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ravenWell, I've finished it.
Firstly - well, that was a shock. It was slightly disconcerting to realise that I've been interested in this pairing for a whole three weeks, and now one of them's dead! When I come to think of it, it couldn't have been anyone else, not if you wanted more emotional impact than bloody Cedric Diggory, but still. Howl. The darkness in the story was well-done, I think - Harry's constant anger rings true in my ears, and Umbridge, with her so called "personality like poisioned honey" was deliciously realistic in her evilness. Dumbledore at the end is also good - the horribly dark moment with the black humour about Harry already having too much responsibilty to be a prefect was really good. However, I think that as usual, the real brilliance is in the details. Tiny little things, like the sign in St Mungo's - "IF YOU ARE UNSURE WHERE TO GO, INCAPABLE OF HUMAN SPEECH OR UNABLE TO REMEMBER WHY YOU ARE HERE, OUR WELCOMEWITCH WILL BE PLEASED TO HELP" - just brilliant. All hospitals should have a sign like that. Other details I liked were the bickering of the adults about who was a prefect when they were younger, Tonks' ever changing hair colour, and Lupin strolling off to talk to the newly-bitten werewolf to try and escape Mrs Weasley's howling about "stitches." The presence of Moody was also brilliant - his paranoia doubly so. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland?"
The Order of the Phoenix and its members was very interesting - I just liked the idea of them all living and working in a house full of lunatics.
But then, the book does have flaws. The main one, in my humble opinion, is how loose the plot is. I mean, stuff happens, yes... but it takes a long time happening and it's sometimes hard to see what the relevance of such and such an event is. I'm saying this guardedly because knowing the author, the relevance will become apparent in later books, but still. Things that didn't quite gel were the new character, Luna Lovegood (no, definitely didn't like that) the giant in the forest (why?) and the Thestrals. They're the reason for a rather irritating plot hole - you can only see them if you've seen death, right? This book is the first time Harry's seen them, presumably because he saw the death of Cedric Diggory. But he saw the deaths of his parents, and of Quirrel back in the first book! He should have been able to see the Thestrals in the Prisoner of Azkban, but apparently not. Another aspect whose relevance I would question is Harry's trip into Snape's Pensieve, but I can't say anything about that, just because I loved the opportunity to see into the MWPP days. That section read an awful lot like an MWPP fanfic, which is good, I think. I really, really liked that bit - Lupin's list of identifying features of werewolves is probably one of my favourite parts of the book.
Which of course leads me on to the subject I was bound to bring up sooner or later - the Pairing Most Likely To Be Canon, now relegated to Pairing Most Likely To Have Been Canon. So, very little subtext, apart from the fact the pair of them were living in the same house (and they appear to have given Harry a joint Christmas present), but the death at the end! Oh, the whumping potential! While Sirius' death wasn't particularly jarring, what was terribly sad was Lupin holding Harry back, "voice breaking." I hope the JK Rowling makes more use of him, not just because I like him, but because he doesn't seem to have done very much in this book apart from being there. Even his transformations aren't mentioned.
The end of the book is the bit I can picture the most easily, probably as it's the only place mentioned I've actually been to - platform nine of King's Cross Station. The thought of Tonks, Moody, Lupin and the Weasleys standing there, being politely threatening, is just wonderful. Moody is delighted Uncle Vernon realises he's being threatened so quickly! And I think it's a nice place to finish the story - if you leave out the fact it's not really finished at all, and so much more has to happen. Sigh. How long till the next one?
Firstly - well, that was a shock. It was slightly disconcerting to realise that I've been interested in this pairing for a whole three weeks, and now one of them's dead! When I come to think of it, it couldn't have been anyone else, not if you wanted more emotional impact than bloody Cedric Diggory, but still. Howl. The darkness in the story was well-done, I think - Harry's constant anger rings true in my ears, and Umbridge, with her so called "personality like poisioned honey" was deliciously realistic in her evilness. Dumbledore at the end is also good - the horribly dark moment with the black humour about Harry already having too much responsibilty to be a prefect was really good. However, I think that as usual, the real brilliance is in the details. Tiny little things, like the sign in St Mungo's - "IF YOU ARE UNSURE WHERE TO GO, INCAPABLE OF HUMAN SPEECH OR UNABLE TO REMEMBER WHY YOU ARE HERE, OUR WELCOMEWITCH WILL BE PLEASED TO HELP" - just brilliant. All hospitals should have a sign like that. Other details I liked were the bickering of the adults about who was a prefect when they were younger, Tonks' ever changing hair colour, and Lupin strolling off to talk to the newly-bitten werewolf to try and escape Mrs Weasley's howling about "stitches." The presence of Moody was also brilliant - his paranoia doubly so. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland?"
The Order of the Phoenix and its members was very interesting - I just liked the idea of them all living and working in a house full of lunatics.
But then, the book does have flaws. The main one, in my humble opinion, is how loose the plot is. I mean, stuff happens, yes... but it takes a long time happening and it's sometimes hard to see what the relevance of such and such an event is. I'm saying this guardedly because knowing the author, the relevance will become apparent in later books, but still. Things that didn't quite gel were the new character, Luna Lovegood (no, definitely didn't like that) the giant in the forest (why?) and the Thestrals. They're the reason for a rather irritating plot hole - you can only see them if you've seen death, right? This book is the first time Harry's seen them, presumably because he saw the death of Cedric Diggory. But he saw the deaths of his parents, and of Quirrel back in the first book! He should have been able to see the Thestrals in the Prisoner of Azkban, but apparently not. Another aspect whose relevance I would question is Harry's trip into Snape's Pensieve, but I can't say anything about that, just because I loved the opportunity to see into the MWPP days. That section read an awful lot like an MWPP fanfic, which is good, I think. I really, really liked that bit - Lupin's list of identifying features of werewolves is probably one of my favourite parts of the book.
Which of course leads me on to the subject I was bound to bring up sooner or later - the Pairing Most Likely To Be Canon, now relegated to Pairing Most Likely To Have Been Canon. So, very little subtext, apart from the fact the pair of them were living in the same house (and they appear to have given Harry a joint Christmas present), but the death at the end! Oh, the whumping potential! While Sirius' death wasn't particularly jarring, what was terribly sad was Lupin holding Harry back, "voice breaking." I hope the JK Rowling makes more use of him, not just because I like him, but because he doesn't seem to have done very much in this book apart from being there. Even his transformations aren't mentioned.
The end of the book is the bit I can picture the most easily, probably as it's the only place mentioned I've actually been to - platform nine of King's Cross Station. The thought of Tonks, Moody, Lupin and the Weasleys standing there, being politely threatening, is just wonderful. Moody is delighted Uncle Vernon realises he's being threatened so quickly! And I think it's a nice place to finish the story - if you leave out the fact it's not really finished at all, and so much more has to happen. Sigh. How long till the next one?
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Re:
on 2003-06-24 02:12 pm (UTC)But still - Snape/Harry?
*shakes head* No. Please, no.
Re:
on 2003-06-24 02:14 pm (UTC)But it is rather vaguely squicky until you age Harry a bit...then it's not so much with the statutory rape. :)
Re:
on 2003-06-24 02:16 pm (UTC)*squicksquicksquick*
To think, I read the first book at the tender and innocent age of ten.
Re:
on 2003-06-24 02:26 pm (UTC)I read the first one when I was eleven and had *no* idea what fanfic was, but then the first fic I read was a Harry/Ron with allusions to Harry/Snape, and bang, I was corrupted for life.
Sorry for the squickage. :)