Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is the sixth, and penultimate, book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. The series has followed Harry since he started at Hogwarts School for Wizardry and Witchcraft at the age of eleven, and now our teenage wizard friend is nearly 17, and in his second to last year at the school.
This book, as with all the others, has been eagerly awaited, particularly since the ending of the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, finished on a very dark note, with the return of Lord Voldemort, the most feared Dark Wizard in the world of magic, who was responsible for killing Harry's parents when he was one year old, and has been seeking to get to Harry ever since he survived the attack. The previous book also ended with the revelation of a prophecy which went some way to explaining why Voldemort has always been intent on killing Harry - who seemingly was just an ordinary wizard.
Once the title of book six was revealed, there was much speculation amongst fans and press as to the identity of the Half Blood Prince. All Rowling would say was that it was not Harry or Voldemort - and we were able to discount a few other characters by virtue of the fact that they were 'pure blood' - in other words born to a family of pure wizards - or 'Muggle born' - born to non-wizarding parents. Rowling tantalised us further, in similar style to the build up to book five, by telling us that a major character would die in book six - and again, there were huge amounts of speculation relating to this character's identity.
It was with some trepidation that I embarked upon this book. I had enjoyed all of the books in the series up to a point, but had found book five to be by far the weakest so far, with book four a close second to this. I was hoping that this was not the start of a downhill trend. The first three books in the series were classic children's fiction: well written, with fun characters who are brought to life in your imagination, and a sense of fun and camaraderie at Hogwarts School which was
reminiscent of Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers series, which I adored as a child. Books four and five, however, took some of the action away from Hogwarts, introduced darker, more adult themes, and were much lengthier than the original three books, as the ongoing story became more and more involved. I often couldn't help feeling that J. K. Rowling would benefit from a good editor, particularly as I ploughed my way through some 700 odd pages in book five, but that she was perhaps such a legendary figure that no one would dare to tell her that perhaps she needs to cut some of the waffle and get back to what she did so well in the first three books.
So, enough of the background. Let me talk about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
The book starts, as usual, with Harry back at his aunt and uncle's house for the summer holidays. His aunt and uncle are his legal guardians, but are suspicious of anything magical and do little to make Harry welcome during his visits home for the summer. Then, a visit from his headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, takes Harry back to his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Grainger, to spend the rest of the holidays at Ron's family's home before returning to Hogwarts for the school year. Even before the term starts, Harry's arch enemy, Draco Malfoy, is behaving strangely, and seems to be up to something with Harry's most hated teacher, Professor Snape. Harry is determined to find out what is happening, and tries to enlist the help of his friends.
Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore is disappearing regularly, despite the fact that he is now giving Harry regular private tuition, in which he is sharing knowledge with him to help Harry understand Lord Voldemort's history so that he is prepared if he ever comes to face his enemy. There is also a new teacher on the books of Hogwarts: Professor Horace Slughorn, an interesting character who seems to hold the key to what Dumbledore wants Harry to know. This year sees yet another teacher take up the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, a seemingly jinxed role, based on the fates of all the previous incumbents. However, this year Professor Snape finally gets to take on the role - one he has wanted for some years, but has seemingly never been trusted to take until now. Therefore, Slughorn is the new Potions master, and Harry seems to be making remarkable progress in the subject, thanks to a lucky find of an annotated text book, once belonging to a mysterious character who calls himself the Half Blood Prince…
Alongside all the excitement of the developing storyline, this time something else is developing too. Eagle-eyed readers will not have failed to notice the increasing bickering between Harry's two best friends, Ron and Hermione, which started in book four when Hermione got a boyfriend (visiting foreign student Viktor Krum) and gained momentum in book five. This reaches a crescendo in book six, and it is fairly plain to see that this teenage fighting is a symptom of the fact that the pair actually rather like each other. The course of true love, however, as always does not run smoothly, and when Ron gets together with another girl in the Gryffindor House, he and Hermione spend a large part of the year not speaking - making Harry's life even more difficult. More surprisingly, there also seems to be an attraction between Harry and his friend Ron's younger sister, Ginny. Once again, it seems destined not to be, as Ginny is going out with Harry's friend Dean Thomas, and we are left wondering as the story goes on whether the pair will ever get together. This budding romance did appear to come from nowhere, because although Ginny had a crush on Harry when she first joined Hogwarts, there was no prior warning of the relationship, unlike that between Ron and Hermione. I did wonder if it was just thrown in as an afterthought.
Story wise, this book is a return to form for the series. I found book five disappointing and heavy going, as the action moved slowly and a lot of new characters were introduced, with some of the old favourites sadly lacking, and a lot of the action taking place away from the school. Happily, this time we are back at Hogwarts for the majority of the tale, with very few new characters being introduced, and a few loose ends starting to be tied up as the saga moves towards its conclusion, book seven. The plot moves along nicely, although I did find the second half of the book to be more gripping, as the real action started. Throughout the first half, which took me about a week to get through, you get the feeling something big is going to happen, but it is only once you reach the half way point that you get an inkling of what it is, and really get drawn in. As a result, I zipped through the second half in a single day, finishing at 1 a.m., as I got to the point of no return where I knew I had to keep reading and wouldn't be happy until I got to the end!
The death, and the manner in which it happens, came as a shock, and this time, unlike the surprise death in book five, it did actually prove quite emotional. The identity of the Half Blood Prince was also a surprise, and the two revelations open up all manner of possibilities for an exciting conclusion in book seven.
Writing wise, I still feel that Rowling has lost the punchiness of her style in the first few books, and it does sometimes feel like it is a different person writing. She has a tendency to overuse adverbs, often seeming unable to tell us what someone is doing without also telling us how they are doing it, and occasionally I find myself reaching the end of a section and wondering how much of it was actually integral to the story, as she sometimes loses her way with waffle. Whilst it's nice to feel we know the characters intimately, there is sometimes too much time spent on fairly innocuous conversations, which detract from the excitement of the plot and make it more like a soap opera. I also feel that she herself has got so caught up in the Harry Potter saga that she forgets that each book is still a single story. There were a number of references which relied on the reader having read one or more of the preceding books to understand them - and it was this, in fact, that made me realised how much of book five I had skimmed through, as I myself struggled to remember something that was clearly a reference to what had happened in that book. Having finished book six I am now re-reading book five with renewed enthusiasm, in order to find out what I missed!
I also feel that Rowling is now trying too hard to appeal to the adult audience who enjoy her books so much. When she wrote the first few, she had no idea how popular they would become, or indeed that adults and children alike would enjoy them, so they are children's fiction through and through. Now, however, I can't help but notice certain references - particularly those to characters' emotions, and the three main characters' teenage angst - which are clearly aimed at the older market. These may well appeal to younger readers, or those who are growing up at the same time as Harry, but for me it takes away some of the magic. In some ways I almost wish that Harry never had to grow up - a bit like Enid Blyton's Famous Five, who remained 10, 11 and 12 years old, despite having 21 separate adventures, each of which took place in a school holiday, or the Mallory Towers girls, who despite progressing through all five years at school, retained their youthful enthusiasm for midnight feasts, horseriding and jolly japes, and never really discovered the delights of boys.
On the whole, however, I do feel this is a return to form for Rowling, and has left things well positioned for an exciting and satisfying finale - not to mention huge amounts of speculation and theorising by fans in the meantime. Let's hope she does it justice and we are not disappointed!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: | Compelling read | Reasonable story progression | Strongest in Series Disadvantages: Little action | A little too much dependence on reading previous books
Advantages: Very well written and accessible to all age groups. Good value for money Disadvantages: Once it's been read once, may not feel the need to read it again.
Aug 16th, 2005
exceptional by (11%):
very helpful by (88%):
helpful by (2%):
