Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-Read, 1/13/23:

Finished this with my girl on the wonderfully appropriate Friday the 13th. :)

Lucky, unlucky, death, oppression, and a much better book than the movie.

My girl loved it, of course, even if she was super sad. But on a positive note, she was as pissed about what was left out of the movie as I was. So much action, better reveals, better UNDERSTANDING of what was going on. Alas.

A very good book, growing better with re-reads.


Original Review:

Buddy Re-Read continues!

I read this last almost the day after it originally came out and was amazed at the big reveals... Guess who Dies and guess who the Prince is! ... but more than that, I was pretty blah and then very enthused as we learned more and more and more and more about Mr. Riddle as Harry kept sticking his head under water. It was a hate/love relationship for me. I wanted to know about our big bad. I really did. And then I also wanted to just get over all the cleverly-installed flashbacks and get on with the freaking story.

That was before the movie.

And so the movie came out and I was all like... Where is all the backstory for Voldemort? This is hardly anything! This is just a brief little taste! How are we supposed to feel the deep revulsion AND pity for the man if we can't get more screen time for him??? And so I fell BACK on the bandwagon for all those pretty flashbacks.

Ah, the trials and tribulations of a fanboy.

This is like knowing Frank Herbert's Dune inside and out and then watching the Lynch mindf*** and spending more than 3/4 of the movie filling in all the details that are left unsaid in the film that make the story deeper and more amazing than the acid trip that I was watching.

Okay. Maybe the HP6 film wasn't QUITE that bad and there were a lot of brilliant moments that were visual and direct link-ups to the main plot in the HP7 movies, so continuity was preserved very well. Still, the lack of time with Snape's younger cursecrafting self and the lack of all the mystery subplot with Dumbledore, himself, made the end events kind of rushed and confusing within the movie.

Not so at all within the book.

The book was a real page-turner for me. Again. I love in-depth reasons. A lot. :)


Still a great book! :)

View all my reviews