I disagree that those romance subplots somehow eclipsed the rest of the story. What I remember from the book are still horcrux revelations and Death Eater plots. Then again, romance plots are never the things that I remember, from any story.
I think you were judging this too harshly, to be honest.
"Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." -Dr. Seuss
Really? You liked Book 5? Perhaps you can give it a review as well and explain why. I have given my reviews of books 4 through 7, and though I have stuck to my own opinions and thus panned book 5, called this one a compairative improvement, and lauded books 4 & 7 as the best in the series, I am interested to learn why others would feel differently. My own mother for instance also claims to have enjoyed book 5, while disliking books 4 & 7, but has thus far been unable to articulate her reasons. Then again she also liked Twilight, so there is no accounting for taste.
I am going to disagree with you over the lighter and softer bit. Considering just how many characters get killed off in the next book, it's probably for the better that we manage to get a few laughs in at the last moment.
I loved the 4th one,the only problem I might have with it,is that it doesn't tap at all into the second one's plot.
I just finished reading the whole thing when I posted this,and after the whole Slughorn thing,I found myself disgruntled by the massive Foe Yay. The first half is alright,but it really dives away from the whole Voldemort conflict after the 5th and the prologue upped the ante (sort of like the precursor to Breaking Dawn forgetting Eclipse set up a war).
But truly the focus is only on the Ships and Snape's book. In the first half when it's mostly about the book,well it kind of goes nowhere until the very end of the book,making that subplot a waste of time. The second half begins with Foe Yay from Harry who slowly gets paranoid of Malfoy. But it's not justified like the so called Wangst in the 5th since time and time again Malfoy has been exonerated of each of Harry's accusations. At least in the 5th he's shell-shocked,The Cassandra,he has The Umbridge to deal with,and his idol/,mentor is hiding crap. After that it talks uncomfortably about snogging quite a bit and "The Monster in the chest",then some Tastes Like Diabetes dialogue from Lavender.
All the possible ships people talk about originated in this book (well except for Ron/Hermione),that's irritating when you get an ending like the 5th book and expect a follow-up.
Also there really aren't that many laughs,more laughs were in the 5th book. It's more like just Filler of the Lighter And Softer kind.
The film of it seems to try to go out of the way to make Ron seem like a dick,I know Steve Kloves ships Harrmione but the treatment was still awful. If Ron is your favorite character,this movie is just a bum deal and my second least favorite thanks to focusing even more on the Shipping.
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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