULD HAVE NEVER STOPPED READING TILL I WAS FINISHED. SADLY... I FINISHED AND I WANT MORE! J.K. ROWLING..YOU BROKE MY HEART I CRIED AND CRIED. I NEVER WANTED TO READ AGAIN.. AND STILL COULDN'T STOP. I WAS COMPLETELY HEART BROKEN IN THE LAST FIVE CHAPTERS. YET I CAN'T HELP BUT THINK HOW HARD IT MUST HAVE BEEN FOR ROWLING TO LET SUCH AN IMPORTANT AND LOVABLE CHARACTER GO OUT OF HER LIFE.. HARRY HAD TO DEAL WITH GROWING UP FOR HIS FIRST TIME, INCLUDING THE REAL FRUSTRATION OF NOT GETTING EVERYTHING THE WAY YOU EXPTECT IT TO BE, AND FACING REALITY OR REALITY CAN BITE. THE BOOK WAS TRUELY RIVETING, I FIND MYSELF AT A LOSS FOR WORDS. PLEASE HURRY WITH THE NEXT STORY. I CAN'T HELP BUT BEG FOR IT I FEEL EMPTY ALREADY BUT I ONLY FINISHED READING IT YESTERDAY, AND HERE I AM LOOKING FOR REVIEWS SO I CAN DISCUSS MY FEELINGS AND OTHERS. I WILL GLADLY ALLOW MY CHILDREN TO ENJOY IT ALSO. AS NOT ONLY DO I HAVE THE BOOK X2 BUT ALSO A CD LISTENING ADDITION. SO WE ALL CAN CONTINUE TO ENJOY IT. MY CHILDREN WHICH RANGE FROM THE AGE OF 9-15 WILL BE VERY HAPPY, SAD, AND ALIVE AS I WAS FROM READING IT. I BELEIVE ITS ALSO AN EASY WAY FOR THEM TO FACE TRADGITY WITHOUT TRUELY HAVING TO BE THERE.. BUT AT THE SAME TIME THEY WILL FEEL IT. I KNOW THEY WILL ENJOY IT AS MUCH IF NOT MORE. ALSO REMEMBER THIS BOOK HAS TO FOLLOW ON THE SAME STORY PATTERN AND PLOTS AS THE FIRST FOUR, WHICH I WOULD FIND VERY HARD TO GET IT ALL IN ONE BOOK AS THE PLOT THICKENS AND MORE CHARACTERS AND INFORMATION COME TO A HEAD. YET SHE KEPT ME HAPPY AS SHE TOUCHED ON THESE CHARACTERS AND EVENTS. I TRUELY HOPE I DONT HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT STORY AS LONG AS THIS ONE.. I WOULD IMAGINE THAT WOULD BE HOW TOLKEINS READERS WERE WHEN THE HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS WERE BEING FIRST RELEASED. BUT I FOUND ROWLINGS ALSO OFFERED MORE INTERESTING STORYLINES IN HER BOOK SO YOU HAD TROUBLE KNOWING JUST WHEN YOU COULD STOP READING TO SAY.. EAT OR SLEEP OR MAKE SUPPER. THE BOOK ENDED IT IN SUCH A POSITIVE MANNER EVEN THOUGH I WAS SO SAD AT THE END. HARRY DEALT WITH THE DEATH OF A TRUELY IMPORTANT AND LOVABLE PERSON IN HIS LIFE AND HOW HE DEALT WITH IT, LEFT YOU SEEING AN EXAMPLE OF A REAL TEENAGERS CONFUSING REACTIONS. FROM BLAMING EVERYONE HE COULD AND QUESTIONING LIFE IN GENERAL.
IT WAS SO REAL, THAT I CAN'T HELP BUT FEEL, THAT IF I GO TO LONDON I WILL EVENTUALLY FIND A MISISTRY OF MAGIC. THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ YET AND I LOOK SO FORWARD TO THE NEXT..
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This was a great book. I finished it in 2 days. I just could not put it down. It's diffinatly worth buying. I am beyond impressed. The only thing is...It won't be an easy read for kids maybe 8 and under. The parents or older adults may have to help. However, the book is great. Harry has to go through some really hard times (as if his life wasn't hard enough) this time around. He suffers one of his greatest loses yet. Alot of questions about Harry and "He-who-must-not-be-named" are answered finally. Believe me I was in shock when i found out some of the answers. It a great book. There are so many funny parts in this book. I would burst out laughing and people walking by would just stare at me, it was great. GO BUY THE BOOK!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: All hype and no substance!
Review: The latest Harry Potter book is merely O.K. The author follows a familiar formula dictated by her first four books and it's getting a little tiresome. If the book was half as long, it would be much better. In book 6, you need to "cut to the chase," Ms. Rowling!
Rating: 
Summary: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Review: In general, it was a good book and it definitely took the story forward quite a bit. I do think that some judicious editing would have provided a tighter and better story. The Weasley's really get to shine in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: The best book yet - grabs you from the first pages and doesn't let go till the last. Too bad she can't write faster.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but lacking
Review: Along with millions of others, I waited with baited breath for Book 5 in the Harry Potter series ... I could have waited a couple of extra months for a better ending. While book 4 ended with the promise of future excitement, danger, battles, etc... the only thing to look forward to at the end of book 5 is Harry's grades on his O.W.L. exams. While we have gotten used to new and wonderful magical creatures, Hagrid's latest beast/relative was quite dissappointing and little more than a space-filler to make the book last longer. Harry's so called "coming-of-age", while realistically portraying a slightly moody and broody teenager, in the end left the reader with the opinion that he was more of a spoiled brat than the admirable underdog hero we have all come to know and love. It was made clear, both by his snooping into the pensieve in Professor Snape's office and at the end in the speach Dumbledore gave to Harry that Snape, despite his demeanor, is one of the good guys. Yet, out of a clear blue sky, Harry states that he will never forgive Snape. It really isn't clear what Snape did that needs forgiveness. The book ended with the reader feeling more sympathy towards Snape than Harry. In addition, the fact that due to Harry's "forgetfullness" in that he failed to open the package Sirius gave him until the end of the book, as well as his failure to listen to the people he should by now trust, Harry has no one to blame but himself for the fiasco in the Ministry of Magic. If he had listened to Sirius and Dumbledore, the death of a major character could have been easily prevented. As for the prophesy - if Harry continues in this vein, we will all know how book seven will end. On a lighter note, it was nice to see Ron and Neville gain some ground and grow in this installment. I'll definetly read book six, but would be willing to wait for the better writing and cohesiveness demonstrated in book four.
Rating:
Summary: Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
Review: This book was simply amazing. The hardcover is a little over nine-hundred pages. I received it on Saturday, started reading it on Sunday and was finished with it by Wednesday, four days! I couldn't put it down, my heart was in my throat every other chapter! If I had not had to work all day during the week, I beleive I would have finished it in two! Unfortunately I have to wait another few years for the next book! But I would never wish to rush JK Rowling's writing of the next story, the detail, and magic that she puts into every one of her pages makes the wait worth while. This book and every one of her other's are excellent reads that are highly enjoyable whether adult or child.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal!!!!
Review: The fifth book is every bit as captivating as the others. Once again we're drawn in to the magical world to experience Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. After witnessing Voldemort's return to power at the completion of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry returns to the Dudley's house on Privet Drive. He's frustrated by the lack of information given to him from his friends in the wizarding world and spends much of his time alone. When he does return to Hogwarts, he has to deal with not only the disbelief of the Ministry of Magic (that Voldemort has risen again) but that of his peers as well. Harry finds himself struggling with his anger about being kept in the dark about the Order of Phoenix and about the how terribly the year appears to be progressing at Hogwarts. As the plot thickens the chapters near the end start to get very fast paced and you're hanging off the edge of your seat until it's finally over and you regret that this installment has come to an end. It was disappointing that Harry didn't find Sirus' mirror until it was to late, but I loved the book and I can't wait for the next.
Rating:
Summary: If You're A Fan...
Review: ...then nothing I can say here will prevent you from purchasing this book and/or calling up a lynch mob against me for giving this latest volume of Harry Potter anything less than six stars (out of five). I am *not* a devoted fan of the Harry Potter novels. I find Rowling's blatant theft of concepts from many different sources (especially J.R.R. Tolkien) positively apalling. Pop Quiz: What evil villain was thought killed but in fact kept himself alive before making a triumphant return to power? One that does not permit his name to be spoken? Whose foul minions wear hoods with no faces underneath? Hmmmm..... That being said, any author who can keep young children with their miniscule attention spans gripped for over 800 pages and eager to read more is very worthy of praise. And Rowling, despite all her shortcomings in the originality department, is still capable of telling a ripping good yarn. In Book 5 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pre-Order, everyone's favorite young wizard becomes more and more of a teenager, and as a result, seems to throw temper tantrums with capitalized letters every five pages. At first it's nice to see the character going through teenage problems just like everyone else. Then it keeps happening. Again. And again. And when it happens once more at the end of the book, you throw up your hands in disgust, because it's just not even a remotely realistic decision. Yes, he's a teenager, as we all were, and he's "trying to find himself", but all his outbursts don't seem to lead to anything. The Boy Wonder's romance life fares no better, with the scenes lifeless after the first few encounters. No, there's nothing worse than kissing, for you purists and/or folks with young children, so don't worry. But overall, Harry's "darker tendancies" in his life in general only make him a main character harder to empathize with. In contrast, Rowling's secondary characters save the book. The new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher is obviously Rowling's take on Tolkien's Saruman and (simultaneously) the British government's educational system. She is also the first well-excecuted and palpable villain in Rowling's work, a character everyone will love to hate. Harry's venemous Professor of Potions also has a chapter that makes the book in which Harry's assumptions about everything are wonderfully challenged in the only really thought-provoking sequence in the book. Harry's godfather Sirius and his other buddies Ron and Hermoine continue being themselves, which is fine in most people's books. Rowling promised her fans a terrible death in Book 5, and it happens, as she kills off one of her well-written characters who gets a much better lease on life shortly before his or her demise in this volume. Sadly it happens in a sequence that feels rushed, with the death wedged between two gigantic battle sequences, and you're left with the feeling that if they were a character Rowling cared so much about, they deserved better. The one other promise Rowling's Dumbledore made to Harry in ads for the book was the promise to tell him "everything". And he does. And it's boring and nothing the drooling fans didn't already know. The one possible piece of intregue, the possibility that The Boy Who Lived is *not* the predestined enemy of evil, is explained away so that nothing interesting comes out of it. In the end, it is Rowling's secondary characters and stories that keep the life of this massive monster going, even though it could still stand to lose around 300 pages, especially towards the beginning. If you're a rabid fan, you'll find stuff to enjoy. But if you're like me, you might find it interesting, but you probably shouldn't pay between twenty and thirty bucks for it. Do what I did. Borrow it from your kid brother/sister or some other young relative.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!
Review: this book starts out exicting and countuines that way.first the demtors then, harry getting in trouble. then goes on to harry's love life with Cho. then his visions, which leads realizism. yet, in this book harry's is really edgy and in the end, it's soooooo sad. so everyone read this book it's awesome!! there is, new twists and turns and the "scrumbag" defense against the dark art teacher.
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