Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

 

This is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series of novels. It really advances the story forward, not only revealing details of Voldemort's past but also finally revealing his weakness and, what Harry needs to do to defeat him. It also mixes in the "normal" school trials and tribulations like relationships, exams, and the like. The title of the book is based on an annotated potions book that Harry finds with notes by someone called "The Half-Blood Prince" that suddenly allows Harry to excel in potions, impressing the new potions professor, Horace Slughorn, a former Hogwarts professor who has a history with Voldemort when he was known as Tom Riddle.

As has been the case with most of the books, it contains a lot more material than was seen in the movie. There is a lot more to the Malfoy storyline, which in the book incorporates both Kreacher and Dobby, as well as having a lot more elements than was seen in the movie. It also develops the relationship between Ginny and Harry a lot more than the movie did. And, there is more to Harry and Dumbledore working together than we saw in the movie. It, like the prior two novels, was certainly long enough (at 650 or so pages) to be split into two movies, so if you have only seen the movie you will likely enjoy the book even more. 

As I said above, the book is long, but it flows well and makes for a fairly quick read. It continues to get darker in terms of the storylines and there are more characters in danger this year as the confrontation between Harry and Voldemort gets closer. It is definitely too dark for little kids but should be okay for most teenagers (as the books were written to become more adult as kids reading them aged). And, they are definitely good enough that adults can enjoy them too.