Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

By JK Rowling

Scholastic

ISBN: 0-439-35806-X

4 stars

It’s taking me longer than I thought to finish my Harry Potter re-read this year but that’s all right, I’m in no hurry.  Let’s face it; it’s not as if I don’t know the story. 🙂  In all honesty, I was hoping to re-read the entire series before seeing the latest movie but that’s not going to happen so now I’m just enjoying the story.

The short re-cap: Harry is waiting patiently to return to Hogwarts when he’s attacked by dementors, almost gets expelled for performing underage magic in front of a muggle, gets off by a slim margin, heads back to Hogwarts to find out that the Ministry of Magic is slowing doing its best to take over the school.  And there’s that small little matter of Voldermort who would like to see him dead.

As always, spoilers below.  You’ve been forewarned.

The Order of the Phoenix, I hate to admit, is not my favorite book in the series.  Not to say it isn’t good but I forgot just how moody and cranky everyone is in this installment.  I can’t blame either Harry (who’s got a price on his head and feels everyone is lying to him, which in some ways they are) or Sirius (who’s still in hiding and unable to do anything to help the cause or Harry) for their dark moods but there is only so much male PMS I can take.  However, the Weasley twins stepped up and provided enough lightness to make me remember why I fell in love with the series — the magic these two manage is wonderfully silly, and so disgusting, that it makes me want to procure a flyer and order a few of their concoctions.  Umbridge is so mean, annoying, and sniveling that I somehow found myself enjoying her character this time around.  I won’t say like because that would go too far but her attitude brings out some wonderful qualities in others characters such as Professor McGonagall who goes to great means to control her temper.  Snape.  I didn’t plan on mentioning him but he does play a critical role in Harry’s fifth year and his actions only keep me securely on the hate Snape bandwagon.  I’m so very done with him, except I’m not really and I have two more books to fully loathe him, which I plan to do.

In some ways, I feel as though there is too much going on in this book.  It’s long, and that’s not a bad thing because we do get to know a few characters better — Luna and Ginny who are among my favorites — so I don’t want to point to that as the main reason for my lack of overflowing love.  So many sub-plots show up here and it’s a major turning point in the tome.  The danger is much more palpable in this one than the proceeding books and it carries on with the sadness that made its way into the series when Cedric was killed by Voldermort.  But Harry’s attitude is sometimes too much for me.  I do have to admit that I did enjoy the fight at the Ministry of Magic though.  The rooms in the Department of Mysteries are so fascinating.

Well, on to hunting horcruxes.