HBP Spoilers!!

No likee, no clickee.



Well, the Ron/Hermione is certainly canon now, isn't it? Although Ron/Lavender is also, sadly. Sadly for Lavender, mostly, because even though she's not my type of girl, at least she's not the utter ass in the relationship that Ron is. In between hiding from his girlfriend and needing the idea of the lucky potion to play decent quidditch, I'm not that impressed with Ron this book. Grow a pair already, Gryffindor! He seems like a nice, average 16 year old boy: and I'm not much impressed with those either. *grin*

And the Harry/Ginny? Well, the break-up during a funeral because the angsty hero needs to focus on his huge and looming responsibilities couldn't have been lifted any more directly from the end of Spiderman unless they renamed him Harry Parker and made him stare longingly after his redheaded ex-girlfriend... oh wait. *rolls eyes*

I have no particular Ginny hate, now that she's grown out of the doormat stage, but I have no love either. And why is that? Because JKR had the hero's love interest missing from most of the book and all of the plot. I think I could like this new and improved Ginny- if I knew something about her besides quidditch, red hair and Ron's little sister. Oh, and she's apparently not afraid of kissing, which is good for my inner feminist, I suppose, but still gives me no idea of her as a person. Plus, I guess I'm not that big on the whole girl-next-door grows up and gets noticed cliche, but she is better than Harry's other het options, I suppose.

OTOH, go Remus/Tonks! And the Bill/Fleur interaction was quite cute, and heartwarming at the end, though it was sad to see Molly, Hermione and Ginny behaving like petty bitches at the beginning of the book, just because Fleur is pretty. Now that I think about it, JKR basically has Tonks totally fall apart for a whole school year because things don't initially work out for her and Remus, and that's at odds with my idea of what a sane, adult 20-something would do too. Guess JKR doesn't think highly of her own gender, eh?

Although not many people came off well in this book, really. Ginny improved, but as I said before, it's easy to improve on such a shallowly fleshed out character. And the men seemed to have it nearly as bad. Dumbledore might have been trying to make some obscure point to Harry with all the pensieve memories, but the fact remains that he kept Harry in the dark about quite a bit even 'til the end, and seems to have no qualms with encouraging him to partake in situations far beyond him, advanced DADA student or not. Just having a few decent conversations with Harry would have saved a lot of time and explained a lot more to Harry... all that enigmatic crap did was allow Harry to reach his own unstable 16 year old conclusions; and Harry's priorities were hardly in the right place.

Harry was certainly more obsessed with Malfoy than with Voldemort this book, that's for sure. (And also more obsessed with him than Ginny, or even quidditch.) Which is a bit scary since I know that JKR is intending to write Harry straight, and apparently thinks that a straight boy would leave his girl crush and his team to investigate his rival, if given a chance. Well, maybe on her planet.

Although Harry was an ass about Draco crying: a less petty person, or just a smarter one, would have tried to turn Malfoy instead of tail him. But wait, you say, Harry was right, Draco turned out to be evil at the end! Well, or at least a confused boy being blackmailed in fear of his life. Draco certainly does not come off as impressive, but he does come off sympathetically, at least to me on my initial reading.

And Snape: well, we shall see. I still am holding a hunch that Snape and Dumbledore had foreseen some of what happened, and that Snape might have been acting in the best interests of the Order when he did what he did. Or perhaps not, he makes a deliciously clever villian if he really has turned, so I've nothing riding on the theory either way. Voldemort certainly seems quite foolish at times, Snape seems to be by far the bigger challenge if he's really "teh evil" now, and not just going along with some cooked up Dumbledorian plot, and perhaps attempting to rescue Malfoy in the bargain.

ETA: I guess I do have one quibble with Snape turning out to be evil, after all. If that turns out to be true then indeed all the Slytherins we know by name will have turned out to be either evil, prats, or dumb as rocks. It would devalue the more nuanced picture I thought JKR was creating if there are no redeemable Slytherins what-so-ever, and would change the book in my mind from being an enjoyable fantasy series to an enjoyable children's series. Which is what it was intended for, true, but I'd stop rec'ing it to adults if it turns out to be THAT black and white. Brave house, Smart house, Friendly house, house of the ultimate evil... *wink*

And I'm kind of hoping that JKR won't always associate ambitiousness and planning with 'All that is evil and nasty', unless she really thinks that brave enough to risk your life for no perceptible gain is the highest and best character trait going; which, you never know. *grin*

And so having said all that, did I enjoy the book? More so than OoTP, certainly. CAPSLOCK!Harry is dead, though his memory still haunts Hogwarts quite effectively, and her editors did seem to encourage JKR to use the bulk of the book for plot points, and not abuse with the Dursleys or pre-school rituals. I think that all the (main) characters remain vividly depicted and refreshingly human, although perhaps a bit too much so: I do like a LITTLE bit of shiny on my heroes. I am genuinely curious about the end, and remain invested in the characters, even though I am beginning to suspect that I am rooting for the wrong ones, as Dumbledore's death didn't phase me a bit. But if book seven was to come out tomorrow, I'd go to get it, even if meant standing in line (again!) for 3 hours, so I guess that's all the affirmative review that an author could want.



If you've read it, tell me what you think! (Both of the book and my opinions.) *grin*

ETA: Yeah, I did only receive the book 2.5 hours ago, what's your quibble? I read fast.