Half-Blood Prince, take one

[raven]

Eeee. Just finished it.

Proper review later, just a few things. Firstly, I really, really enjoyed that. Much more than OotP, and I was totally gripped and not at all annoyed by the side-plots. Really good. I liked Dumbledore turning up at Privet Drive, I liked the initial scenes at the Burrow, it was all good. I liked the humour; the constant sniping between the Trio and Ginny, and Bill and Fleur - all so much fun. The spellcheck quill that christens Ron "Roonil Wazlib" actually made me giggle out loud on the plane.

Harry! Oh, mature, grown-up, fabulous sense of humour Harry. No more CAPS LOCK OF DOOM. Great characterisation, and I found myself really liking the POV character again. His mini love affair with Ginny was sweet, to say the least, and I did like the thoroughly teenagerish romantic wrangling between all of them.

Also - Remus. My six-year crush on Remus Lupin shows no sign of abating. I squeed when he appeared at Harry's birthday, loved the backstory we get on him, the loss of control he has at the end (which really shows the momentousness of the occasion) and the way everyone turns to him when Bill gets bitten.... eee. As for pairing him with Tonks, well. There's not like there was no lead-up - they've been friends for two books now - and I do like the way he seems determined to keep her away from him, hence the misery. I still maintain he's bi - 'cause he is - but there's certainly no objection from me. Bit ficcy, maybe. Too much tidy pairing off of characters. Still, that said, Fleur coming through at the end was brilliant. She's one of the good guys, after all.

As for Snape, and Dumbledore - more on that later. Eeee. Didn't expect that. I really thought Snape wasn't a Death Eater. I'm a little disappointed that Harry's not going back to Hogwarts; I suppose they can't really fit the entire thing into the school system any more, but still. End of an era.

Good book. More later. I am safely in Darwin, hopelessly out of sync with day and night, but still. Good to be here and alive.

Comments

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

Roonil Wazlib made me wonder if poor Jo with all her unusual vocabulary for these books has been driven a wee bit spare by Word's spellchecker. *grin*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heh, I like that. Actually the entire spellcheck sequence gave me fits of giggles.

[eternalwings.livejournal.com]

I've read it too, but don't kill me I'm not so sure I liked it really.
Sorry lol, it just seems shes taken the criticisim that all these characters are teenagers yet there have been little or no couples and decided to shove all that in here, and taken in account the high levels of Hermione/Ron interaction that takes place in the movies (That didn't appear in the books until fouth book really) and made a way for them to be together.
However, it did have a lot more Draco (squee for me) and I looooved emo!Draco, as well as the blatant hello to the shippers- come on, his moaning about how Voldemort will kill his family if he doesn't follow him is just typical of a HP/DM story is it not?
And the crying in the toilet- slayed me.
I did love the last.....1/5 of the book, got really hooked then though!

[pinkishmew.livejournal.com]

I thought all the misspelled names were a tribute to all the bad fanfic. ... Well, you never know.

I'm just glad Remus has got Tonks to help him get over Sirius. [grins]

Some Snape-fans say that he was actually being begged by Dumbledore to kill him, and he's really just keeping up the pretense, etc. etc. I say - now's the time to stop having a crush on an evil character.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Indeed, yes! This in no way invalidates the idea that Sirius and Remus were at it like bunnies for years.

I don't know - I think there is something more behind Snape's betrayal, something to do with the vow he took, but no, you're right, he's beyond redemption now. Eeeek.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

I disagree about Snape being beyond redemption. But you could have guessed that.

Snape - evil/not-so-evil?

[tau_sigma]

I'm not sure... I don't really see Dumbledore begging for his life, though, do you? I really think he may have expected that something like this could happen and could have been begging to be killed. I do like Snape but I don't think I'm just in denial about this!

(btw, sorry to randomly drop in here... I tend to lurk usually... ;)

Re: Snape - evil/not-so-evil?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I like about it. The variation in interpretation!

(Heh, nice to meet you. Funky username!)

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

On Snape: I keep telling myself that he's ev1l!!!11 now, but that first impression of Dumbledore begging to be killed keeps flopping around. But maybe that theory puts too much on Dumbledore's onmipotence and infailbilty; of course he knew Snape would kill him and of course he knew that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince and of course he knew that no matter what he'd done to keep up the Voldie act, Snape was good to the core. The scene was set up for both interpretations, so we shall see.

R.A.B: Regulus Black, of course. Sirius' Death Eater turned not-so-Death Eater brother, if I remember right.

"To your dear friend Rupert," (paraphrased): Slughorn toasting Ron while drinking with Hagrid, using the name of Ron's actor in the films...what a coincidence! Ha!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Snape. I do think that good or not, he's beyond redemption. No matter what his motives are or were, what he's done is unforgivable. Eee. Evil Snape really slays me.

The Rupert thing entirely escaped me. I am stupid. :)

[angeleyes699.livejournal.com]

I loved this book too. Keep having to tell myself Snape is also evil.

I thought the ending was ever so slightly lame. See Harry gets Ginny (a fangirl squee when he kissed her managed to escape my lips I admit) and they spend a little time together and next thing you know he leaves her with the line "we can't be together" and slaunters off.

How unangsty and without a proper fight is that? They have SO got to get back together in book seven!!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Well, you know. Harry's spent the book outgrowing angst, so I thought it would be OOC for either of them to make a fuss. Snape being evil is indeed hard to assimilate.

The lanky bugger

[(Anonymous)]

There's definatley something going on with Malfoy (like sympathy) Tonks and Remus? Never! Comeback Sirius, you are ment for him. I think in the final book Dumbledore and Sirius are going to reappear Obi-Wan style... Harry, I am your Father... Maybe Harry will have to pursue the last horcrux through the realm of the dead? I dunno, I'm just a poor spanner monkey.

Re: The lanky bugger

[(Anonymous)]

Who can't spell