why kan’t zoe write?

this blog fell on july 19, tues.

i read fast. but having since acquired harry potter and the half-blood prince last saturday, i had no intentions of finishing the book too soon, especially with the load of work i have to accomplish stat. however, now that i find myself with a little more free time (that "load" only needs to be printed), i have spent most of the morning speed reading the half-blood prince. it’s 1:30pm, and i am quite saturated with it. i only have a hundred pages left, and it’s that part again where the term has almost ended and harry has again to face danger. it is at this part that i am convinced that the character who i suspect will die will.

i accidentally read a spoiler that there will be an obligatory death. most potter fans knew it was coming, but you still wonder all these years whether j.k.rowling will actually have the guts to finish the character off.

1 bathroom break + 1 phone call and 1 ½ hours later:

she did. no qualms. i was shocked. now i know why the reviews say that a lot of kids & readers have been crying late at night reading this book and will do so within the next few days.

no, i didn’t cry. but i am still in recovery from the shock. i actually needed to take a moment.

i can’t say if this is the best potter book yet. maybe it is. but as to why - i’m not really sure. i think i’m still stuck with liking prisoner of azkaban. but i can say this: it’s definitely worth the wait. it’s so much better than order of the phoenix, and her writing style has changed. she didn’t follow the usual formula of dursleys-burrow-diagon alley-the train ride-hogwarts-halloween-quidditch-hogsmeade-christmas-quidditch-climax. it was a relief that harry matured since sirius’ death (oops! anyone here hasn’t read OoP yet?). the pacing is rather fast as rowling goes straight to the point. hats off to her for not making the subject of harry’s love life mushy. he is, after all, a teenager now.

my only question is on the half-blood prince. it’s not so much as to who this character is, but what role the prince plays in the book besides the obvious. i am guessing that with the revelation of the prince’s identity at the end of the book, rowling would then take this cue as to the significance of the prince in book 7. i had some reservations on the prince’s identity. i was right about suspecting on who that character would be, but i ruled it out too early. i have a reason behind it, but that would mean spoilers.

all-in-all, this book sets you up for the finale for which you have a clear idea of what’s to happen. book 7 comes out in 2 years.

~ by kabibe on July 20, 2005.