Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)

by J.K. Rowling

Jim Dale (Narrator)

The war against Voldemort is not going well: even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of The Daily Prophet looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.

And yet...

As in all wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate--and lose a few eyebrows in the process. The Weasley twins expand their business. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are never straightforward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

So it's the home front that takes center stage in the multilayered sixth installment of the story of Harry Potter. Here at Hogwarts, Harry will search for the full and complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort--and thereby find what may be his only vulnerability.

• ISBN10: 0307283658
• ISBN13: 9780307283658
• Publish Date: 16 July 2005 (first published January 1970)
• Publish Status: Inactive
• Out of Print: 1 October 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House US Audio
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 17
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780307283658

Reviews

[sstaley]

We finally finished this. We only listen to the audiobooks in the car and frankly we haven't been going to many places lately. I still love this book and my son enjoyed it also. I love re-reading these books because every time, I pick up on something new. Jim Dale does such a fine job on the audiobooks that it makes listening to the story such a fun experience. Onto the last audiobook!

[moraa]

***FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, I CANNOT CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THIS AUTHOR***

It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.

4.5 stars

12/26/19: I knew this would wreck me when I picked it up and I still read it anyway. Maybe it was the masterful storytelling or maybe it was the unforgettable characters, I'll never know for sure. All I know is that I will never not cry every time I read that scene.

[remo]

Crítica original en CPI
Pues sí. He caído. He cambiado de opinión. No he podido resistirlo. Recordarán mis lectores que hace poco dije que esperaría a la edición española de Harry Potter y el príncipe mestizo para leérmelo. Pero tras haber sido vejado e insultado (pero de buen rollito, ¿eh? -gracias, Patxi y Raquel, por vuestro refuerzo positivo para animarme a leerme el libro-) en comentarios donde se me llegaba a calificar de Muggle, nada menos, he pasado por el aro. Lo que sí he cumplido es lo de no comprármelo. Qué bueno es tener amigos impacientes que te prestan cosas…
Y ahora, hablemos del libro. No voy a desvelar nada, por si hay lectores que no lo hayan leído. El libro es cojonudo. Me ha encantado. Hay muchas cuestiones que quedaron pendientes en el libro quinto que ahora se resuelven. Por supuesto, hay muchas más cuestiones que quedan abiertas. El libro séptimo va a ser la reórdiga. La acción es trepidante, no paran de suceder cosas, es realmente divertido. Como únicos fallos, podemos decir que, una vez más, y ya empieza a aburrir, Harry se pasa toda la novela diciendo que viene el lobo, y nadie le hace caso. O que cierta escena en una gruta parece escrita directamente para la película, defecto que también podríamos achacarle a Michael Crichton cuando empezó a vender guiones para Hollywood. Pero en términos generales es soberbio. Una vez más, JKR ha conseguido una novela fantástica de una serie que rompió hace mucho tiempo las fronteras de la literatura infantil. Mi nota: Imprescindible.

[ross91]

13 years ago I gave this book 3 stars. It was my least favorite of the series.
I still think this one and the seventh are not as great as the first 5, but I appreciate it more this time.

[Djilan]

What a emotional rollercoaster this book is. So much is happening. I really loved seeing how Harry is getting more mature and finding stuff out by himself.
I hate Snape more with every book. JK sure knows how to get us feeling so strongly about characters in a book.
And that dreadful ending.. Yes, 5 stars it is.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

So many things have changed at Hogwarts.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a complete turnaround from the angsty nightmare that was Order of the Phoenix.  There are EMOTIONS and it is BEAUTIFUL and character development happens and I LOVE IT.

Half-Blood Prince is my favorite book after Prisoner of Azkaban.  There is so much going on, and a BIG adventure is starting, and THINGS ARE GETTING REALLY REALLY REAL.  I could go on and on about how this book is delicious and how Rowling is my Queen.  How the writing is perfect, the characters are perfect, the story is perfect, I miss getting new Harry Potter books gahhh.  Instead of doing all that, I'm going to talk about the moments that made this book SHINE.  Because you're not going to randomly pick up the sixth book in the series, right?  By now you've read five other books and are in love.  So here's what you have to look forward to:

- Ron getting drunk on love potion (ROMILDA VANE!)
- Aragog is dead.
- But this is good because 1.) he's a BLOODY HUGE SPIDER; and 2.) the scene at his funeral with Slughorn and Hagrid is perfectly hilarious.
- Weasley Wizard Wheezes!  Fred and George are rolling in the dough in their joke shop and it's well-deserved and I love it.
- DUMBLEDORE IS BEING ALL MYSTERIOUS.
- Moaning Myrtle and Draco Malfoy are friends now.
- CHRISTMAS AT THE BURROW!  We've been waiting for this forever and it's not as wonderful as one would hope.  Dark times and all.
- Adventures with Dumbledore.  Including both dead bodies and a sofa, but not at the same time.
- Hermione jinxes Cormack McLaggen, as if we didn't love her enough.
- Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour are getting married and Molly is NOT amused.  Nor is Ginny.
- Harry Potter's got a girlfriend.
- He also thinks Draco Malfoy is up to no good.  DOESN'T HE ALWAYS?
- Really, though, Harry's growth in this book is really great.  Such a turnaround between pages 1 & the end.
- THE ENDING WILL LEAVE YOU WEEPING.
- SERIOUSLY HAVE TISSUES READY.

This book never gets boring.  There is so much going on, inside and outside the castle, that you are absolutely wrapped up in it.  Slughorn is an excellent edition to the staff at Hogwarts and Dumbledore's inclusion of Harry FINALLY gives us a little more insight into what's going on.

The end is really rough, and we have to deal with Snape doing Snape things and some VOLDEMORT THINGS.  Most readers will hate Snape by the end of this book, if they haven't already had the entire series spoiled by them but hardcore Harry Potter fans like me or worse.

Read more reviews at The Literary Phoenix.

[Rinn]

I'VE READ THIS BOOK COUNTLESS TIMES BUT I STILL CRY AT THE END EVERY TIME

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Harry returns to Hogwarts for his sixth year but it is not quite the safe haven it was when he left last June. Voldermort is growing stronger everyday and the death toll is rising. Inside Hogwarts Dumbledore is giving Harry private lessons to fully understand what makes Voldermort "Tom Riddle" tick and in turn Harry learns of the quest he must precede on to destroy the darkest wizard of his time. There is one memory en particular that could lead to his unraveling but first must be given by the schools new potion master Horace Slughorn.


As I saw Sarah Palin in Dolores Umbridge in The Order of the Phoenix I've found Barack Obama as Harry Potter in The Half-Blood Prince. Let's start with the basics shall we? Both Harry and Barack have been dub "The Chosen One" bringing hope and the thought of change to their respected communities. Second, is Potter and Obama sticking to their guns about what they believe in without backing down, even though each are heavily scrutinized for it; Barack Obama with his reform for health care and Harry Potter's claims that Voldermort has returned {although this was more prevalent in book 5}. Thirdly, Potter hits a dead end with the Horcruxes when the locket he and Dumbledore discovered turned out to be a fake. This also compares to Obama trying to get the Senate to pass his health care bill, as he is continually bumping heads with congressmen and filibusters detouring his desired route. Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore could also represent the Republican and Democratic parties. Fudge, who is judgmental and skeptical about what he is seeing from this figure and Dumbledore, who has complete faith in our hero.

[Jo]

Originally published on Once Upon a Bookcase.

With Half-Blood Prince, one of the things I will always love is learning about Tom Riddle's life through the pensieve and the Horcruxes. Discovering just how evil Voldemort is, just how far he went. However, this time, I also found it weird to think of Voldemort as a child, and it made me think of the question about whether it's nature or nurture that makes a person evil; Voldemort was certainly dodgy as a child. "I can make them hurt."

I also loved learning more about the prophecy and Harry's role. How the prophecy doesn't actually mean anything, just that Voldemort took stock in the part he heard, and how he actioned on it led to Harry being the only one who could defeat him. (Also, if Voldemort had never heard any of the prophecy, or went after Neville instead, I wonder how different the story of this world would have been.) I felt super proud of Harry when he finally realised that he wasn't going to go after Voldemort because of the prophecy, but that he would go after him because he wanted to, to get back at this evil villian who killed his parents and continually tries to kill him. If he never heard of the prophecy, he would still have gone after Voldemort. I think I finally got that this time round, too. Harry had the choice, and choosing to face such a deadly foe is just beyond brave.

As weird as it may sound, I liked seeing a more sensitive side to Draco. He was given this terrible task, as punishment for his father's failure, but he really struggled with it. For all his arrogance and seeming support of Voldemort, when it comes down to it, he has a really hard time facing what he has to do and going through with it. The failures he has with the cupboard and his tears in the bathroom... I felt for him, just a little, in that he finally realised how ruthless and villianous Voldemort is, and the consequences of letting him down. And he wavered at the end, he changed his mind.

I'm going to finish with how upsetting I will always find Dumbledore's death. The guide, the mentor, the protector... gone. Not just for Harry, but for me, too. I know he's just a character, but Dumbledore was so wise, and he imparted so much wisdom and advice, and words for us all to live by. And I grew up with this character guiding me as he guided Harry, and his loss was hugely felt for me.

I'm really, really looking forward to reading Deathly Hallows now, and completing this re-read. It's been so wonderful, and I'm really looking forward to this conclusion.

[Mercy]

Oh boy, the pain is real :((((((