Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, Book 6) Paperback – May 2, 2023

Half-Blood Prince is easily one of the better books in the Harry Potter series, though each is a masterpiece. But the 6th installment of a 7-part series is bound to be full of great moments in the story. There remains a great deal unanswered in this book, however, and the 7th will surely need to be no smaller than an average encyclopedia. Somehow as I was reading this book, I felt that I was learning more and at a quicker rate than in Order of the Phoenix, but so many of Harry's problems and questions took so long to reach any sort of answer or resolution that I still ended up not knowing many of the secrets I expected to be revealed in this book. It must be that Rowling, in her grand scheme, is saving much for the last book. One thing seems to be for certain, though, and that is that Rowling will never lose that special touch, that supreme and genuine interest in the story and its characters that makes the writing so engrossing. After completing this book, I was in a state of total shock and to this moment I wish only to read the seventh book.Half-Blood Prince is dark; I mean far darker than the last. This is the time I have always known was inevitable in the Harry Potter world, at last we are seeing chaos and war and battles break out within the walls of Hogwarts itself. Several of the chapters are particularly well-written, with great suspense and imagery; an example would be the time Harry and Dumbledore spent in the cave. Relationships blossom in this book at last, including Harry suddenly falling in `love' with Ginny Weasley, Ron dating Lavender Brown, Pansy and Draco clearly going out, and some serious hinting at a possible romance between Ron and Hermione when he gets rid of Lavender. Some of the focus on their teenage jealousies and squabbles, and their newfound interest in dating and `snogging,' was a cute touch, but admittedly not what I was exactly looking for. After all, it was more fluff than anything else, and certainly none of it was real love. Then, the useless couple of Tonks and Lupin was introduced in the end; all well and good, I suppose, but again not something that overjoyed me. The end of the book is very sad indeed, yet, I was not crying--I was merely shocked, flabbergasted at the circumstances. A Snapeless, Dumbledoreless Hogwarts that Harry Potter is not intending to return to next year? Yes, you heard right. Harry wants to go off and find all of Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes and face the final battle on his own.Much of the book is devoted to Harry witnessing important memories in the Pensieve with Dumbledore so that he can gain a greater understanding of his enemy, the Dark Lord. Now, I have long been a fan of Severus Snape. I admit I love him. Most of my reasons for loving Harry Potter center on him. And while much was learned about him in this book, much is still unknown, and what we do now know is shocking. To begin with, we learn the names of his parents, muggle Tobias Snape and witch Eileen Prince (yes, Snape is the Half-Blood Prince.) It is also known that Snape overheard the prophecy regarding Harry & Voldemort and told the Dark Lord about it; however, supposedly he showed enough remorse after Voldemort used the information to kill Harry's parents that Dumbledore forgave and entrusted him. Many are accusing Dumbledore of naivety for this, but I believe that they are only looking at what is plainly on the surface of this book and forgetting many things. I will explain later why, amazing as it may seem, my love for and faith in Snape remain unshaken despite the fact that this book, from its beginning, seems to be saying that he is still on Voldemort's side. I believe it's too simple for Rowling to be writing that he is, after all, evil. To me it seems a set-up. Additionally, I was expecting a surprising reason for Dumbledore to trust Snape, not a simple apology. There must still be more to this than meets the eye.Before I explain my case about Snape, I'll mention some of the things that remain a mystery after this book. Sev's patronus and greatest fear don't come up (in fact, while Tonks' patronus is revealed, Boggarts don't receive any mention.) Some interesting information is supposedly going to be divulged regarding both Lily and Petunia, but neither of them played much of a role in book 6.So on to my favorite character, who ends up being the Prince mentioned in the title. When I first finished this book, I was somewhat upset because while I still loved Snape, I was aware that what he'd just done was not steering in the direction of redemption, as I had hoped to see him going. I also knew that, at least until some point in Book 7, almost everyone (in the books and in real life) would turn against Snape and regard him as a treacherous dog. Yet, after composing myself and reviewing what I'd read, I realized that I just cannot accept him as truly evil, or Dumbledore as an old fool.Now, before reading this book, if I had to make a list of impossible things that could never happen...Snape killing the Headmaster and fleeing the school with a bunch of Death Eaters, would have been right at the top of the list. But, I'd have been wrong. I had a very strong feeling that Dumbledore would be the one to die in this book. But I never saw the way it happened coming. In the beginning of the story, Snape came in rather quickly. Once Harry was at school, Snape finally got the Defense Against the Dark Arts post he'd longed for. I was cheering. (Yes, he is no longer Potions Master.) But it turned out not to matter. In the second chapter, Narcissa Malfoy and her sister, Bellatrix Lestrange, visit the home of Sev and he makes with Narcissa (possibly out of love) an Unbreakable Vow--that Snape will help her son Draco carry out a task ordered of him by Voldemort, and will complete it himself should Draco prove unable. The task, it seems in the end, was to kill Dumbledore. Draco does prove unable, and Snape carries it out. Yet, it cannot be this simple. Dumbledore may have been aware of the task, and the Vow. From the moment Dumbledore returns from the cave, weakened, having drunk an unknown potion set by Voldemort to guard a Horcrux, he says he needs Severus. He never says what for, never asks to be healed. When Snape arrives Dumbledore calls his name and says 'please' (pleading for his life, as everyone assumes, or something else?) before Snape aims the curse at him that kills him.This seems twisted, monstrous, unforgivable, no? Exactly: No. Not in my opinion, at least. I do not think it was Snape's choice to kill Dumbledore, but that the Headmaster had at least one reason for telling him that he must do this horrible deed. Of course from Harry's perspective (Harry, who has inherited, as Lupin says, a prejudice against Sev) it was cold-blooded murder and betrayal and he now wants to destroy Snape as much as Voldemort. But this too is far too simple; clearly, as the book ends on this note, there are things Harry does not understand about what has happened.He has forgotten, for instance, about the argument overheard by Hagrid, between Snape and Dumbledore. This point never was addressed again, yet amidst all the turmoil, who can blame it for being overlooked? Consider it. Dumbledore telling Snape he must do something that Snape does not wish to do. For several reasons I can think of (mainly involving the Death Eaters and the Malfoys), this argument connects directly to the death of Albus. And what of the mysterious order given Snape at the end of "Goblet of Fire," at which he turned pale? Clearly he is being asked to do things most difficult, to make great sacrifices; how can the most enigmatic person turn out to be clear-cut evil?Read carefully and you'll see that Snape has hatred and revulsion etched into his face when he performs the fatal Avada Kedavra. I see these emotions not as directed at his target, which Harry naturally assumes, but stemming from the act he is about to commit. It never really occurs to Harry that Sev may have been feeling the same things he'd been feeling when he was bound by his promise to force-feed the convulsing Dumbledore, does it? Probably far worse.Snape acts rather outrageously for the remainder of his time in the story, not shockingly, yet he refuses to allow any harm to come to Harry (clearly Dumbledore would've wanted that). He seems to be in pain and becomes furious at the mere suggestion that he is a coward--because he has just done the most difficult and least cowardly thing ever asked of him. Dumbledore has repeatedly stated that Harry's life is more important than his own, and that Harry understands less than he. And the facts remain that he has in the past done much good despite his suspicious nature, & that not everything he told Bellatrix about staying loyal to Voldemort can be true. My final point has to do with the words Dumbledore cried while drinking the potion in the cave. I don't know why, but I feel these words are important, and that after the escapade Dumbledore may have known the end was near.Thus I rest my case. Avid Harry Potter readers will want to dive into this one, I'm certain, and those who haven't yet discovered it should do so. Only possible complaints? 1) Too short; 2) Not enough anticipated answers given, yet new questions raised, 3) Disturbing ending leaves you frustrated waiting for the next book.

At the end of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", J. K. Rowling left so many plot threads dangling that there was endless speculation about the next book. Who would be Voldemort's next victim? Would Harry get back together with Cho Chang or were they history? What about Ron and Hermione? Suspense enough to sustain interest at a fever pitch up to publication of the next book. Now that "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" has finally been released to hype unseen in this reviewer's memory, we've found out that Rowling has not only tied up a lot of the dangling threads in OOP, but lets the reader know exactly where she's taking us in the final book, which may or may not be Harry's seventh year at Hogwarts.HPB opens on an unusually chill summer day which reflects the chill that has crept upon England's usually green and pleasant land. People are disappearing, presumed murdered. Unlikely "hurricanes" have taken a toll on the landscape. And one cold night in July, after Harry has been only two weeks back with the Dursleys, Albus Dumbledore, Hogwart's Headmaster, appears on the Dursley's doorstep to spirit Harry away to The Burrow to spend the rest of the summer with the Weasley family. Dumbledore isn't at all happy with the way the Dursleys have treated Harry all these years and he lets them know it in no uncertain terms. Just one more summer, he tells them, and Harry's out of there for good. It's hard to say who's more delighted by this news, Harry or the Dursleys.The chill over Muggledom is also evident in the wizarding world, even in the Weasleys' own home. Mrs. Weasley jumps at every strange noise in the night. The Weasleys' clock, with its nine hands representing family members indicating their location, always seem to be pointing at "mortal peril". And there have been changes in Diagon Alley as well. Florian Fortescue's ice cream parlor is boarded up because Fortescue has disappeared, along with old Ollivander the wand-maker. But the Weasley twins' joke shop is doing a booming business and the twins are raking in the Galleons by the bucketful. They even have their eye on expanding into Hogsmeade, right outside Hogwarts. And there's a new Minister of Magic as well; the bumbling Cornelius Fudge has been sacked. But the new Minister isn't much of an improvement; he's arresting innocent wizards right and left and throwing them into Azkaban prison, just for the sake of appearing to be making headway against Voldemort's followers. He also wants Harry to liaise with the ministry, but Harry isn't having it; he remembers all too well how the Ministry tried to slander him the year before and he isn't about to become their poster boy. He tells the Minister to his face to stuff it.Back at Hogwarts, there's a new staff member in the person of Professor Slughorn, a former Head of Slytherin House who has spent the past year in retirement and on the run from Voldemort who wants to recruit him into the infernal ranks of the Death Eaters. To everyone's shock, it's announced that Slughorn will be the new Potions master, replacing Snape, who has finally landed the plum job he's always coveted, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Is this Dumbledore's way of rewarding Snape for his loyalty over the past few years? Harry doesn't trust Snape around a glass corner and doesn't think he deserves it. But wait up -- the DADA appointment could be a very left-handed gift since no DADA professor has managed to keep the job for more than a year. Is this a set-up or what?Besides being immersed in classes, Harry is also meeting privately with Dumbledore, who tells him the entire history of Voldemort, his birth to a mother who is one of the last direct descendents of Salazar Slytherin now living in abject filth and poverty, and the handsome young local aristocrat who falls victim to her love potion; fatally, his mother, wanting his father to love her for herself alone, stopped giving him the potion and once his eyes and head cleared, he abandoned not only her but their unborn child as well. Recruited into Hogwarts by Dumbledore himself, honing his skills in magic and the dark arts, and feeding his propensities for cruelty, power and domination, Voldemort graduates from Hogwarts to seek revenge on the father who abandoned him by killing not only him but his paternal grandparents as well. And from there he becomes the Dark Lord, gathering adherents who are too fascinated or too terrified to resist his powers; among them, the Malfoy clan.Dumbledore tells Harry they must find the location of four of Voldemort's Horcruxes, objects that have been infused with the soul of their possessor. Voldemort is so evil and so obsessed with gaining immortality that he has split his soul into seven pieces, transferring six of them to six different objects and retaining the seventh piece inside his own body. Two of the Horcruxes have already been destroyed: one by Harry in the second book (Tom Riddle's diary), and another by Dumbledore, a black stone ring. Once they find and destroy the other four Horcruxes, they will be able to deal with Voldemort. But all kinds of things transpire in between.Harry is not only up to his ears in classes, he's also been named Quidditch captain for Gryffindor House, and he's fighting off hordes of girls who are fascinated by his hero status. The kids are growing up and flirtation and romance take up a significant part of this book. We always knew Ron and Hermione would finally become an item, but Hermione has to spend the better part of the year feeling jealous and shunted aside while Ron detours with a possessive airhead named Lavender Brown who has an infuriating habit of calling him "Won-Won" while sending him an outsize gold chain for Christmas that says "My Sweetheart". The more Ron tries to dump her, the tighter she holds on (going out with her is like dating the Giant Squid, he muses to Harry). There's a delightful interlude when Ron falls head over heels in love with one of Harry's groupies after drinking a love potion meant for Harry, with hilarious results. And almost too late, Harry finally wakes up to the fact that Ron's little sister Ginny has become a very desirable young lady, but not before Ginny has become entangled with Dean Thomas. Things get sorted out, and Harry and Ginny have a precious few weeks together until the darkness engulfs all of them and everything comes crashing down.It's Harry and Dumbledore's quest for the Horcruxes that triggers the tragedy that marks the last few chapters of the book. We know somebody very close to Harry is going to get killed but it's like a kick in the stomach when it actually happens. There's no safe place in the world for Harry any more, not even at Hogwarts. And there's no parent or parent figure to protect him any longer. He'll have to face Voldemort on his own. And he won't endanger Ginny by continuing a relationship with her; Voldemort gets to his enemies through the people they love best. He's completely alone. Well, maybe not completely; Ron and Hermione tell him they'll be with him no matter what happens. Maybe that's one of Harry's advantages over Voldemort; whereas Voldemort only has followers, Harry has friends.Harry has not only grown older, he's a lot more mature in this book. In OOP he was a querulous fifteen-year-old, touchy and irritable, resenting the bad hand life has dealt him; he didn't ask to be any hero and he didn't ask to have a homicidal wizard on his case. But in HBP he's moved through resentment to resignation to acceptance, and finally to readiness to accept his destiny. He's grown from boyhood to manhood and he's ready to shoulder a man's responsibility. He's going to find and destroy the Horcruxes and Voldemort as well. And anybody who gets in his way, as he intimates about the Half-Blood Prince, better watch out.Just has Harry has gone through some significant character development, so has his opposite number, Draco Malfoy. We don't see much of Draco in HBP; he's disappearing from the scene for nefarious reasons of his own. At the start of the year he brags to his cohorts that he's moving on to bigger and better things; who needs Hogwarts any more? But Draco has bitten off considerably more than he can chew in selling his soul to Voldemort; we almost feel sorry for this scared kid who realizes with growing terror that he is in Voldemort's thrall for the rest of his life, immersed in evil he can't control, and that refusing or inability to do Voldemort's bidding will cost his parents their lives. And as we see Harry and Draco developing in different ways, we also see Dumbledore growing older and weaker, fatally undone by his own sense of goodness and decency and his misplaced trust in his nemesis, the Half-Blood Prince.So who is the Half-Blood Prince? Suffice to say it's someone with Voldemort's own background, hating and hiding his Muggle blood, biding his time for the ultimate act of betrayal. At the book's end, he's on the run, along with Draco Malfoy. But we have a feeling the Half-Blood Prince may be living on borrowed time; he'll get what's coming to him in Book 7.Unlike the end of OOP, where speculation about where the series was going abounded, by the end of HBP we pretty much know what's in store in Book 7. Harry, possibly with the help of Ron and Hermione, will go on a quest for the Horcruxes, and once they are destroyed, it will be a fight to the finish between Harry and Voldemort. Neither can live, we've been told, while the other survives. We can't know yet which will survive, or if Harry will realize his dream of becoming an Auror, or if he will finally settle down to find happiness with Ginny. All we know is that J. K. Rowling will wrap up one of the most fascinating and successful adventure series ever written.