Fan-Lit: Review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Review of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling

Even though I didn't see “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” in theaters, I made sure to see the sixth movie on the big screen. While I didn't like the Order of the Phoenix (when I did see it on DVD), I came out of the theaters loving the Half-Blood Prince. Now that I've read the books, I can see why I didn't like the fifth movie. However, after reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, I found that I loved that book and the movie took out the things that I loved. The movie “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is more in line with the book with the exception that the movie cut out the beginning with Durselys and every thing with the new Minister of Magic.

One of the things that I loved about this book, is that we get a better sense of feeling that Harry, Ron and Hermione are growing into young adults. Which includes showing their romantic feelings and relationships. The last two books sort of dealt with that, by having Harry crush on Cho, but in this book, the trio's love lives, plus Ginny's, are on full display. I still think Harry's crush on Ginny comes out of nowhere, but I really like how Rowling handled Hermione's jealousy over Ron dating Lavender. I've never been a fan of Ron and Hermione in the movies, but the books do a slightly better job at building their relationship as more than friends. While it's very obvious to have Harry and Hermione become a couple, I love that they are platonic friends who love each other, but not in a romantic way.

The other focus in the book is learning more about Lord Voldemort. Even though Voldemort is not an active antagonist in this book, his presence remains constant through learning about his family history and his upbringing. While none of this excuses Tom Riddle's actions, it gives the reader an insight into his psychology and how he grew up with nothing but feelings of hatred. It allows the reader as well as the characters to understand Voldemort and hopefully use that information to defeat him. The introduction of the Horcuxes is a great device that ties into the other books, and sets up the final book.

There are only a few new characters introduced in this book, the best one being professor Slughorn. A goofy man obsessed with collecting extraordinary students as a part of boosting his pride and social status. It was a great change of pace to have the new teacher not teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. The sort of love interest for Hermione this book is Cormac Mclaggan, a brash young man eager to replace Ron on the quidditch team and date Hermione. The movie version of Cormac is better, but still not a likable character. Another new character is the new Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. The book provides a bit more information about how the Minister of Magic works with the Prime Minister of the muggle world. Scrimgeour is very different from his predecessor Cornelius Fudge, but we don't get enough of him and he has no impact on the main plot of the story

While the title's of each of the Harry Potter books have a direct relevance to the plot of each book; the half-blood prince is really a book about Harry learning about Lord Voldemort. The potions book belonging to the half-blood prince is sort of a side story for the trio in between Harry's lessons with Dumbledore. It's not until the end of the book that we get the reveal of who the half-blood prince is, and why that's important to the plot. This is not something that the previous books did, the title of the books always came into play or were alluded to early on in the previous books. It's a clever yet sort of obvious twist to have Snape be the half-blood prince. I did like seeing Harry succeed in potions class as a result of using Snape's own recipes. Especially since Snape isn't teaching this potions class. It's a nice bit of irony for Harry and Snape.

I like the opening of this book with Dumbledore meeting the Dursleys because we learn that aunt Petunia made a promise to Dumbledore to let Harry stay. Dumbledore put a protection on the Dursley house that will keep Harry hidden and safe from Lord Voldemort. This scene feels a continuation from the beginning of the last book when Dumbledore sent aunt Petunia a letter.

I really enjoyed this book, but not as much as the previous one. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince does a great job setting up the stakes for the final installment in the series, while doing a good job focusing on the main trio transitioning from teenagers to young adults. I've enjoyed all of the books thus far, so I'm looking forward to reading the last book.

Thank you for reading, and be sure to check back every week as I continue to dive into the wizarding world. Next is “Short Stories from Hogwarts Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists.” So stay tuned to the blog for new posts every week until Christmas! Be sure to leave a comment or feedback to help improve the blog. Thanks for reading, and be sure to follow the blog on social media for all the updates.