Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling - WARNING! I am reviewing the Harry Potter ooks with the idea that those who read my reviews have read the books. There will be spoilers. If you haven't read Order of the Phoenix, read no further.
Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. 'It is time,' he said, 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.' Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry. He is desperate to get back to school and find out why his friends Ron and Hermione have been so secretive all summer. However, what Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his whole world upside down ...But before he even gets to school, Harry has an unexpected and frightening encounter with two Dementors, has to face a court hearing at the Ministry of Magic and has been escorted on a night-time broomstick ride to the secret headquarters of a mysterious group called 'The Order of the Phoenix'. And that is just the start. A gripping and electrifying novel, full of suspense, secrets, and - of course - magic. From Amazon UK
I absolutely lov this book because I have such a terrible time emotionally reading it. Hary is so, so angry all the way through this book, on the verge of completely blowing his top, and I find it quite understandable. Then he gets attacked by Dementors, expelled, unexpelled, has to go to a hearing, has to have Defence Against the Dark Arts classes with Umbridge, see Arthur Weasley attacked by him-as-snake, and then has to face Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, watch Sirius die, face Voldemort, then find out he's the only one who can defeat Voldemort, or vice versa. Pretty bad year for him - and a hard reading experience for me.
Yet I find it a completely brilliant book! Oh how I hate Umbridge, but I love her too, she's just so vile! She's completely wonderful as a villian, so disturbing in her ruthlessness. But it's because of her that the DA is started, and how wonderful are those secret classes? Wouldn't you just love to go to them?! I remember being completely disgusted by Umbridge when I first read this book, but then completely thrilled to read about the DA!
Not only that, but I was utterly disturbed, right along with Harry, when he attacks Mr Weasley from inside the snake's head. We know it wasn't really him, but at that time... the thought that he could have been possessed! This book is just creepy, on a completely different level to the creepiness of Prisoner of Azkaban. Where PoA frightens by being eerie, Order of the Phoenix frightens by being disturbing and shocking, and there's something to shock us further around every corner. It's just brilliant.
I love the big batte in the Department of Mysteries. How wonderful for the characters we love to actually fight along with Harry! And how badly it goes, it's just so suspenceful! What Im so excited for now is when Pottermore is up and running, and it gets round to Order of the Phoenix and we can find out more about the Departments of Mysteries. When Fudge turns up at the Ministry after Dumbledore has duelled with Voldemort, Dumbledore refers to the room with the veiled archway as the Death Chamber, and says later that the Depeartment of Mysteries is for study and that death, human intelligence and the forces of nature - along with another force in a locked room he doesn't name but from his description I assume is love. So I guess the Unspeakables study death in the Death Chamber, and Human Intelligence in the brain room, and forces of nature possible in the time room, maybe, but I want to know more! I want to know why they study thm, and what they've found out, and what exactly is on the other side of the veil! I pressume "the other side", seems fitting, but I want to know for sure, and I am hoping that Pottermore will tell us the secrets of the Department of Mysteries!
One shining light in the whole book is the introduction of Luna Lovegood, one of my favourite characters! She's just so dreamlike and cool, and I just love her! However, there is the death of Sirius, which is just so sad, even though I've read it for the umpteenth time. How I cried when I first read of his death, that Harry's only remaining loving family, his only chance of escape from the Dursleys - though we discover at the endof this book, Harry could never excape them until he is of age due to the charm to do with Harry's blood - has gone... it's devastating. Just so, so sad.