Harry Potter 6: Not really a book review

More my opinion, although Mel covered it fine just below.

Warning: BLATANT SPOILERS AHEAD

Highlight the text to read. SPOILERS, you have been warned!!

Well, for one, the writing is horrible. Gaps in the logic, gaps in sentences, whole paragraphs awkwardly placed and making hardly any sense. It really is as if someone else wrote books 2-5 and she's now back in the "saddle", messing things up. Let me remind you, book 1 was as badly written - if not worse. Simplistic language, awkward transitions, gaps. And WHAT is up with the corniness?! Corny lines, cliches, bad metaphores and analogies. Oh god!

However awkward the first book was, at least the story was captivating. Things happening left and right. A boy who is not a boy, really, but a wizard! A whole school! Getting there, lessons, Quidditch! Wow! Book 6? Erm... a 400 page transition to the ending. Nothing! Literally nothing goes on. Some mysterious "lessons" with Dumbledore, not much about quidditch, some (not very well written) teen relationships, lots of snogging. Yea, the readers got snogged good on that one... The ending is fine, I guess, lots of action, although kind of forced. Lots of things have to be pushed into place, fitted in a tight jigsaw, sometimes like trying to fit a square peg... you get the picture. Numerous items just appear at the end. You read "Blah blah, as we all remember" and you'd never heard of the thing before! Some fact, that just "has to" appear at the end to make something plausible, so it does! Apparates, apparently.

The characters. Ahhh, what promise squandered! It all starts well! Snape: Is he true to the Order or Voldemort? A new player! Slughorn. A good person, with a flaw: loves the publicity, has the connections, has a dark secret! The Half-Blood Prince. Sure, you can kinda guess, but who knows for real? The potions book, a great invention, a character of its own really. And then, Dumbledore! This is not the Dumbledore we know! His hand mysteriously blackened and scorched, his very character changed, is he himself, really? A new minister for magic! Is he good or evil? Powerful or a wimp? Wise or another Fudge?

And then? Nada! Nothing again! Snape does not appear again until the very end. Slughorn just disappears without a trace, nothing to his story after the extraction of the memory. Scrimgeour the same. Just a puppet to show what could have been summed up in a sentence: "The Ministry remained ineffective". Voldemort does not really appear, nothing REALLY bad happens. The book (as I said) is an interesting character, but its story also ends in smoke. And it all culminates in Dumbledore. Do we find out about the hand? No. I guess that was omitted. And what about his character? We never find out! I suppose he just became an arrogant asshole in this book. He is abrupt, haughty, refers to himself as "the greatest wizard ever" a couple of times. What gives?! I was almost glad he died.. saved him from the disgrace of the seventh book.

Good moments? I'll name a couple... the cave is a good one. The lake, the inferi, the potion. It could have been better made, but I suppose it's well enough done. The passage does convey the dreariness of the place, the horror of the inferi, the anguish of Dumbledore (not as well...). The one good moment, Fawkes' lament. It raised the hairs in the back of my neck. The majestic phoenix singing for the loss of his master, dripping healing balm in the hearts of the listening pupils and teachers. A fleeting moment, a glimpse of how good the book could have been.

Biiiiiig disappointment...