(no subject)

[cicer]

So. Wow. I don't know about you, but I didn't see that coming. First of all, I've gotta say that I feel towards this book about the same way I felt towards OotP when it first came out. Mainly, my reaction was first, "WTF?!". And then secondly, "No, really, WTF?!". And finally, "I'm not absolutely sure how I feel about this book, but I don't think I like it."

I have very mixed feeling about OotP and HBP. I can definitely say that I'm not thrilled about the direction JKR has taken the series in. I really liked books 1-4, but have found myself terribly disappointed with the last two, and trying to figure out why.

I don't like "romance" and pairing the characters up, and boy, HBP sure had a lot of that. I realize romance and attraction are a natural part of life, especially for the characters Harry's age, but it somehow seems like cheap emotion. There's a war going on, people are dying, friendships and alliances are strained, people are struggling with feeling of animosity and hatred, and JKR chooses to focus on teenage crushes as her relationship of choice? That seems lame and weak to me. Plus, especially in this book JKR seems to want to pair everybody up. Come on. If you must focus on teen crushes so much, pick one relationship and show that. Don't make everybody be falling in love. That just makes me suspect Voldemort slipped some love potions into the Hogwarts pumpkin juice so everyone would be too distracted by their own angst to fight him.

I'm not thrilled by the whole Harry/Ginny thing. I liked Ginny much better as a shy, yet spunky friend and Ron's little sister. Now all of a sudden she's this hot little vixen that everybody loves, and Harry's suddenly nuts about her when he's never had feelings for her before. That smacks of two-dimensional characterization and a little bit of Mary-Sueism.

The Ron/Hermione relationship is okay with me. There have been hints of it through the last several books, so I saw it coming. My feelings toward Ron and Hermione are rather lukewarm anyway, so I don't much care who they're involved with.

The Tonks/Lupin thing. Okay. Now, this is the one I really want to wank about, and I'm trying to hold myself back. To me, this came so completely out of left-field, I'm pretty gobsmacked. I have a lot of issues with this pairing, or more to the point, the way JKR set this pairing up. Specifically, she didn't. It was all, Tonks is Sad. Remus is Thin and Gray. Oh, look, they're in love, even thought we had absolutely no hints about that or any kind of set-up whatsoever! How sweet! Huh? I'm not sure how I feel about Tonks, because she's been such a minor character and has only been in two books in a very tiny role. I like Lupin very much, but he's been reduced to a cardboard character, a guy who is all tragic and angsty in the background. That's kind of lame, and I'm a little disappointed with JKR for what she's done to what was a really great character.

And of course, one of my main problems with this pairing is that to me, Remus has either gotta be asexual or gay. I cannot see him as straight, at all. I'm sorry, I just can't.

Let's talk about Snape next. I'm holding out hope that he's not really full-on evil. If he is, I will be sorely disappointed. He's an incredibly fascinating character with shades-of-gray morality. I will be annoyed if JKR spoils that and just makes him Voldemort version 2.0. I love reluctant good guy Snape. It's been really interesting to see him struggle with himself and watch as more of his personality is revealed. I would really, really hate it if he just turns out to be a cheap villain. Please no.

Horcruxes. Shouldn't this huge deus ex machina have been brought up before the second-to-last book? You can't just jam these huge plot points in at the very end, or it looks like you have crappy planning skills and are just trying to figure out a cool, mysterious reason for everything to work out smoothly. A lame presentation of a potentially fascinating idea.

Occlumency. What the hell happened to it? It was the biggest weapon and plot point in the last book, and now Dumbledore is like, "Yeah, I know I said it was the most important thing, Harry, but Voldemort figured out a way to block it, so we're never going to mention it again." What the fuck? That was one of the things that bugged me most about this book. JKR seems to have randomly dropped a whole bunch of things that were important in the last book with little to no explanation.

Onto Harry. The big guy. The main character. The Chosen One, the only one who can defeat the Matrix and free us all- no, wait, wrong series. Really though, "the Chosen One"? Could JKR not come up with anything less original than that? What about Hero McHeroson? Jeez.

Harry's been bugging me in the last few books. Earlier in the series, he was the reluctant tragic figure, but never pitied himself. He did the right thing simply because he believed that it was the only thing to do, and he didn't whine about it. Now he's throwing himself a pity-party every other page, speak in ALL CAPS whenever he's emoting, and seems to be doing more what he thinks is good for himself, not anyone else. I used to love Harry, and cheer for his poor noble but brave little soul. Now he seems like kind of a slimeball and a jerk.

Woobie!Malfoy! Now where did that come from? Wasn't JKR always telling us that he was evil, darn it, and he wasn't a sympathetic character and we weren't supposed to like him? I'm pleasantly surprised by his new 3-D characterization, but a little confused.

Speaking of confusion, let me chatter about Dumbledore. This guy creeps me out. He always has. Plus he's confusing. Is he just a nice old guy? Is he a powerful wizard? Is he misguided? Does he have ulterior motives? How much does he really know about everything, and why won't he tell us? I'm bummed he's dead. It seems a little early for that. What's Harry going to do for guidance now? It's like the safety net is gone. It's interesting, though, and I am anxious to see if he's going to come back or not. Hm.

Overall, I give this book about 5/10. Very mediocre in my opinion, and a disappointment after waiting for so long and having so much hope after being let down in OotP.