How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Quite good
Advantages:
Something to do
Disadvantages:
Failed to keep me captivated
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Warning to all non-Harry Potter fans, you may get slightly baffled reading this op as I am not going to include much background information to Harry Potter as it will just sound like I’m droning on and on and repetitive for those that have read my previous op’s.
Unsurprisingly, the book again opens up with Harry staying with his only living relatives, the Dursley’s during his Summer Holiday. Harry has never enjoyed coming back here because the Dursley’s never hid the fact that they thought looking after Harry was a burden and thought him weird because he was a wizard. This year was worse though because during the last book, Harry’s arch enemy, Voldemort had re-appeared. He spent most of the summer reading the wizard’s newspaper and listening to the muggle’s news. He felt really frustrated as Voldemort was the most dangerous wizard in the world and Harry had no knowledge of where he might be or when he would come and try to kill him again. What made it worse though was that he knew that his two best friends were keeping a secret that involved him but due to circumstances, they were unable to provide him with any information.
Feeling annoyed, bothered and upset one night, Harry went for a walk to think. On his way back he bumped into his cousin and had momentarily forgotten his troubles. He used the time to bully his cousin and make fun of him like he had done to Harry for the majority of his childhood. While this all took place, two dementors had blacked out an alley where they were walking and tried to kill them. Luckily for Harry, during his third year at Hogwarts, the school for wizard and witches, a professor had taught him how to do a spell that only advanced wizards are able to perform and the only one that would prevent dementors from nearing them. After returning to the Dursley household, his aunt and uncle thought that Harry had used magic on their precious son and proceeded into a rant to hear the full story of what had happened. Not only this but Harry also received a letter from the Ministry of Magic moments later letting him know that he had been expelled from Hogwarts, someone was due to visit him shortly to destroy his wand and he was due at a trial for breaching the law, (underage wizards are not to use magic outside the school). After explaining what had happened to his family, his uncle was about to throw Harry out when a letter arrived from a fellow wizard to his aunt, which for some strange reason, it persuaded her to let Harry stay. After several days, the Dursley’s had been invited to an awards ceremony and left Harry alone in the house when a large number of wizards came to collect Harry and take him away to the Order of Phoenix.
So, here comes the million questions... What is the Order of Phoenix? Will Harry be able to return to Hogwarts? Where is Voldemort and what is he planning to do? What is this secret that Ron and Hermione are keeping from him? Who is the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this year? Why is Hagrid permanently injured and why did it take him so long to return to Hogwarts? Why is Dumbledore keeping himself away from Harry? Who is the new quidditch captain for Gryffindor? Will Harry finally get together with his love? Will Fred and George fulfill their dream of opening up a joke shop? Too many questions and too little space to provide you with all the answers! Think about it, if I answer all questions it will take up about 700 pages and that’s the length of the book so you might as well read that!
Verdict: Unlike the other books, this one has failed to keep me as captivated. I felt that the story had dragged on a bit and it took me a while to finally get into the storyline. Although, the introduction of the Order and new characters were relevant, it was almost near the last third of the book before Voldemort was put into action again. Rowling had kept me wondering why Harry’s scar kept causing him so much pain as this was a direct link to Voldemort but it happened once too many times and towards to the end, I was tempted to jump a few chapters and get to the relevant parts of the story.
Neville really stuck out in my mind in this book as usually he is just a passing name but this time round, he played a vital part, even larger than Harry’s two side-kicks, Hermione and Ron. Neville has been portrayed in previous books as a wimp, someone that everyone laughs at, always forgetting things and not very bright. Here, he has been given the chance to prove that he is not the nobody that everyone thinks he is and shows true friendship and love for his family.
As the years have gone by, Rowling has written the book as if the audience was roughly the same age as Harry. Therefore, I feel that she may have neglected the fact that even though the first few books were written in a very simplified manner suitable for the age of around 10 (when Harry was first introduced), younger children who are more able to read them now than they were a few years back may start to struggle with the last two in the series. Take my cousin for example, he has just turned 11, like me, he read the first three books in a matter of days. Since the latest books have been far longer, he has struggled to keep up with the collection. I feel that if she wants Harry to remain the legend that she has portrayed him to be and keep her young audience happy, she has to restrict her books to a certain level that many ages would understand and enjoy. It feels to me that, just because Harry’s age has progressed on, Rowling assumes the audience would be the same age as Harry, take this book for example, Harry is 15 and if she writes in the manner suitable for13 year olds, a lot of children between the ages of 8-13 have had to miss out for a few years.
Saying that though, I still do praise Rowling for her writing skills in general. There are some people who are aware of the order that the books should be read in but sometimes circumstances permit them from reading in that order and the way she has written the books have been very clever. She reminds people subtly of what happened previously, enough information for new readers that had not read previous books but also not too much to make it seem like we are reading the same story again.
I can’t say that I’m looking forward to reading the next two books due out, as this one was a bit of a failure in my eyes. Maybe the novelty of Harry has worn off as I believe the craze is definitely not as strong as I once saw. I will probably read them but I can’t guarantee that I will enjoy them as I once did.
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