Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling response

I just finished the Half Blood Prince. It was quite an experience,
which is what I’m going to be explaining here. For those who haven’t
read the book yet, I’m not going to put any real spoilers in here,
like who dies (I’ve had enough taunting since I read the book quite
late compared to most).

This book is all about Harry Potter’s sixth year at Hogwarts, which
you probably know about. This year will prove to be quite different
than most, but like normal, Harry leaves the dreaded Dursleys, goes
to the Weasley’s and then to Hogwarts, with a surprising start to the
wild year ahead of him.

When the Half Blood Prince came out, my friends quickly grabbed the
book, and then quickly started reading them within a short while. I
had a fairly hesitant air around it. I was too lazy to exert the
energy to start the book and get into the book’s story. This session
of “not reading” carried on all summer. Finally near the end, said
“what the hell” and just started. I think I maybe benefited from
waiting to read it, as I avoided the hype and raised expectations
that it creates. For a lot of people it was “buy, read, ‘yeah, it’s
ok’,” but for me, I let it ferment (think wine). It ended up being
more like “receive from Bev, wait, wait, (procrastinate x10),
hesitantly pick up, read, read, read, ‘WOW!’”

The characters in Half Blood Prince have been growing up over the
past few years, and it’s definitely evident in this book. The
dynamics between Harry, Ron and Hermione are thrown out of loop by a
number of relationships (involving a lot of snogging, a nice British
word which means ‘making out’). I’m sure this parallels a lot of
experiences people have had, friends growing up and their group
getting tangled up. That’s one great thing about this series, you can
relate to the characters that inhabit it. I found myself really
noticing the community Harry, Ron and Hermione have formed, it’s so
great, and overall they’re really good friends with each-other.

Dumbledore also plays a slightly larger part in this book. His main
goal for the year is to teach Harry about Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore
does this by showing memories and experiences of Tom Riddle to Harry
and discussing them afterwards. It’s great because J.K. Rowling
manages to keep this pitiful man in a light that shows there is still
some human left in him. It’s great to hear because it’s easy to
forget that even the wisest, loving people have evil in them and, on
the other hand, the most unbalanced, evil people have some good in
them. I also observed how Dumbledore is a great mentor and friend for
Harry. He is so wise and willing to take risks for Harry because he
trusts him so much.

I find that the Harry Potter series (HBP in particular) has some
great themes, added with a very rich world. The themes are things
like love, community, mentoring and loyalty. It’s so great that
Rowling can combine all this stuff together into an imaginary world.

Overall, I’m really glad that something as great as Harry Potter is
tightly woven into our culture. It unites and forms a lot of
communities, and inspires people! Rowling creates her world with such
depth that Harry Potter books are often so immersive that they take
control of your senses and create detailed imagery by stimulating the
imagination and telling your whole body (except your eyes) to stop
moving. This was my personal favourite of the series, not that I
remember the rest of them too well. I supremely recommend this book
to you. It’s amazing what the mind can conjure up.

- joel christopher penner (gratefully edited by Erik Berg)