OOP : My Review (SPOILERS)

[jonathandupont]

No: HPFGUIDX 61406

So, it's finally out. Feels strange, doesn't it? Anyhow, had to 
write a review just to work out my own thoughts, and naturally 
enough it contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the whole book. Short non-
spoiler version : Me like.

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The clock ticked past midnight and I was sitting on my sofa, reading 
through the last few chapters of Goblet of Fire. A small smile 
appeared on my face – it was out. I finished at around half one, 
surprised to be reminded how dark the last few chapters and outlook 
was. The last line seemed to me to be an extreme cliffhanger, 
something in retrospect was very cruel with the break coming. But 
the conclusion to that would not come till the morrow, so I went to 
bed.

When I woke, I lay awake for a while, wondering if Amazon had 
delivered in time. Eventually walked downstairs and it was there
– I felt less relieved than I had done. I did a few other things 
before I opened, checked my mail and the usual round of web sites, 
wanting to have no distractions. Then I opened the box, lifted out 
the hardback and flick randomly through it and glanced at the new 
chapter titles. I think they got to me more than anything else.

I sat down back on the same sofa and began to read. The first thing 
I noticed was how angry Harry was, as JKR had said. Apart from that 
nothing really stuck out for a long time, but I was, well, content. 
Happy to be finally reading it at last and seeing it was up to form. 
The first thing that really surprised me was Cho and Harry's
first encounter – I couldn't believe that the whole fandom had
seemingly discounted this relationship, and here it was going on.

I took a few breaks throughout the day, and wasn't exactly
hurrying, and finished it about a quarter to midnight. It wasn't 
really till the next day that the emptiness of that post Christmas 
syndrome really hit me. Rereading it too, as I had done frantically 
with the other books, seemed a lot harder.

Overall, I liked it – a lot, I think. In reflection there was the 
faintest feeling that it lacked a strong central something, maybe a 
gimmick, but I don't think that really hurt it. The bleakness, as 
everyone has taken to describing it, really worked for me. The more 
complicated characters in the Marauders and Snape were lovely, and 
Harry suddenly took on new dimensions with his hero complex. JKR had 
broken the formula, and that's great.

I tried writing Harry Potter fanfiction once and could never get the 
hang of it. The one storyline that has attracted me though for a 
long, long time is a Hogwarts barring out. A barring out in 
traditional school stories, in when a new horrible headmaster comes 
in and is so terrible that the whole school is forced to rebel. 
Whether that takes the place of literally creating a siege or secret 
societies differs, and eventually normally our heroes are expelled 
just before the old Headmaster returns to put everything to rights.

Well, JKR, sort of did it, and I love her for it. She didn't go
the whole way, and I would have preferred a more concrete long time 
rebellion at the end, the DA continuing despite being found, and 
Harry to be expelled, but what we got was pretty good.  The DA by 
themselves were fun, and I defy anyone to come up with a better 
moment than Fred and George's exit.

I realise that I completely and utterly don't understand
shipping. People are already declaring Harry/Cho dead, and well, 
don't any of you actually care that the boy got his first kiss?
Most 
people seem to have brushed the whole thing aside, which seems a bit 
silly to me, as it's the only relationship in canon that has 
*actually* happened. Sure, it's probably over, but not
irreparably 
so, especially compared to the more exotic other ships people create
– Harry isn't exactly in the best of moods right now and Cho
still 
seems to feel something for him.

The other topic I probably should hit is the death. In a lot of ways 
I'm almost reminded of the Tara outcry from Buffy – people
don't seem to have reacted well to this one at all. I have to say 
that to be honest I found Cedric more tragic, but I could see how 
people could be upset by this one. The fact that we knew someone was 
going to die was great as suddenly I had to worry every other page 
for Mr Weasley or Neville. It seems we've also got a new female
Death
Eater enemy number one, seeing as both Harry and Neville have now 
got a thing against her and she's still at large.

Oh, and one other thing – can someone explain to me Harry and 
Sirius's relationship? I just don't understand why Harry
feels so much closer to Sirius than Lupin, both of whom were his 
parent's friends who now care for him. Lupin helped him out for a 
whole year, while he only knew Sirius for a couple of days. Yet when 
he wants to talk about something they both know in Snape's
memory, 
it's instinctively Sirius he goes to.

All the characters seemed to come on a lot this year, with the 
possible exception of Hermione, who however was still in the book an 
awful lot (Hagrid's brother, and so on). I don't think this
is necessarily a problem as she got her own development in GOF and 
there was more than enough in everyone else to make up for it. Ron 
finally got some of what he wants in being a Prefect and playing at 
Quidditch, but he's not instinctively amazing at it –
excellent, and a clever way to ensure that we don't have to get 
bored through another whole tournament. I'm not sure what excuses 
JKR's going to come up with for the next two books, although I 
suppose just the war could cover it, as I'm fairly sure we're
never 
going to see Quidditch as full on as in POA again.

Neville, obviously, grew an awful lot stronger, while still being 
hopeless at DADA. Ginny's development was slightly more
problematic and making her into a Seeker was perhaps a tiny bit too 
much, but overall I like it. She managed to constantly surprise me 
throughout the book, and her frantic love life off screen can help 
offset the Trio's relative calm. Sirius, James and Lupin all were 
shown faults, while we were given some nice Snape sympathy. If fanon 
didn't hate her as much, Cho could be a very interesting
character 
what with her inner conflict between Harry and Cedric – I like
her. 
Draco stayed as one dimensional as ever, but there you go

Percy's 
arc was also near the edge of being over the top to me, but I think 
it just about worked, and where we go from there could be 
interesting.

As for new characters, we seemed to get a nice handful. Shortly – 
Krauker's fun; new Moody is almost like the old, but not quite, 
which is exactly as it should be; Tonks is fine, but I don't want
to see too much of her; Luna's being set up for something in the 
future, and I'm sort of hoping it isn't a relationship with
Ron; Umbridge was realistically devoted to her job.

The end sequence had a nice concept and was suitably action packed, 
although I would have preferred if the whole DA came, although I 
presume they will be used again later. I found the Tom/Dumbledore 
sequence extremely cool, and not a disappointment at all, which it 
so easily could have been. 

I can see where people may have been under whelmed by the Prophecy, 
but to me it's helpful to remember what's obvious to the
reader, won't necessarily be so to the characters in the book.
Harry's literary destiny has always obviously been to confront 
Riddle, but there's a difference between that and the character 
knowing for sure for himself. Rather than contradict the message 
that what counts is choice, I think this instead nuances it by 
reminding us that some things that are inevitable. After all, the 
idea of destiny and prophecy has been with us since PS, and 
JKR/Firenze goes to great lengths to point out that nothing is ever 
certain.

So, overall, I'm happy. It's way too early to give it a
ranking – after all I haven't even decided yet whether I
prefer POA 
or Goblet. In many ways it's a meaningless question anyway as
it's so
different in tone and form to them. What matters to me is that
I'm 
not disappointed, and as ever I need to know what happens next. 
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but it wouldn't surprise
me if
we didn't have to wait as long as another three years, either.

Jon