(no subject)
Did another OotP review about an hour after finishing the book, but have now deleted it. Someone really ought to warn me against posting a review less than ten minutes after finishing a book in which one of my favorite characters has just died. Have re-read review and think most of what I said was unfair, and some of it was fair. Anyway, I'm going to do this again, from the beginning and with an actual structure.
*
OotP was far more, and far less than I expected from JKR. Some moments were so brilliant concieved that I could actually believe this book was the one we were waiting for. But at times, I felt like we were reading a particularily difficult piece of fanfiction. But then again, so much of it was so wonderful that you just had to love it all. Really.
For the first time in my own living memory, I can feel myself actually apprieciating the Dursleys. Everything from Dudley smoking (all hail Muggle realism) to the realised that fact that, at the end of the day, Petunia is Lily Potter-Evans's sister. Vernon is well...Vernon- but the other two were so changed that I loved it. Dudley is now a teenager who seems to have lost some of that childish arrogance but has now replaced it with two layers of secret rebellion. I loved how, for the first time, we could actually feel a connection between Petunia and Harry. It was brilliant.
The Order: Oh how I wish fort ehm to be my extended family. I was so happy to see Lupin again, and so glad that we actually see more of Moody, and loved Tonks and Mundungus Fletcher to bits. On a similiar note Mrs Figg being a squid was such a brilliant plot turn that I really felt like laughing. Grimmauld place was like the Malfoy Manor we all know and love- only here they could actually find their way around, and Kreacher was...well I'll continue that later. I will love to see how important the Order becomes in the next two books, and even more interested in how they all react to Sirius's death, as that was not evaluated upon at all in this book.
Harry's anger: For the first half of the book, I think a bit overdone. I couldn't emphasize with him at all, and he seemed a bit spoilt, if you asked me. The strange thing is that in this book, he seemed a lot more selfish though trying to be un-selfish. When he heard that Voldemort might be possesing him, his heroics with trying to run away seemed like a kid sulking after someone tells him off. However, it mellowed down after that, and became a lot more powerful. His distruction of Dumbledore's office was a bit...off I found, but after all, he had a good cause.
Luna Lovegood: Love her to pieces. She was one of the best new characters this book bought around to us, and I can see lots of Harry/Luna in the future. Although I will admit that when I read the chapter title I thought it was the name of a bad romance novelist.
Unbridge: Oh how I LOVED to hate her. What I loved best was the fact that, when she wanted all that control, she lost it. What I loved was that at the beginning, she just RADIATED with power, and then the more she tried to get, the less she actually got. I loved the scenes where there is literally no control over the students after Dumbledore leaves. She represented the impotency of the Ministry so forcibly that you just had to hate her- what teacher cuts lines into the hand of the one person who could save them all, gives them a lifelong ban on Quidditch, and dult refuses to see how useless she is, and yet gives ammends to the kid of a death eater. The end of her rule at Hogwarts was wholy satisfying, and I'm happy for that. JKR could have made so little of that, but she didn't.
Percy: Ah my little fucktard, how I love you. I loved how JK made his nonchalance towards his family just sort of pop out, finally. His ambition was obvious very early on, and I don't think any of us couldn't help but feel angry towards him when he sent back the jumper. I'd like to see how it goes from here, as his parents, as members of the Order, will v.obviously becoming more powerful. Bastard.
The hearing: Oh how fabulous it was. All these authorative figures losing total control over a little school kid going back to school was fantastic. All this time I though Susan Bones was sort of another tragic heroine type person, but no longer. I'm starting to really like that girl. I thought the whole thing with Lucius was rather forshaddowing too, though I have no idea what for.
Sorting hat song... it was wonderful...simply wonderful...a real ray of hope for all us redeemed!draco fans... loved it half to death. Think is forboding to next two books too. Look forwards to those.
Harry/Cho: Loved it. Harry's first relationship and it's haunted by the dead. It was so remeniscent of what his life is really like that I had to applaud JK for that. It is the end of Harry/Cho though, and I was shocked to even have it there. *pats*
Harry/Hermione: Alright, there were traces of it. The strange thing is that it seemed to be more their physical relationship that matured more than anything. I liked how JK described how held onto each other, and Cho's jealousy. Loved it loved it loved it.
No Ron/Hermione: *dances*
Ginny: Alright, I'll tell the truth now. I actually liked her. She was a very very good character and I enjoyed reading about her a lot. I am, admittedly, disappointed that JK did so little with her connection with Voldemort, but I can still hope that we'll see some more of that later.
Luna: WORD!
Neville: WORD!
Hermione: Strange thing about her is that even though she has admittedly loosened up on the whole school rule thing, she doesn't seem to have done anything about her obsession with grades. That was one thing that really irritated me: she had loosened up enough to willingly kill and maim a teacher at a the centaurs hands, but not enough to not give Harry and Ron homework planners for their birthdays. *shakes head*. There were a few odd things about her too. When Harry explains to her how Cho went balistic after he asked not to talk about Cedric, she sounds like she has a good handle on human emotions. But when Sirius died, she REALLY wants to talk about it. That struck me as offensive, and slightly unprocrytical.
Ron: The fact that irritated me the most was how in one year, all four of the remaining memebers of the Weasley family were on the Quidditch teach. The odds of that happening are 2/150, and really quite ludicrous. I loved how he was a prefect though, and how he got a bit of attention for once. It struck me as cruel when Dumbledore basically told Harry that he would have been prefect if he wasn't meant to save the world sometime in the next few years. I still don't like Ron, and I'm surprised at how little material he got. I did love the british slang that they'be introduced though, bloody brilliant. (Hermione 'swearing' was quite funny).
Draco: I have, as of this instant, almost completely given up on redeemed!Draco. We all know his promise to make Harry pay for getting his father landed in jail is going to be important, and we all also know that there is absolutely no chance of Draco changing anytime soon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for book seven, but I think that whatever JK does, she'll want Harry to get revenge on Draco for years of torment. If we look at it, she does that a lot- Harry always seems to get revenge on a particularily annoying character who is not an essential bode to the plot, for reader satisfaction. But no matter. As long as he doesn't die he will always be mine to abuse in fics. <3
Kreacher: That was really really interesting. It was funny how JK seemed to want to make us more empathic to house elves with Winky and Dobby, and then sort of destroyed it all with this horrible elf. But then again, it was sort of symbolic to how very much they are like human beings. Kreacher had the disposition to become evil, and he did. That is just like everyonne on our earth, regardless of race, gender, or nationality. It was a truly brilliant piece of work.
The Thestralls: I LOVED them....really really loved them. If I had a pet, I would want a Thestrall. (creates christimas list: Dear Santa,
Here is what I want for christmas
A thestrall
A thestrall
A thestrall
A thestrall
A thestrall
A thestrall.
Thank you!)
The prophecy: In comparison to the other theories that were running about on the net, this explanation for Voldemort wanting Harry is much more...adaptable, shall we say. No, I don't think that it told us anything we didn't know. Harry will be the one to either kill, or be killed, by Voldemort, and there is next to nothing that we can do about that. But, at the end of the day, it is far simpler than the prophecies made that conjoin Gryffindor and Slytherin in all this, or Voldemort being bloody Harry's dad. It is a lot more simpler, and we can do a lot with it. It's good.
Sneek peek into the Maurauders's world: I really, really hated James Potter. He was the school bully who was adored by all, and hated by his futute wife, and his future mortal enemy. I can see traces of myself, sadly, in James's bigheadedness. Lily seems nice enough though, thankfully, and I can definately see hopes for a redeemed!Snape through his. I think, also, that the Occlumency scenes leave lots of material for the Snape/Harry fans, and I did really love that. Also loved Wormtails slightly gay fascination with Prongs.
The general plot: PWP all the way, in my opinion. I have nothing to say more. There was no plot to speak of, and no mystery involved. I am a bit disappointed by that.
Sirius's death: Oh how it HURT. I actually cried. Like the whole full on deep sobbing curling into a ball tear stained quilt though. It was so powerful that anybody who didn't cry can be considered dead by three standards. But th brutality of it all came from one fact. It's Harry's fault. Harry went out hoping to save his godfather, and in the endm he turned out to be the cause of his death. JK described the flow of his emotions beautifully, and strangely enough, even though I knew that he was dead and there was no going back, I found myself being in denial along with him.
All in all, I did enjoy it. Maybe not as much as I enjoyed GoF, but I enjoyed it. Bring on the sequels, darling.