re: half-blood prince

The sixth book, while entertaining as always, is limited in the sense that it's too much like the fifth book. Again, there really isn't an overarching "Harry must do this" plot, only a couple mysteries the reader is tasked with figuring out. Again, the subplot has Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup without the help of Harry. Again, the mysteries develop into an exciting Wizard brawl that results in the death of a beloved father figure, and again the culprit gets away. Again, I am left so eager to learn what is to come that I barely go a couple hours before opening up the next book. THBP is, however, a notable improvement over TOTP in that it is about 200 pages shorter; the needless, repetitive filler that plagued the 5th book is thankfully eliminated. A round of applause to JK's editor.

I got tired of the pure bitch-fest style of these reviews, so this time I'm giving more of a running diary of my thoughts concerning the book. Equals parts bitching and giddy speculation.

• Very interesting opening two chapters, as Rolwing takes the third person limited perspective away from Harry for the first time in the series.
• Finally, Draco has something to do other than be annoying.
• You need certain test results taken at age 15 to pursue certain magical careers? Is this China?
• I am not accepting for a moment that just because a kid gets sorted into Slytherin House that he’s totally down with a peer being in league with a mass murderer. Slytherin House seeks out students who are pure-blooded and ambitious, not evil.
• Draco paralyzes Harry with a spell, but doesn't bother to take his invisibility cloak? Sure, Rowling, that'd happen.
• I'm half way through the book and I'm almost positive the titular "Half-Blood Prince" is Snape. The Prince is a master potions maker, just like Snape. The Prince also made note of the counter-jinx to that levitate-by-the-ankles thing, which James Potter used to bully Snape in school. So what if the book is 50 years old? We don't know anything about Snape's background. He could have been very poor growing up and needed to use old textbooks. Who else could it be? Lupin said it wasn't him or Sirius or James, I doubt Voldy or a Death Eater would brag about being half-blood, Hagrid and Pettigrew don't seem smart enough, and Slughorn and Dumbledore were students more than 50 years ago. Snape seems like the only candidate, as anyone else would be anti-climatic. My only worry is that this seems too obvious. Have I missed something?
  
• Wait a sec. Harry's new-found skills at Potions remind Slughorn of his mother, eh? Hmmm... could the book be written by his mom, and the "Property of the Half-Blood Prince" line refer to her own relationship with her "prince," James? But wasn't James pureblood? Was she mistaken, perhaps? Did James tell her this so she'd think they had more in common? Or maybe she was in love with someone else at the time? Well, at least I have a competing theory now, albeit an anti-feminist and thus unlikely one.
  
• Malfoy's getting thinner, "like Tonks," eh? And Tonks has a tendency to show up when Malfoy is supposed to be around. Tonks has also been acting strange and her patronus changed forms. And we know Malfoy has access to loads of Polyjuice potion. Could Malfoy be transforming into Tonks? Was that his task? If so, what happened to Tonks? She was cool, please don't be dead.
• Whatever Malfoy's up to is taking an emotional and physical toll on him. Hmmm... in every year but his third Harry has fought some form of Voldy. Malfoy must be trying to find a way for Voldy to enter Hogwarts, right? Maybe Voldy is trying to possess Malfoy? But how does that tie into the cursed necklace and the poisoned drink? Maybe he's trying to assassinate Dumbledore to help Voldy get to Hogwarts? That could work...
• You know, the only reason Harry got a Saturday morning detention is because Rowling is tired of writing Quidditch matches. But I'm tired of reading them, so it's a win-win.
• Vanishing Cabinets. How did I not see that coming, what with their like one mention in the entirety of the series.
• So Dumbledore dies at the hands of Snape. And yet, I still think Snape's a good guy. Did Dumbledore want Snape to kill him? I think so - perhaps Dumbledore had told Snape he was to kill him rather than blow his cover. "Severus, please..." could mean just that. It might not make complete "real world" sense but it'd probably do in the Potterverse. Maybe I'm grasping at straws, but Snape being a bad guy just doesn't seem to add up. Dumbledore must have trusted him for a reason - and Harry's most hated teacher turning out, in the end, to be a hero would be a far more interesting story arc than him just being as bad as we were always led to believe.
• I'm getting tired of the chapter titles and the accompanying drawings giving away plot points. This chapter was the worst yet: it's entitled "Flight of the Prince" and has a picture of Snape, thus revealing the identity of the HBP. Is this really how you want your plot mysteries uncovered, JK?

P.S. Happy 250th post to me!