Monday, December 31, 2012

Book 33: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling


After the disastrous events at the Ministry of Magic, there is no longer any doubt in the wizarding community that Voldemort is back.  People are on high alert and have begun to trust each other even less.  Snape, who Dumbledore has long considered an ally, seems to be working for the other team.  Draco Malfoy has progressed enough to become an outright deatheater instead of just a wannabe, and Snape has made the unbreakable vow with Narcissa Malfoy that he will keep Draco safe and complete his mission if necessary.

Dumbledore comes to visit Harry over the summer tasking him with a mission to recruit Horace Slughorn as a new teacher while promising that they will have private lessons during the school year.  These lessons take the form of a kind of history class in the study of Voldemort.  They need to gather as much information as possible to find out how to finally defeat the Dark Lord.

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about this book, but I think that they are unfounded.  Yes, there is a lot of relationship bullshit, but that’s a huge part of being a teenager and I think that it would have been foolish to pretend that wizards don’t have libidos.  To be honest though, I really like this book because we get to find out more about Voldemort’s childhood and the lengths that he would go to keep from dying.  Everyone is afraid of death at some point, and he seemed more afraid than most.

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