Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [amazon]
Author: J.K. Rowling
Publisher: Scholastic; 2nd edition (June 21, 2003)
Pages: 870
Book Number: 27

Finally! After much chipping away at this mountain of a book, I finished it last night. It took me much longer to finish this one, mostly thanks to school. The bulk of my reading during the day has been for class, and so Potter and Co. had to be relegated to bedtime reading. A major negative point about it taking me so long to finish this one up is that, truth be told, I can’t remember much from the beginning at all! Anyway:

Like all of the other Potter books, I quite enjoyed this one. It’s been enjoyable to watch Harry and friends age through the series - even if not all of the characteristics that have come forth from that aging have been, shall we say, positive. I mentioned something to my friend Joshua almost right away when I started reading Order of the Phoenix: Harry is becoming more and more whiney. Sure, he has reasons to be a bit grumpy at times, but damn does he have a temper. There were a few points in the book where I wished Ron or Hermione would give him a good slap, to snap him out of his raging about like a baffoon. I get that Rowling was trying to show his “coming of age” and the associated hormonal - issues? - but I think it was a bit over the top.

Other assorted, bullet-point style thoughts:

• Hagrid really topped himself this time. Dragging home a giant, and hiding it in the forest - nice. Hagrid is definitely one of those characters I wish were real, so I could hang out with him. Great guy, great fun.
• Umbridge! Argh! Bitch of a woman! She definitely got was coming to her near the end of the book. There was definitely a point in the book at which I thought she was going to get away with being horrible, and not have to pay any consequences for it. Luckily, the centaurs took care of that.
• Definitely saw a darkening of the overall mood of the series in this book. It seems that more and more talk of death and murder came up in this one, along with other general nastiness. Filch, for example, clamoring to whip Fred and George? I can’t really imagine that being in the first book.
• I chuckled a great deal with how Rowling dealt with the students’ emerging relationship interests. I loved how Ron and Hermione (who I know “get together” later on) were constantly bickering like a married couple. I also laughed a bit at how Harry’s struggles with Cho were described.
• The prophecy about Voldemort and Harry explained a great deal (and it was about time!) I can definitely see why Harry and Voldemort both end up dying (grumble, grumble about stumbling on that spoiler!)
• This note is specifically at Cas: nope, sorry! The more I read, the less and less I picture Dumbledore as the Michael Gambon version. Richard Harris’ version was (in my opinion, obviously!) much, much better. Michael Gambon is just too weird with the part. His portrayal makes Dumbledore look like some wizard who is persistently high or something. Oh well. Not like we have much choice, seeing as Harris is dead.
• I can’t believe Sirius is dead. As I get closer to the end of the series, I expect people to start dying - it’s inevitable - but I did not expect Sirius to die. Is that weird archway thing that he fell through explained in Half Prince or Deathly Hallows?
• Noseblood Nougats sound so disgusting. Makes me want to never eat a candy bar with nougat in it again. Puking Pastilles don’t bother me much, for some reason.

I’ve already started reading Half-Blood Prince (indeed, I’m already 150 pages into it), and I must say: dirty, slimey bastard! Snape’s been spying on Dumbledore all this time! And I liked him! Ugh!