Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Review

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, # 6)

By: JK Rowling

Expected Publication: July 2005 by Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic

652 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic

Source: Personal Library

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Goodreads description--When Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens, the war against Voldemort has begun. The Wizarding world has split down the middle, and as the casualties mount, the effects even spill over onto the Muggles. Dumbledore is away from Hogwarts for long periods, and the Order of the Phoenix has suffered grievous losses. And yet, as in all wars, life goes on.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione, having passed their O.W.L. level exams, start on their specialist N.E.W.T. courses. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate, losing a few eyebrows in the process. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Harry becomes captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, while Draco Malfoy pursues his own dark ends. And classes are as fascinating and confounding as ever, as Harry receives some extraordinary help in Potions from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

Most importantly, Dumbledore and Harry work together to uncover the full and complex story of a boy once named Tom Riddle—the boy who became Lord Voldemort. Like Harry, he was the son of one Muggle-born and one Wizarding parent, raised unloved, and a speaker of Parseltongue. But the similarities end there, as the teenaged Riddle became deeply interested in the Dark objects known as Horcruxes: objects in which a wizard can hide part of his soul, if he dares splinter that soul through murder.

Harry must use all the tools at his disposal to draw a final secret out of one of Riddle’s teachers, the sly Potions professor Horace Slughorn. Finally Harry and Dumbledore hold the key to the Dark Lord’s weaknesses... until a shocking reversal exposes Dumbledore’s own vulnerabilities, and casts Harry’s—and Hogwarts’s—future in shadow.

So I REALLY enjoyed book 6. Probably my favorite thus far. The characters, now mostly 16 years old, are intensifying in their relationships with one another. I really like the development there. I’m not sure the movies really show that same development accurately. I honestly wish I had not seen the movie before “reading” this book because there would have been some major surprises to be enjoyed. Oh well. At least I should complete the series in the books before the last movie comes out. The plot thickens in this book adding an extra layer of suspense to the overall series. I know this paragraph just really does not do this book justice, but I’m struggling to find something to say. Being at a loss for words is a good thing sometimes. I do have to say that Snape is probably the most interesting character in this series and I’m still waiting to see the end result of his journey just as much as I am waiting to see how things end up for Harry and his friends. Snape might just be my favorite character in a series in a long time. Just when I think I have him all figured out, JK Rowling throws a dozen questions in my face. It’s well worth the read. I can’t give it the “LOVED IT!!!!!!!!” rating….but I can give it a very decent 4.9 Stars!

Updated: July 7, 2018