Review: Finale of ‘Half-Blood Prince’ is worth the price

Published 5:00 pm Sunday, July 17, 2005

The following is a review by Daily Astorian reporter Kate Ramsayer of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” While no major twists are revealed – although one from the fifth book is – some general plot directions are, and those readers who wish to remain completely in the dark might want to set this aside for later…

It’s good to see Harry again.

We didn’t part on happy terms, what with his godfather Sirius Black dead and the evil Lord Voldemort poised to wreak havoc at the end of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

The sixth book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” begins just as ominously. Voldemort’s henchmen are terrorizing England as well as the magical community, causing destruction and committing gruesome murders. A trusted figure seems to have allied himself with the enemy.

A “chilly mist” hangs in the air, even though it’s the middle of July.

The chill persists, at least in mood, throughout the story. As Lemony Snicket warns at the beginning of his Series of Unfortunate Events (another imaginative chronicle of resilient orphans), “In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.”

Hogwarts is under a kind of wizarding “Code Orange,” with students and mail screened before they can enter the premises. Formerly cheerful and bustling places, like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, seem to have lost their magic. Mrs. Weasley’s charmed clock indicates that all members of her family are in “mortal peril.”

Perhaps most disheartening of all, Harry is alone in his suspicion of his professor Severus Snape and the malevolent student Draco Malfoy, and frustrated in his attempts to find out what they are up to.

But it’s still good to see Harry, because even after five books and 2,713 pages, there’s still lots of magic left in his world.

Author J.K. Rowling adds even more details to the familiar world of Hogwarts, introducing bizarre plants that chomp down on arms, spells that sweep people off their feet, and potent love potions – never a good thing to mix with a group of 16-year-olds. She throws out adjectives with abandon, creating vivid portraits of new characters and magical places.

Old favorites are back and true to their characters; Harry is uncomfortable in his role of hero, but loyal and brave, Hermione is intelligent and intuitive, Ron is uncertain and a bit of a goofball.

Rowling obviously loves her creations and lets them grow, and she is a wiz at keeping the action moving and the suspense high right from the start. She’s a natural storyteller, and the pages fly by as readers anxiously uncover what happens next.

They have to read a while before finding any answers to the book’s central mysteries, however. “The Half-Blood Prince” is the sixth in a seven-book series, and it seems that a good part of it is taken up with backstory that, while intriguing and probably necessary to set up the final chapter, doesn’t create much tension here.

But the excitement and darkness is in full force for the last 100 pages, which could keep the littlest Muggle readers up at night long after they’ve turned the final pages.

A cauldron-full of questions remain at the end of the book. The most urgent of them: How long do we have to wait for Book 7?

– Kate Ramsayer