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annathepiperIt took me a few days to finish it off, since I had to read it a few bits at a time, but as of tonight I've also finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. An erratic read for me, all in all. It had a good strong start for me, a middle that was frequently leaden and seemingly pointless, and an ending that, on the heels of the aforementioned leaden middle, was robbed of some of the darkness and grit it should have maintained.
Which is not to say I didn't like the darkness and grit of this ending--because oh my yes, it was quite effective. And I'll cheerfully say that the final funeral bit did bring active tears to my eyes, and any book that can do that gets extra points. The ending, also, was a decent enough followup to the good stuff at the beginning. But that middle stretch... guh. A lot of it read for me as if Ms. Rowling suddenly found herself realizing holy crap the series is almost done Lassie's still in the well and I haven't paired everybody off yet AIGH!
Don't get me wrong--I don't mind that a lot of pairings get set up in this book, on general principle. And with the main younger members of the cast getting old enough that they're starting to get interested in such things, it's totally plausible. But my gold standard for "high school romance"--which this essentially is, even if it's in a magical setting--is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and hey, what can I say, ol' Joss brought a lot more Funny to the whole thing. And, more importantly, integrated it better into the overall plot. In this particular book, especially in regards to Harry, it felt forced.
In fairness though I shall also say that there are very good points to this book: backstory on Voldemort makes it worth the time spent for the reading all by itself. Watching the older Harry and Ron and Hermione react to younger students is occasionally quite snicker-worthy. The most notable of the older-character romances that crops up actually interests me enough that I wouldn't mind seeing decent fic on that, just because I like the characters involved. (The other older-character romance, the one that drives everyone batshit, also was kind of fun but for different reasons--I like how the tension there finally got resolved.) And, for the first time in the entire series, Draco actually, finally got interesting. ;)
All in all, though, I find this the most uneven of the series. Two and a half stars.
Which is not to say I didn't like the darkness and grit of this ending--because oh my yes, it was quite effective. And I'll cheerfully say that the final funeral bit did bring active tears to my eyes, and any book that can do that gets extra points. The ending, also, was a decent enough followup to the good stuff at the beginning. But that middle stretch... guh. A lot of it read for me as if Ms. Rowling suddenly found herself realizing holy crap the series is almost done Lassie's still in the well and I haven't paired everybody off yet AIGH!
Don't get me wrong--I don't mind that a lot of pairings get set up in this book, on general principle. And with the main younger members of the cast getting old enough that they're starting to get interested in such things, it's totally plausible. But my gold standard for "high school romance"--which this essentially is, even if it's in a magical setting--is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and hey, what can I say, ol' Joss brought a lot more Funny to the whole thing. And, more importantly, integrated it better into the overall plot. In this particular book, especially in regards to Harry, it felt forced.
In fairness though I shall also say that there are very good points to this book: backstory on Voldemort makes it worth the time spent for the reading all by itself. Watching the older Harry and Ron and Hermione react to younger students is occasionally quite snicker-worthy. The most notable of the older-character romances that crops up actually interests me enough that I wouldn't mind seeing decent fic on that, just because I like the characters involved. (The other older-character romance, the one that drives everyone batshit, also was kind of fun but for different reasons--I like how the tension there finally got resolved.) And, for the first time in the entire series, Draco actually, finally got interesting. ;)
All in all, though, I find this the most uneven of the series. Two and a half stars.