Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Posted By Ardellis on November 22, 2005
I just finished reading this last night. OK, so I’m just a little behind the times. Believe me, I paid for it in sheer effort to avoid spoilers — which I was moderately UNsuccessful at, despite trying to stay away from most of the fan sites after the book came out.
There’s a reason that J.K. Rowling is selling as well as she is: because she can write. She can plot, create tension, put interesting people on the page, and set it all somewhere that’s just half a step to the left of familiar. And most importantly for a book aimed at kids, she doesn’t underestimate the intelligence of her readership. Which is, I think, why she’s so popular with adults as well.
Is it a perfect book? No, of course not. I think there are a few spots where she gets a mite heavy-handed, especially when trying to describe the emotional turmoil that goes on inside a sixteen-year-old boy when it comes to girls. (On the other hand, I’m not a sixteen-year-old boy, so what do I know?) But it’s a genuinely fun read, and I’m glad to see even the adult characters growing a bit as the series goes on.
‘Cause, let’s face it, huge chunks of the fandom are just plain smitten with the adults around Harry. Google them sometime: Sirius Black? Check. Lucius Malfoy? Check. Severus Snape? Check, check, and check. My Gods, the fangirls really love the bad boys, don’t they? Me? To pull a line from another fandom: I like nice men.
Which is my way of saying that I really like the fact that Rowling keeps bringing Remus Lupin back. And I really, really like where she’s got him at the end of the book.
The fangirl in me was horrified at the other thing she did at the end of the book, but the writer in me understands why she did it. Well, half of it anyway. I’ll wait for the 7th book to see where she’s going to go with the aftermath. I have my own ideas of what *I* would do now, but I suspect she’ll surprise me.
I guess you have to count me as just one of the many fangirls who love the bad boys. Black, yes. Snape, yes. But Lucius Malfoy — Oooh, too, too pretty, in that elegantly evil way I do so adore.
But you knew that. >;-)
–E.
I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate the brats and the villains (especially the brats, as you very well know). It’s just that there’s something about Remus…
I think he hits the same nerve in me that Nightcrawler does: dedicated to defending a world that fears and hates him. You know, the noble outsider, undeservedly marginalized, but still brimming with compassion for those who don’t understand.