Book Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

 

Order of the Phoenix, published in 2003, is the fifth book in the original series of seven novels in the Harry Potter world. Of course, more have been added over the years, and the universe of Harry Potter has expanded beyond the original set of books. It is set in Ron, Harry, and Hermione's fifth year at Hogwarts. At the beginning of the story, Harry and Dumbledore are being discredited by the Ministry of Magic for saying Voldemort has returned. As a result, the Ministry tries to take over Hogwarts by installing one of the worst characters (meaning one of the best "bad guy" characters) from the series, Deloris Umbridge, at Hogwarts. She is first installed as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, then accumulates more power. 

The hardcover version of the book is very long (840 pages), and because it was not split into two movies (unlike Deathly Hallows), there is a lot in the book that the movie cut out or changed heavily to fit time constraints. There is much more in the book (especially at the beginning) than in the film. For example, there is much more information about the Order and what they were up to, and there is much more about the Harry-Voldemort mind connection. And, of course, there was a whole storyline with Hermione and SPEW that had been removed from The Goblet of Fire movie adaptation, which continues in this novel, and was totally left out of the movie.  The book is also darker (yet again) than the previous books, and since the idea is that kids would be reading it when they were around 14-15 years old, they would be able to handle more violence and death than when they were 9 or 10 (about the ages that the first novel was appropriate for). 

The book's style is much like the others'. It takes longer to read than the first three novels only because it is over twice as long as those books were. But in terms of readability and how easy it is to follow, it is on par with the shorter novels. And, as I have said about the other novels, even though they are technically kids' books, adults can easily enjoy them as well. That is true whether you read them as a kid and are now an adult, or read them for the first time as an adult.  The stories hold up very well over time and are definitely worth coming back to.