Literature It should be called Harry Potter and the Many Ships
Because in short,that's really all this book is save the final Wham Episode at the end where Snape kills Dumbledore and Harry vows to find the Horcruxes.
While it does start off alright with the introduction of the affable [but not evil] Horace Slughorn, that plot goes out the window quickly once Harry sees Malfoy at Borgin and Burkes,which is where the main plot is. Quickly it becomes Harry's near Foe Yay obsession with Malfoy being a Death Eater.
On the side,Rowling gives us the past of Tom Riddle and revives some elements from Book 2 which covers the first half of the book that ISN'T Harry obsessing over Malfoy.And like Slughorn it too gets tossed over for a chick-flick subplot which should've been Character Development for Ron and Hermione but truthfully wasn't,and it put Lavender Brown far too far into the spotlight. The main character meanwhile just suddenly falls in love with Ginny,who is dating Dean to drown her once Unrequited crush.Unfortunately Rowling forgot to actually write in any interactions between Harry and Ginny,until out of the blue,they kiss,...and start dating. And once they do start dating [in the last few pages] we are only told secondhand,and then they just break up. Not to mention that pitiful Operation Jealousy thing going on with Mc Laggen.
Gee considering Sirius Black died,and the threat is shown to have escalated as of the Prologue,you'd think this book would clear things up and not be so much Lighter And Softer.But nay,it is a return to light-hearted Prisonerof Azkaban
Unfortunately all things wrong with this book,flood into the next one,making Order Of The Phoenix truly the last good book of the series
Grade: D
Literature Ah yes! That's better.
Everyone deserves a second chance, and I am pleased to say that Rowling has redeemed herself after the disappointment that was "book 5." Getting the plot rolling again after the introduction of Umbridge stagnated it, and then advancing it to the point where it is actually ready to be completed in the following book was no small task. The Half-Blood Prince handles it beautifly though, and even manages to add in some backstory while its doing it too. I don't think its quite on the level of The Goblet of Fire or The Deathly Hallows but it's pretty damned close.
Literature That’s right Potter, I’m the Half Blood Prince
Ok, to start with the bad parts first, I’ll get to the good parts later.
Dumbledore revealing that he’s always believed that Merope Gaunt dosed Tom Riddle Senior with a love potion and that Tom forsook her after being freed from her control seems to me to be J. K. Rowling coming up with an excuse for Tom’s behaviour. And I don’t think that’s necessary to Voldemort’s expanded Backstory at all. I don’t think that it serves any purpose except to try and absolve Tom so in an effort to try and prevent people from feeling sympathy for a character who eventually becomes irredeemably evil.
And that seems to me to be forced. The way I see it there’s nothing with allowing us to feel sympathy for a villain whose origin story is unfolding even if he is going to morph into a Satanic Archetype.
Fantastic Racism made perfect sense as a reason for Tom’s abandonment, there’s no point in altering it so that he’s no longer an asshole victim.
Aside from that, I think this book overly relies upon romantic subplots and those are really my only problems with this book.
On to the good. I like how it begins by forcing the question of where Snape’s loyalties lie front and centre and how Bellatrix and Narcissa’s argument about whether or not to trust him is similar to Harry’s with Lupin. Voldemort trusts Snape therefore Narcissa does and Dumbledore trusts Snape therefore Lupin does.
I like how it questions Snape’s motives for saving Harry in the first book in a manner that’s either an Alternative Character Interpretation or a reminder that Snape’s not all bad.
I like how it returns to the red herring formula of the first four books and then subverts it by having the guy Harry suspects, Malfoy, actually be doing exactly what he suspects.
I like how Draco, who started out as the bully morphs into a Not-So-Harmless Villain demonstrating an Aesop intended or otherwise about how doing small acts of evil can lead to large ones.
And I know it inspired enough of a Misaimed Fandom to become the Trope Namer for Draco in Leather Pants but I like that Malfoy couldn’t cross the Moral Event Horizon of actually committing cold blooded murder.
I like how it delved into the Backstory of Tom the Dark Lord and aside from the love potion bit, I find it to be quite good and I like how it sets the stage for the hunt for the Horcruxes.
It might be an unpopular opinion but I like Slughorn quite a bit. Also for the record, I don’t consider Harry’s use of the Prince’s book to have been cheating.
I like the Wham Episode aspect of it ending with Snape killing Dumbledore and Harry wanting to kill Snape for revenge after and I like the reveal of Snape being the titular character.
And I like how Harry admits to Dumbledore he’d want to kill Voldemort even if there were no prophecy. All in all, it’s quite good