Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Rating: 3 stars

The Harry Potter series, book 6.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling)
Written by J.K. Rowling
Fiction · Fantasy
Reviewed March 8, 2006

I hate writing reviews for Harry Potter books. It has nothing to do with the size or the popularity; it’s that I always have a hard time defining my exact feelings after I’ve closed the book. For the last three books, however, the feeling has grown discernable enough that I can give it a name: disappointment. The last three books have been decidedly disappointing.

I must confess that I wasn’t particularly attuned to the latest installment in the Potter series. Sure, I got the e-mails from Amazon telling me to pre-order my copy; sure, I heard the pre-release gossip on the internet; sure, for a few days after the book came out I didn’t dare read my daily blogs for fear I’d stumble across a spoiler, not having a copy of my own just yet. But I finally got my own copy, more out of a sense of duty than actual anticipation, and so I settled down to read.

Oddly enough, the reading experience seemed flat and uninteresting, more of a chore than a pleasure. I don’t think this has so much to do with any problems in Rowling’s writing as it does with the gossip about a shocking character death; much like the last book, I felt that I was gritting my teeth and plowing methodically through the prose without much pleasure at all, just so I could find out who kicked the bucket. I’m not one to complain about the size of a book, but 650+ pages did seem daunting, and much of it seemed to be filler; I was often tempted to skip the duller passages and flip on towards the end. After all, someone important dies — how can they expect me to wait 600 pages to find out who croaks?

Much like my once-beloved Amelia Peabody series, the Harry Potter series has begun to suffer from a distinct case of encyclopedia-itis: so many names, spells, and places have been mentioned in the past six books that one needs a chart just to keep everyone and everything straight. Give Rowling props, though: she doesn’t waste the first fifty pages providing introductions for the new readers; everyone is expected to know certain things, and to remember where it all left off. (Speaking of introductions, I personally felt that the first chapter was a fairly good way to start things off; no, the Prime Minister didn’t feature at all in the rest of the story, but it’s quite a funny thought to picture this poor befuddled man trying to make sense of these strange people and occurences. Also, the turning of the Prime Minister’s teacup into a gerbil made me laugh out loud — as my mother remarked, “That is so much better than Jesus!”

In the last two installments, I was highly irritated by Harry’s ditherings with regard to Cho Chang — teenage romance is not, and never will be, a subject that grabs my attention. With the Cho issue apparently settled in the fifth book, I was looking forward to a relatively romance-free year, with maybe a slight flavoring of Hermione/Ron and a faint insinuation of Harry/Ginny to keep things lively. No such luck, of course — Hermione/Ron gave way to Ron/other, and Harry/Ginny… well, that would be spoiling, but I will just say that the hookups and breakups were tedious and uninteresting, and took up a good third of the book.

All in all, this book faithfully followed the formula Rowling has preferred for her last three books: take 500+ pages, add romantic angst, and end with a character death. By this time, of course, we’ve all become used to the Beloved Character + Dramatic Death = Shock!!! formula, so it came as much less of a shock this time around. I get the distinct impression that Rowling has forgotten how to write a good, deathless dramatic ending, and so must always one-up her last book by knocking off a character even more important than the last one to die.

What made the first few Potter books so fun was that they were childish, almost innocent; sure, there were dark and scary flavorings to keep things spicy, but you always knew the important people were going to turn out all right in the end. I never thought I’d say this, but… bring back the happy endings, Rowling. I’ve actually learned to miss them.