Book Review #4: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Book Synopsis

Fifth year at Hogwarts.

Ciel's Rating

Ciel's Review

This is easily one of my favorite books in the entire series. Some serious character development and insights are revealed to us. The plot is shaped by the characters, and although it isn’t as important as the characters themselves (at least for this book), it is still interesting and well-paced, with minor plot inconsistencies. This book is definitely stronger in character development than plot. After carefully and busily detailing her world-building during the first books, she can now concentrate on shaping and refining her characters.

Her series start moving along a darker road, exploring complex and adult matters such as death and relationships, which adds a layer of maturity to the books hereafter. Also, the most important relationship in the book gets stronger.The magic also gets more dangerous and deadly, giving the readers a glimpse of the darker side of magic and the sort of wizards and witches that wields such malevolent powers (the so called “good” and “bad” included). The milieu is somber, even for the students, as they face uncertainty lingering within inches from the grasp of darkness; although some are keener than others to accept it.

A new set of antagonists are introduced, with evil deeply embedded in them. Which leads to my annoyance at reading purely evil or purely good characters, there is never a middle ground for these two opposing forces, except for one character in the entire(!) series. The book introduces us to new places, places I thought would never see the light of day, and for this, it’s refreshing.

After mentioning that the characters took more importance than the plot, and that the plot had some inconsistencies, it is just right to say that the plot is sometimes confusing. Like, the subplots she added were only there to further the character development, and often left opened. I like to believe she left them open on purpose, for interpretation. However, the last part of the book was a killer, utter brilliance, though I don’t think the death of xxx was believable.

Disclaimer: May not be appropriate for children due to fantasy violence.