Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter, #6
First Published on July 6, 2005 by Scholastic Inc.
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 652
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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It is the middle of the summer, but there is an unseasonal mist pressing against the windowpanes. Harry Potter is waiting nervously in his bedroom at the Dursleys’ house in Privet Drive for a visit from Professor Dumbledore himself. One of the last times he saw the Headmaster was in a fierce one-to-one duel with Lord Voldemort, and Harry can’t quite believe that Professor Dumbledore will actually appear at the Dursleys’ of all places. Why is the Professor coming to visit him now? What is it that cannot wait until Harry returns to Hogwarts in a few weeks’ time? Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts has already got off to an unusual start, as the worlds of Muggle and magic start to intertwine…
Review
Just like The Goblet of Fire, this story didn’t start with Harry Potter’s point of view. It started with the conversation between the Muggle’s Prime Minister, Fudge and the latest Minister of the Ministry of Magic. After the revelations from the previous books, this one didn’t fail me at all considering that it doesn’t have my usual Harry Potter POV in its first chapter. Well, the resurrection of my 5 star rating is the evidence as you can see. *wink
After the saddened departure of Sirius Black from the previous book, this story sort of started a bit grim primarily for Harry because he’s as close as a father to him and I can’t help but really feel sad for him. But the grim feeling instantly wiped away from my memory when I reached the second chapter where Harry went to the Burrow to spend his remaining summer days before the new school term starts. Why’s that? Well, you can always count on the Weasley family to make you laugh. And I can’t believe I would still be able to enjoy this story even if the twins aren’t at Hogwarts anymore. I can’t even believe until now that Mrs. Weasley will approve of that, but seeing them now, I guess they are really doing great with their business eh?
I don’t have any memory of the film about this book, so all scenes we’re kind of surprising to me and I can’t really wait until I am finally able to finish this series and watch the movie again so I could finally compare. It was kinda sad though because I’ve grown some fondness for this series, and that being said, I’ll be sure to read more from J.K. Rowling for sure in no time haha.
Just like the previous book, this one also caters some scenes where almost all the main characters have a lovelife except for Hermione (because both her and Ron still can’t confess their feelings lol). And finally, Harry now noticed “something” between Ron and Hermione and that itself intensified my desire to read more. But unfortunately, they still didn’t confess their feelings lol. Gladly, Harry and Ginny are finally dating, ayyeeei! Back with the film, I am not really a fan of Ginny. I don’t know, but the only thing I remember from the film was that Harry and Ginny just happen. No sparks unlike Ron and Hermione. I am always a sucker for love-hate romance so no wonder I am always rooting for them lol, haha.
What I also like about reading all the books in this series is that, all makes sense now. I think it’s finally safe to say that I now know about Harry and Voldemort. On how they became mortal enemies and how Voldemort became a sucker for power. Also, reading the book makes me understand more of the characters, and how they feel about everything which is hard to notice when you’ve just watched the film and not reading the book. Like for example, how Harry finally starts to like Ginny more than a friend and ofcourse, I instantly became a fan of their love team because of that.
I don’t really want this review to be a total spoiler but I guess it’s going to be a bit well-known to everyone especially if they happen to have watched the film already. Which I think, I’m just the only one who failed to anticipate that at all. So when I reached “that ” scene, I was so surprised. Dang! What exactly am I talking about? Well, Dumbledore is dead. Huhu! I know ofcourse that he will be, but I thought it’ll be in the 7th book! And I can recall, it’s quite different from the film. I was so taken aback that I found myself crying until I was sobbing. Yep, I was sobbing like a baby who was deprived of her favorite candy. And remembering it now, I can’t help but get teary-eyed again. I never cried this hard even if I found out that Finch killed himself at All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven or when Will breathed his last at Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and much more to my surprise when they executed Ned at A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. And that alone should speak for itself why this book definitely deserves my 5-star rating even if one of my favorite characters was dead.
Now, there’s 1 more book for me to read to finish this series. But I guess I have to U-turn for a while because a friend of mine suggested that I will understand The Deathly Hollows more if I read the Tale of Beedle and the Bard first.
I can’t believe that it just took me 12 days to finish the 6 books in this series considering I have been busy with my day job lately, haha.
The Harry Potter series is really highly recommended and I can’t wait to discuss more about Harry Potter with you, haha. And I guess I can now finally say that I am officially a fan. *wink
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Dang girl you’re plowing right through these!
Hehe, yep
Wow, seeing the publication date makes me feel old. I was only ten when this book published, but I remember being SO excited about it. I think it ended up being my second least-favorite, but “least-favorite” is kind of relative because I really liked the series overall. My favorite was book two. 😀 I’m glad you’re enjoy this series! Wonderful review. =)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Thanks for stopping by Alyssa 🙂