HBP review

[davewitley]

Geoff Bannister wrote:

> My reaction to the site was "Huh? Sad."

I have been reading it over the past few days and while I mostly 
enjoyed it and found it funny I found it did drag at times.

However, he does have interesting insights along the way, e.g. this 
on Chapter 29 about Slughorn (near the bottom of that page 
http://pages.prodigy.net/mike_p_smith/hbp/29.html ):

"Interestingly, he points out that he personally feels that there's 
no more danger at Hogwarts than there is anywhere else, which is a 
complete reversal on the reasons he came back to the school in the 
first place. I suppose Rowling could have forgotten about Slughorn's 
cowardice back in Chapter 4, but I prefer to think she's developing 
his character with this remark. As little as Slughorn has done in 
the book, it's gradually become clear that the reason he was hiding 
from the Death Eaters was because of what he knew about Voldemort 
and Horcruxes, and his fear that Voldemort might kill him to keep 
that connection a secret. Dumbledore convinced him the school was 
more secure than moving from place to place, but this was a lure so 
Harry could find out what he knew, which he eventually did. This is 
really Slughorn's first appearance since he drunkenly provided his 
memory to Harry, which makes me think that even though he probably 
doesn't even remember doing it, he feels unburdened now that his 
secret is out. Now the damage to Voldemort is done, so there's far 
less reason for the Death Eaters to want to kill him, but more than 
that, I think it shows that what Slughorn had really been afraid of 
all along was his own guilt. Now that he's more or less absolved 
himself, he's prepared to stick it out for the school even after a 
night like this."

I think he's right, and I hadn't thought of that.

Also, in the page on Chapter 30 
(http://pages.prodigy.net/mike_p_smith/hbp/30.html about halfway 
down in bold text for some reason) he has a discussion of the 
relationship of the book to Christianity that you might be 
interested in - too long to quote here.

David