Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling

Author: J K Rowling
ISBN # 074758110
607 pages

It’s Harry’s penultimate year at Hogwart’s School for Witchcraft & Wizardry. Now that he has the results of his OWLs, he can choose which subjects to study to NEWT level, but it’s not going to be easy. Mysterious disappearances are occurring & the mayhem ensuing from the activities of the Death Eaters is spilling over into the muggle world. The two halves of Harry’s life are fast colliding. Throughout this year, Harry will have to keep his wits about him if he & his friends are even going to survive long enough to take their apparition tests. With a heavy study load, Harry has a little extra help in the form of notes penned by the mysterious Half-Blood Prince in an old copy of Advanced Potion Making, but is all as it seems…?

In this 6^th book, we learn more of Voldemort’s history & discover that he & Harry may have much more in common than either one of them would like to admit. There’s more undercover activity by the Order of the Phoenix & Harry is made privy to perhaps more knowledge than he’d like. He has to learn that the price of growing up is having to behave like an adult. The scenes between him & Dumbledore seem to have taken a new twist & Harry no longer sees his mentor as infallible, but as a human with faults of his own.

He also starts to see his friends in a different light & realises that relationships have to evolve as we grow older. Although I personally felt that Harry might be a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to girlfriends, he makes up for it with his mature attitude towards his own responsibilities (if you’ve read it already, you’ll know what I mean, if you haven’t, you’ll see…).

This one still didn’t quite live up to Goblet of Fire for me, but it was pretty damned close. Just the right mix of action & adventure as well as progressing the story we’ve been following over the previous 5 books made for a riveting read. I only hope the tale gets the finale it deserves when Rowling produces the 7^th instalment!

Rating: 8/10