Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

We purchased the book Saturday and I began it Saturday night and finished up this morning. I can't do a full review yet because I would need to include too many spoilers and I am going to guess that many of you have not yet read the book.

Lately I have immersed myself in the world of Potter again. I watched the first three movies, read parts of Goblet of Fire and all of Order of the Phoenix. I have been knitting a very large Hogwarts Gryffindor scarf and listening to the soundtracks of the first three movies. I enjoy doing these things before a new movie or book comes out, to refresh my mind of the story.

I still feel that my favorite book is Book Five: Order of the Phoenix (which Serona really dislikes) and while I did enjoy the newest book it was predictable with few surprises for me. It had a slow start and I thought the use of the pensieve got a bit old and was just a convienant storytelling tool.

I do like where the series is going however and the explanations that came out. I think this is a good setup book. Not a book I am thrilled with by itself - yet it sets up things for the following book and does a lot of explanation for the series. I think what is unimpressive to me is the things set up to be surprises or twists in the book did not seem that way to me as I figured them out quite early.

I always go back to the fact that these are children's books though so I should not expect too much subtly and difficulty in reading them. I suppose some may be surprised by what I found predictable but that did take out some of the fun for me.

In my opinion the enjoyable part of the story begins in chapter 22 - 469 pages into the book! There were a few good moments or chapters up until then but that is when the story really drew me in.

Hope you enjoy the book.
Peace,
Tenn