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it would be an ok book if a good editor cut about 1/2 out...repetitive to the max ( )

It flows quite well and keeps you turning the pages, doesn’t seem as long as it is; I quite like Tonks and Lovegood; but Harry and most of the others have such an awful time that I’m not much motivated to reread this one.

When I do read it again, I skip or skim bits here and there. ( )

Since this is my first time reading this far into the series, the only thing I have to compare to is the movies. Since I just recently marathon watched the whole series with my youngest child, they are all still pretty fresh in my memory.

And this one was SO MUCH BETTER. Now, that's NOT to say that the movies aren't good - they are!
but this book had so many things different and so many details the movies didn't have. It was a huge treat to get more insight, meet a few new faces (or ones I overlooked in the movie) and get to know Tonks better.

I can't wait to read the rest! ( )

2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature (for the series)

Yay! The first time I've read past Book 4!

The themes of grief and trauma, yet again, really resonated with me in this book. Now, not only is Harry continuing to grieve the deaths of the parents he never knew, he also finds out that his father may not always have acted like a hero to everyone. Even that piece gave me some perspective--school is hell, but people can and do grow up.

I remember now that one of the reasons why I didn't want to read this book as a teenager was that I'd heard Harry became angry and whiny. Well, now that I've read it as an adult, I can understand why he would be so angry. He's just been re-traumatized by having watched someone die at the end of the last book and having had to face his arch-enemy's horrible return. Not only that, but since he was the only witness, no one believes him, and to top it off, as a consequence he ends up under the thumb of one of the most odious villains in literary history, Professor Dolores Umbridge. The kittens (shiver).

The scene where Fred and George Weasley finally decide to make their exit was totally wicked, as was the image of centaurs carrying Umbridge off into the woods.

The Department of Mysteries was appropriately mysterious and sometimes downright bizarre. Some of that followed the theme of trauma, too--I remember Ron being attacked by a brain with tentacles, and the comment someone made that sometimes thoughts can be more dangerous than physical injuries. What a truth, especially about grief.

The death of Sirius Black was awful for Harry, but it made a lot of sense as a catalyst for Dumbledore to finally spill some details about what's been happening. I guess Rowling could have made Wormtail be part of the raid on the Department of Mysteries, then have had Black be acquitted when Wormtail was seen, but maybe that would have been too much happiness for Harry. Suckage.

I noticed that this book really brings in an overt Judeo-Christian theme in the form of blood.

My church is doing a "read the Bible in a year" plan and we are currently in the book of Numbers. I've been watching videos explaining how the ancient Hebrews thought that blood represented life, so that was why they believed in sacrificing animals in order to restore life (ritual cleanliness) to earthly places affected by death (sin). In the Christian theology that follows from that, the blood of Christ as a final sacrifice cleanses people of sin, freeing them from the power of death because of his love.

So, you can imagine how I could make a connection there with Harry's mother's sacrifice. The shedding of her blood, because of her love, saved him from death. Due to that, the same magic continues to protect him when he lives with her blood relative.

Finally, I cried reading the scene in which Luna Lovegood tells Harry about her own mother's death. Her certainty that she will see her mother again brings Harry some comfort about his most recent loss, and it gave me comfort about my losses too.

The fact that they could both see the thestrals reminded me of the compassionate community we often find in grief.

The companions who came with Harry to the Ministry of Magic may not have been the ones he would have chosen, but they were the right ones to accompany him, especially Luna and Neville who, out of all the people in the school, may be able to understand Harry's grief the best because they have also suffered.

J.K. Rowling knows grief inside and out, and these books continue to pile up truth upon truth upon truth about navigating it. ( )