50 in 2010 — Book 6 (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

When our friends Rich and Laura were here (it was Rich who got me on this 50 books thing), I was grumbling that these Harry Potter books may not have been the best choice for the 50. “They are just so long!”, I said. Laura said that they read so quickly, but I replied “but 800 pages is 800 pages!” Laura was right. I plowed through Order of the Phoenix in a week, even while busy at work.

Spoilers below, if you haven’t read the book yet and are planning to.

This wasn’t my favorite of the series so far, but I’ll certainly cop to it being good. Harry is 15 now and every bit the teenager. No one understands him. He’s angry all the time. He gets a girlfriend, sorta. That could all have resulted in a very annoying Harry and a very lame book. Rowling handled it well, however, externalizing those emotions and making some of Harry’s isolation literal. Dumbledore doesn’t talk to him for most of the book. Harry has legitimate abusive authority to rebel against when Hogwarts gets taken over by a new Headmaster.

It was also interesting to see Harry loose some of his innocence. He learns new things about his parents and Sirius that aren’t entirely rosy. He comes to understand more about Snape. And he directly faces the death of someone close to him. I thought the later was handled well, too. Harry’s anger and sadness was palpable without being overwrought. I felt bad for him.

Plus, there was a very cool wizard battle at the end, the first really big battle so far. That was tense, cool, and fun to read.

All in all, I am loving the series and really liked Order of the Phoenix.