Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)

by J.K. Rowling

[clementine]

God, I love OoTP. It's so much more intricate than any of the previous books, even GoF. I found myself drawn towards it, always wanting to read more - hence how quickly I finished it, I suppose. Once again, it's laden with clever clues, rich details, and more than enough mystery to keep the reader hooked. JKR creates multiple levels of mystery. The most pressing mystery is what's behind the door in Harry's dreams, as it quite obviously has a connection to Voldemort, but Dumbledore's new aversion to Harry adds a more personal layer. Dumbledore has always been such a sympathetic character, and someone who Harry could rely on, and the fact that he ignores Harry seems to denote a shift in the wise old man we have come to rely on along with Harry. This is paired with increasing suspicions of Snape - and then conflicting information, since he's part of the Order - that makes it really difficult to know who to trust.

I think OoTP is the first book that I feel is so fully enriched with detail that I didn't want to put it down. As I've said, I really like PoA and GoF, but in the three years between GoF and OotP it's clear Jo improved her writing quite a bit, as there is a marked difference in the level of detail and even complexity of plot. She also does such a fabulous job of pulling in details from the other books, and not just dropping them in favour of the plot of the current book. An example of this is S.P.E.W. (which does become important in terms of Ron and Hermione's kiss), and more specifically Winky's role at Hogwarts. I think this is one of the reasons that the world of Hogwarts is so immersive: Jo never just drops a thread, no matter how seemingly insignificant. Every tiny aspect of the wizarding world is repeated multiple times throughout the series, instead of just being dropped haphazardly here and there.

Obviously the levels of desperation, fear, and darkness have reached a new high in OotP. As I said before, while GoF is clearly much darker than the three previous to it, it still has not reached such a high pitch of scariness. However, with the new world established in OotP - one where Voldemort is on the loose, Dementors are no longer under Ministry control (no matter how inappropriate it was for the Ministry to be using them in the first place), the Ministry has seeped into Hogwarts in an incredibly chilling way, and Harry's scar is constantly prickling - we can really see just how scary it would be to live as a witch or wizard in the UK of 1995.

So many people say OotP is their least favourite, and that it's boring, and I totally disagree. It was actually the book I was most looking forward to reading this time around. Angsty Harry does get quite old (and I am generally not a huge fan of Harry, though I'm finding him more sympathetic this time around), but, WHATEVER, I LOVE IT, SO THERE.

I'm running out of things to say in these reviews. It all boils down to "Jo is a genius and I love this."