By J K Rowling
The Harry Potter books have never been able to live up to the standards of the books I read when I was a girl, but I still enjoy them nonetheless. Except for Harry, he needs to calm down a bit. In this book he’s hit the teen angst zone, and really, why does Hogwart’s seems to have a Professor for every (magical) subject under the sun but no counsellor?? In the last book Harry saw a fellow student get deaded, and all sorts of terrible things happened to him, but does anyone try and help him work through his feelings?? Of course not.
In this book the evil wizard Voldemort is back from the semi-dead, and deep divisions have formed in the wizarding world – the official Ministry of Magic line is that V’s resurrection is a load of baloney, and so they send a particularly nasty Professor to Hogwarts in order to keep Dumbledore and the rest of all the teachers and students in line. However, there is growing evidence to suggest that V is amassing his forces in anticipation of a final showdown…presumably this will occur in the seventh book, which will be Harry’s last year at Hogwarts.
I think I actually enjoyed this book more than the others, as it was more plot driven, and I didn’t find it particularly dark – a criticism of the Potter books which seems to be growing. I’m not sure why, it’s not like children’s books have ever been all sweetness and light, people get killed or suffer terribly in them all the time. Mind you, I’m still cross that When the wind blows was on our primary school reading list, there must be a generation of people out there who were scarred for life by that book.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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