Harry Potter V - The Order Of The Phoenix
Jul. 16th, 2003 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzI finished reading Harry Potter V at three in the morning. I was shocked, amused, stunned, apallad and a whole lot more emotions joined in the mix that I was feeling when I closed the cover.
Ofcourse I felt apalled that I had read a 700+ pages book in two long nights in my warm bed.When I opened that cover, and was startled by the first chapter, I figured it would last a bit longer than this.
What I thought about it? First, the beginning: Dudley gets attacked. I liked that part. First you're startled with the fact Didders is going criminal, and all of a sudden Harry has to save his third worst enemy (Voldemort, Malfoy, Dudley) from creatures who suck out the life of you. Then, the miraculous silence around the things happening to Harry, though for his own good, and Harry's madness about it. He's just the average hot-headed teenager.
I laughed my ass off at Mrs. Black. Nice trick! Just when you're observing / reading a passage about Ron and Hermione and Harry about what is happening, capitalized screams of anger rage and madness are flung into the storyline. Great.
To come back to Harry's anger attacks, somewhere in the middle of the book there's a passage he's trying to study something about a plant. I don't know if anybody else has noticed this (Gette, I must admit I haven't read your post about this because I hadn't read the book yet at that time), but the symptoms described in that book "the wizard loses his temper" or something of the like, were very much like the things Harry was going through. That could just have been a decoy, but nevertheless I kept on wondering whether Umbridge was having Harry poisened, especially after the Vertiserum episode.
The DA was great, Room of Requirement (reminds me of larp-related stuff: houses of which you don't know what they are and they can be everything you need). I especially liked it that Neville was now not being described as a clumsy, worthless git, like in the previous four books, but actually is becoming handy at spells. That studying hard is actually working for him, unlike with Potions or otherwise.
Ever since I saw the movie of HP II, I can't help myself but see Alan Rickman talk to Harry. I loved this man as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, I love his villains, and I also liked his madly in love role he played in some movie I just happen to fall into the middle of a month or two back. He has great acting skills. And now, when I read the lines JK Rowling wrote about Snape, I see him in front of me. *grin* I can hear his voice in my ears.
I don't know about the lovelife storyline though. It had been coming for a while, I mean, I believe Harry already had a crush on Cho Chang in the first book. I can also understand with the nightmares and stuff and not having much experience dealing with girls except for Hermione, he was having difficulties with coping. But I would just have liked to see Cho and Harry have a last chat to straighten things out. It feels so abandoned now, as if time prevented the two from having a serious talk. Which, according to the storyline, was true ofcourse.
Then: Ministry of Magic. I'm kind of getting bored with the entire "Harry Potter against the rest of the world" idea already. The fame is dull, but the hatred is as well. It feels kind of exaggerated.
Umbridge, however, with her Fudgy idea's of how Hogwarts should be run, and thereby bumping headfirst into Fred and George (I was sad to see them leave Hogwarts, it won't be the same without them), Lee and Harry caused some nice moments.
"Hermy? Where Hagger?"
Turns out, Firenze isn't always right. Liked that last surprise. And I wonder what happened to Umbridge with the centaurs, her reaction made me even more curious…
And how much were there? Ten pages of duelling in the MoM? Isn't that a bit over the top? I just had to focus to keep my head with the book. Could have been the fact that it was past two am, ofcourse. I'll reread the last few chapters anyway.
And aren't there supposed to be repercussions when a student leaves Hogwarts without permission? There were six students, flying to Londen while they should have been in bed, and that's supposed to be okay?
And I suppose Harry got permission to play Quidditch again, I mean, it wasn't actually said in the book, but since Dumbledore seems to have a soft spot for him…
And: I like Minerva McGonagall. She cool!
Great book though, and we still have the restults for the OWL coming in the beginning of the next book. I was like "hey, they did exams, aren't there supposed to be grades?" when I realised there was an owl being sent with their grades in July.
All in all, I absolutely loved this one. Rowling is getting better with every book (since the first one was more directed towards kids of 11 yrs old, and this was more focused at the kids of 15 yrs old I suppose I'm growing closer to the state of mind of the books). I liked one, two and three, and absolutely loved four and five.
I think I'll reread it. If my mom doesn't want to borrow it first.
Ofcourse I felt apalled that I had read a 700+ pages book in two long nights in my warm bed.When I opened that cover, and was startled by the first chapter, I figured it would last a bit longer than this.
What I thought about it? First, the beginning: Dudley gets attacked. I liked that part. First you're startled with the fact Didders is going criminal, and all of a sudden Harry has to save his third worst enemy (Voldemort, Malfoy, Dudley) from creatures who suck out the life of you. Then, the miraculous silence around the things happening to Harry, though for his own good, and Harry's madness about it. He's just the average hot-headed teenager.
I laughed my ass off at Mrs. Black. Nice trick! Just when you're observing / reading a passage about Ron and Hermione and Harry about what is happening, capitalized screams of anger rage and madness are flung into the storyline. Great.
To come back to Harry's anger attacks, somewhere in the middle of the book there's a passage he's trying to study something about a plant. I don't know if anybody else has noticed this (Gette, I must admit I haven't read your post about this because I hadn't read the book yet at that time), but the symptoms described in that book "the wizard loses his temper" or something of the like, were very much like the things Harry was going through. That could just have been a decoy, but nevertheless I kept on wondering whether Umbridge was having Harry poisened, especially after the Vertiserum episode.
The DA was great, Room of Requirement (reminds me of larp-related stuff: houses of which you don't know what they are and they can be everything you need). I especially liked it that Neville was now not being described as a clumsy, worthless git, like in the previous four books, but actually is becoming handy at spells. That studying hard is actually working for him, unlike with Potions or otherwise.
Ever since I saw the movie of HP II, I can't help myself but see Alan Rickman talk to Harry. I loved this man as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, I love his villains, and I also liked his madly in love role he played in some movie I just happen to fall into the middle of a month or two back. He has great acting skills. And now, when I read the lines JK Rowling wrote about Snape, I see him in front of me. *grin* I can hear his voice in my ears.
I don't know about the lovelife storyline though. It had been coming for a while, I mean, I believe Harry already had a crush on Cho Chang in the first book. I can also understand with the nightmares and stuff and not having much experience dealing with girls except for Hermione, he was having difficulties with coping. But I would just have liked to see Cho and Harry have a last chat to straighten things out. It feels so abandoned now, as if time prevented the two from having a serious talk. Which, according to the storyline, was true ofcourse.
Then: Ministry of Magic. I'm kind of getting bored with the entire "Harry Potter against the rest of the world" idea already. The fame is dull, but the hatred is as well. It feels kind of exaggerated.
Umbridge, however, with her Fudgy idea's of how Hogwarts should be run, and thereby bumping headfirst into Fred and George (I was sad to see them leave Hogwarts, it won't be the same without them), Lee and Harry caused some nice moments.
"Hermy? Where Hagger?"
Turns out, Firenze isn't always right. Liked that last surprise. And I wonder what happened to Umbridge with the centaurs, her reaction made me even more curious…
And how much were there? Ten pages of duelling in the MoM? Isn't that a bit over the top? I just had to focus to keep my head with the book. Could have been the fact that it was past two am, ofcourse. I'll reread the last few chapters anyway.
And aren't there supposed to be repercussions when a student leaves Hogwarts without permission? There were six students, flying to Londen while they should have been in bed, and that's supposed to be okay?
And I suppose Harry got permission to play Quidditch again, I mean, it wasn't actually said in the book, but since Dumbledore seems to have a soft spot for him…
And: I like Minerva McGonagall. She cool!
Great book though, and we still have the restults for the OWL coming in the beginning of the next book. I was like "hey, they did exams, aren't there supposed to be grades?" when I realised there was an owl being sent with their grades in July.
All in all, I absolutely loved this one. Rowling is getting better with every book (since the first one was more directed towards kids of 11 yrs old, and this was more focused at the kids of 15 yrs old I suppose I'm growing closer to the state of mind of the books). I liked one, two and three, and absolutely loved four and five.
I think I'll reread it. If my mom doesn't want to borrow it first.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-16 05:25 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-07-16 02:54 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-07-17 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-21 12:21 am (UTC)If an author writes her fifth book on the same theme, with the same characters dwelling around the same places, and yet. for the fifth time, that author manages to surprise me on almost every page, that author must be something of a genius. It's amazing.
It's all the same characters again, and yet we see sides of them that we haven't seen before, we get to know them in a way we didn't, and yet they are still consistent to them selves.
Take Neville Longbottom. I never thought of Neville as anything else but a funny character in the background. But I am never going to see him like that again. He is a genuine hero, although he needs a lot of time to grow and blossom.
Fred and George are still funny, but now they are funny with a mission. I just know their shop will be a huge succes, but I hope their parent will approve and respect the choices they made. I really hope they do, for those are not bad choises, I think.
Professor Snape; I never uch liked him, and I think he was never meant to be liked, but now, it is different.
Professor Mcgonaccal is way cool! I mean, she is very very cool! The way she stands up against Umbridge, the way she stands up for Harry Potter, that is really really cool!
And Hermione still has the coolest spells, knows more than anyone, is smarter than anyone. But the most important thing about Hermione is that she always keeps her cool. When everybody else goes crazy, she keeps her cool, observes, makes plans. That makes her very powerfull. I think she is more powerfull than Harry. I love her.
Re:
Date: 2003-07-21 09:01 am (UTC)Are you back from holiday? How was it? I expect major updates from you mister! *wink* *grin*
no subject
Date: 2003-07-21 02:16 pm (UTC)I had to read Harry Potter, I had to drive my family throuw narrow mountain passages, I had to lay in the sun to get a tan, I had to drink wine and eat food.
I drew nothing! Nothing! No updates from me in the coming two months!
I have loads of assignmenst waiting for me, pictures that I promised people to do, and I did absolutely nothing about it!