Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (warning: SPOILERS)

[Maria]

One day late, but here it is at last, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince discussion.

 

I thought we should start off with the basics. How do we feel about this book? It's been a year, have we finally managed to look at it as canon, or do we still think of it as one giant fanfic? Give me your options, your yays and nays and let's talk about what it is we like or don't like about this book.

[Maria]

Can I just say how much I *love* this book? I've loved it since the first time I read it, and on my third read (which was this week) it's still as amazing. Why is this?

 

1. Harry and Ginny. Harry has a jealous monster inside him. It's so perfect. I've been a Harry/Ginny shipper since FOREVER, and the Kiss still makes me giddy and light headed.

 

2. Snape. Snape. Snape. Yes. We will come back to the whole "Snape good or evil" thing in a later discussion, so I'll leave it at that for now.

 

3. The answers. FINALLY, after going "huh?!" for five books we still start to get some answers. We now know what it takes to kill Voldemort, and although there are still a lot of questions (who is RAB? where are the last Horcruxes etc etc. this will also be discussed later), we finally have what seems to be the ultimate answer.

 

4. Ron and Hermione. Oh it's so OBVIOUS now! Even Harry realizes it. And let's face it, Harry isn't the brightest person when it comes to relationship-y stuff, so it really has to be there for him to notice.

 

5. Malfoy. Yes, Malfoy is an evil git, but he is so intriguing! I can't help but like him.

 

I think that's the beginning. I may add more later as I remember it.

[JenniferL]

I agree. I thought Ginny/Harry and Ron/Herminoe was pretty obvious, even in the early books. And going back and watching the movies, it seems that Rowling may have said a few things to the producers, because the actors lay some groundwork their as well.

 

I can see WHY people would want to put Harry and Hermione together from a story telling perspective, but it just doesn't make sense from a character perspective.

[Niamh Sedai]

I loved, loved this book. So much. It was dark, it was unexpected. It was scary. And it made some of my sad fan dreams come true. Hermione/Ron, Harry/Ginny, Bill/Fleur... It rocked me little Harry Potter fan socks! I loved all the twists-Snape, Dumble, Draco!

 

All in all, this is one of my favourites because I loved everything that happened, even the bad stuff. It just makes me sad that the next book is the final one :(

[MsDanya]

This book is definatly my favourite one, next to tGoF. I like it when things work out for the main characters, and it did (mostly) in this book.

 

It also had everything I wanted in it. the humour, the exitement, the danger, the love and the tragedies! the only idsapointment I had was that there was little from Harrys time with the Dursleys. I hope to see more of the stupid muggles in the next book!

 

Dumbledoor is dead and will stay dead, or, to say it honestly, I'll be alittle disappointed.

 

but overall, I loved it and I cant wait to read the next one!!!

[KellySedai]

This is definitely my favorite one in the series so far. The kids are truely growing up before our eyes, and thankfully, are growing up to be decent people through it all.

 

The Harry/Ginny relationship was fantastic, I've been waiting for this for quite awhile now. I'm also very pleased to finally see Ron and Hermione get together after all this time. We all knew it was coming. :D

 

The loss of Dumbledore was a tragic loss. I cried my eyes out over this, and was furious at the means to his demise. We will discuss this more though I'm sure.

 

I was also very excited to see that its finally coming closer to the end in that Harry now knows the way to destroy Voldemort. I'm very curious to see where the other horcruxes are, and what they are for that matter. **RAB is Regulus Augustus Black, Sirius's brother/former Death Eater. I'm almost convinced that the horcrux will be found at the Black house in the next book. The locket was actually mentioned in the Order of the Phoenix when the gang was cleaning the house, but at the time, no one knew what it was. Kreacher will probably have it hidden away somewhere.**

 

I'm really looking forward to this discussion, and all of your opinions concerning what the future holds for our favorite wizard. :D

[Maria]

Yes.. we're going to do a Horcrux discussion later on, as well. Maybe we'll start off with that tomorrow. The way I see it there are three major topics that need to be discussed:

 

1. evil!Snape or really-good-at-acting!Snape

2. Dumbledore *les sighs*

3. The Horcruxes

 

Any other topics you want discussed?

[MsDanya]

ooh, whos a deatheater and whos not! maybe we'll see some new deatheaters in the last book.. something to suprise us all!

[Guest Karana Majin]

Maria, add Draco to your list. He could use his own discussion.

 

I loved this book, too. My mom loved this book. She called me afterwards RANTING how come I didn't tell her Dumbledore died??! I was like, would you really have wanted me to tell you that?? She was blown away.

 

I have to say, I've been reading these since the very first one came out and no one had heard of them. My mom's boss would always buy new books in hardcover (she was a gazillionaire) and would pass them around the office when she was done. She sent The Sorceror's Stone to my mom with a note attached, I didn't care for this... maybe mary will like it.

 

LOL

[Dwynwen]

I loved this book, just as I've loved all the others in the series. Why have people said it was like a fanfic? I just can't see that. JKR never fails to amaze me with her creative genius and her way of bringing out the readers' emotions. I probably used up a whole Kleenex box when Dumbledore died!

 

The main things that interested me were the horcruxes (i.e. where are they, and is Harry a horcrux himself?), Dumbledore's death (i.e. can he come back, and can Harry somehow communicate through his portrait?), Snape (is he evil or not?), and Malfoy (will he stay an a-hole or convert to the good side?). I was also glad to see that Ginny's old crush on Harry turned into more and that he likes her back. It's always nice to have the person you like feel the same way about you.

 

Mia, one thing we could add to the list is a discussion dealing with predictions for the next book. For example, I read somewhere that JKR said two main characters would die in the next book, so we can speculate about who it will be. It would also be interesting to try to predict stuff about the horcruxes, Dumbledore, Snape, and Malfoy.

[Zardi]

It still feels like a fanfic to me, but I know that it actually is canon :P It's just that several things that happened in it are quite popular in fanfiction. I'm not suggesting that JKR changed her story to fit fan ideas. Not at all. It's just that the fandom managed to put some plausible scenarios into their fanfics. However, I have essentially stopped reading fanfiction unless it is clearly AU, because I don't want to risk book 7 feeling like a fanfic as well.

 

It's not my favorite in the series (that's OotP) nor is it my least favorite (CoS), but I'm having trouble deciding where it falls.

 

Dumbledore's death didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, given that he's one of my favorite characters. I think that might be because I was anticipating it the entire book, from the moment we saw Dumbledore's shrivelled hand. And yes, I do believe he's really dead.

 

Malfoy: Annoying as ever. But at least we got to see a facet of him other than "class bully."

 

I was surprised how lightly Harry got off after casting sectumsempra on Draco. I think that's one of my biggest problems with this book. I didn't expect him to be expelled or anything like that, but he could have killed Draco. For that matter, I'm surprised Harry cast a spell on someone without knowing what it does. That's one of the most irresponsible things he's ever done, I think.

 

Harry/Ginny, I never liked, but I didn't hate it as much as I expected myself to. Same goes for Ron/Hermione.

 

I loved Snape in this book. I'm still torn about which side he's really on, as both sides have very good arguments, but I'm leaning towards "good."

 

The horcrux idea is brilliant. I had a theory, when I finished the book, that maybe Peter's silver hand was a horcrux (created after Peter killed Cedric at Voldemort's bidding, then giving Peter over to Snape for safekeeping), but whether that's even possible or not depends on how a horcrux is made. Does it require potions and showy spells, or is it something Voldemort can do without anyone knowing he did it? And is ordering someone to kill an innocent, rather than doing it yourself, bad enough to allow you to split your soul?

[Maria]

*gasp* you don't like Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione? *sigh* Some people :P

 

;)

[Zardi]

Well, I used to hate them, partially because I didn't like Ron, and felt rather indifferent about Ginny. But now that I've actually seen the ships in action, I can tolerate them :P

[Maria]

How is it possible to not like Ron? I LOVE Ron!! And Ginny! How awesome is Ginny? VERY that is how.

 

Sorry.. I am a little protective :p

[LadyMoraine Sedai]

This book was a whole different side to the childrens series that JK was writting...I actually enjoyed it more than the rest because it sat on a level of intensity that I felt was missing for me in the others.

 

I loved the love connections..However I never did see the Harry/Ginny thing coming.. I do though, wonder how the hell they are going to make a movie out of it. I did end up reading GOB and I saw HOW MUCH WAS MISSING!!!! I cant see that they could leave anything out, because every chapt, has some bearing on something important! Its a great book, and Im glad I read it!

 

And I agree... the whole malfoy and severus snape bears discussion!

[Pookie]

I do think the love connections are part of what makes people say it feels like a fanfic. Trouble is, if you really think about high school they make perfect sense. Why would a normal high school be crammed full of "who's dating who"/"she's in love with him"/"he wants in her pants" discussions and have none of that be in a fictional high school setting? Teenagers are horomonal and from my point of view, that's important to put in a novel like this for reality's sake. Though I'm glad she's kept it crush-like and not sexed up. ;)

 

I personally thought there was a lot more depth in this book, particularly in some of the sideline characters. Seeing more of Draco's personality was enlightening and actually made me care about what happens in his future rather than just seeing him as the bully on the outskirts tormenting Harry's group. And not just in a "I hope he gets his own" kind of way. The cliffhangers have me more anxious for the next book than any other book in this series have left me. I love the puzzles that may have been present in some of the other books, but become more front-and-center in this book. (One of the reasons WoT appealed to me in the first place was the puzzles.) I'm a bit ho hum about the romances (*restrains Mia to avoid being slapped*) but I think that's more because they did seem so obvious even early on and I prefer the action-y aspects of the stories. I think I just might be forced to put the book down if one of the rumored deaths is part of the Ginny/Harry or Ron/Hermione pairs. The remaining part of the pair could only be annoying to me from that time on, since some of their actions (or inactions) from that point on would likely be driven by grief/revenge. There's enough of that with Dumbledore's death, which I personally want to believe is real regardless of Snape's alligiances. I could see Snape being evil and it being the ultimate backstab or Snape being good and it being an issue of recognizing that one person is not greater than the cause, even if it is Dumbledore the Great. I am interested to see how the school's hierarchy changes due to his death and in particular who becomes the new headmaster.

[Maria]

Well, it's pretty obvious that McGoogles is the new Headmistress, that as good as says itself.

 

And don't worry Pookie, as much as I *love* the romance parts of it, that's why we have fanfiction. I don't mind so much that we don't have too much of that in the books themselves =)

[Jhaenara]

"I do think the love connections are part of what makes people say it feels like a fanfic. Trouble is, if you really think about high school they make perfect sense. Why would a normal high school be crammed full of "who's dating who"/"she's in love with him"/"he wants in her pants" discussions and have none of that be in a fictional high school setting? Teenagers are horomonal and from my point of view, that's important to put in a novel like this for reality's sake. Though I'm glad she's kept it crush-like and not sexed up. "

 

That's almost exactly what I was gonna say, but I haven't had time... lol... and still don't have a good chunk of time to sit down and post to all this.

 

I don't really get the fanfic thing. I thought the story was good and it did HAVE a story. When people kept saying it was a fanfic before I read it, I was waiting for no storyline and all kinds of other filler crap, and it didn't hit me that way at all.

[Jaydena]

Well Ron kind of annoys me! I still love him though, but sometimes I just want to smack him over the head and say, dude she likes you get a clue. *G* Well I loved this part, though I can't say I was fond of the loss of such a main character. I had it figured out that someone would die, in fact we talked about in the line on the night it came out. Everyone disagreed with me but I told them that as a fledging writer myself, it only made sense to substain the integrity of the story. *sighs* Oh well, I guess I was right! I loved the whole love bit in this book, you had to know it was coming, honestly have we not been waiting forever and a day for this to come about. I also have to say that I actually felt so sorry for Draco in this book and not just him but Snape as well. I can't help but feel like he is being put into something against his will.