Category Archives: Jane’s Great Re-Read

Jane’s Great Re-Read: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Review

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I always felt smug about this book, mainly because I worked out who the Half-Blood Prince was prior to it being published. I also guessed that Dumbledore would not make it to the final book. Although that was rather more obvious. This is a wild ride of a book, I loved all the sequences between Harry and Dumbledore. Dumbledore diminishing, though having learnt important lessons in the Order of the Phoenix. Also Snape you can’t talk about this book without thinking deeply about Snape stuck between a rock and a hard place and with no choice to his actions. And the questions about who is he actually loyal to?

And then there’s Draco, in well over his head and feeling every inch the frightened child that he is. I adore Dumbledore in the sequence, when facing down someone who charged with killing him, he tries to reason with him and even this darkest of moments he offers Draco a way out.

I cried at Dumbledore’s funeral I couldn’t help it. The huge protective presence in the novels is gone as it needs to be for Harry to realise his true potential and defeat Voldemort.

IMG_3465IMG_3466So my five things:

  1. Horace Slughorn a collector of people and the one Slytherin who doesn’t seem completely dark and evil.
  2. Felix Felicis.  I would love to have a small vial of that potion just for once.
  3. The confrontation between Snape and Harry when Harry goes after him after killing Dumbledore.
  4. The opening sequence with the muggle prime minister I like to imagine its Tony Blair because I’m a bit weird like that.
  5. The order being bad ass.

Jane’s Great Re-Read: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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Aw yeah. Re-reading Prisoner of Azkaban was a complete joy. This really is J K Rowling writing at her best here. No extraneous bits, the plots moves at a thundering pace and it is fantastic. Even the time travelling which is notorious to pull off well is competently done. The character development really starts here, we start to learn more about Snape and some of the reasons why he hated James Potter so much. Oh Severus, so much disappointment for you in this novel.

So without further ado five things from Prisoner

  1. Minerva Mcgonagall being disrespectful and passive aggressive towards Professor Trelawney and barely even managing to conceal it from the students. My favourite dig comes from Christmas dinner where Sibyl has been waxing lyrical and she counters by picking up a dish: “Tripe, Sybil?”
  2. Remus Lupin. The best Defence Against Dark Arts teacher ever. Marauder’s map manufacturer and werewolf. He gets a bum deal in this novel yet still fights for what is right.
  3. The dementors. They are a brilliant representation of depression and they are one of the most disturbing things in the the series of novels.
  4. That said I love way to fight them is a Patronus which is the essence of happiness in animal form. I would really like to have one of my own. It would probably a cat.
  5. Chocolate as the remedy for a Dementor attack. I try to always carry some round just in case.

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