Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Pages: 652

We're almost to the end of our Wonderful Week but, we still have a little ways to go. Reading the sixth book was almost better than reading some of the other books because for some reason I don't read the last books (excluding the Order of the Phoenix) as much as the first few. So there's a few more surprises. For instance, I had forgotten that Lavender and Ron had a thing going on. This should be interesting.

One thing I have noticed throughout all the books that there is one small phrase that J. K. Rowling says all the time. It's in the dialogue tags. She often says that two characters say something at the same time. I noticed this getting worse in the fifth book and it continued on into the sixth. It wasn't as bad in this book as it generally seems to occur when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are talking and for a big part of this book Ron and Hermione are fighting (about the Lavender thing that I mentioned already). I do realize that over hundreds of pages you do have to use the same phrase twice but, if it's noticeable, that may be something to work on in the future (wouldn't it be great if you started writing again?)

This is the book the Horocruxes are first introduced in (if you don't count Chamber of Secrets). I personally think that it's a bit of a major part of the story to have waited so long into the series to write about it but it worked out fine in the end. I do understand why she did it this way. It would be kind of predictable if, in every book, Harry found a Horocrux and destroyed it. I'm sort of glad she did it this way though the discovery of all the different Horocruxes seems a little rushed to me.

Dumbledore dies in this book as well. I don't really know how that makes me feel. I can't decide if I like Dumbledore or not. I know this sounds crazy. Half the time I think he's awesome but there are certain parts where he kind of bugs me. For instance when he snaps at Harry about Snape. Even though we all know Snape wasn't truly evil his tone and speech grate on my nerves. The other scene is when he's talking to Harry after discovering that Harry did not retrieve the memory. I realize he was disappointed but what he says just makes me sort of angry. I have conflicted feelings about the greatest wizard who ever lived.

Overall, this is a great lead in to the end. It shows tragedy but great expressions of love. I definitely like that scene where Fleur is talking about how she will still love Bill even though his face is scarred (pg. 622-623). It shows the changes in Harry quite nicely, I leave it up to you to decide whether those changes were good or bad.

The next book in this Wonderful Week -cough- Month -cough- of Harry Potter is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

P.S. I do know that today is Thursday and I'm supposed to have Poetry Peak but I don't have a poem ready (I know, I'm pathetic) and I'll be at Lizzie's house all weekend for her birthday.