Customer Reviews
Absolutely perfect. - By: hippo, 24 Dec 2007 
(Contains spoilers for 'Order of the Phoenix' & slight spoilers for 'Half Blood Prince'.)
This entire series is special but now that it's complete I can safely say this is my favourite. I'll re-read all the books but this one the most.
Review:
After Sirius' deathin book five, Dumbledore invites Harry to help him investigate & obtain information regarding Voldermort's past (or to be more precise- Tom Riddle's past). With Voldermort's Deatheaters returning to him en masse, Voldermort is now ready to return to his reign of terror so Dumbledore & Harry must look into his past to see if there is any way of defeating him. These flashback sequences via the pensieve are terrific & really flesh out the character of Tom Riddle, giving him more substance.
As with each new book a new teacher arrives at Hogwarts. This time it is the larger than life, jolly yet fiercely ambitious Horace Slughorn who Dumbledore has convinced to come out of retirement. Apart from Hermione, Slughorn has now become my favourite characterin the series. He is neither completely good or bad, he is complex, flawed & likable. For me he is one of Rowling's best creations.
Rowling has a wonderful ability to simultaneously progress the overall main story (in this book MAJOR events happen) & at the same time put excellent detail into the smaller stories that occurin the book. Each book always has a mystery element to be solved & here Harry, Ron & Hermione attempt to figure out who the 'Half- Blood Prince' is.
Some of the best chapters concern Harry, Hermione & Ron & their day to day troubles within Hogwarts such as Quiddich practice, how they are faringin certain classes now that they are studying the more difficult N.E.W.T course, not to mention their complicated love lives.
Rowling's world is completely absorbing & this was a pleasure to read with its' usual combination of mystery, humour & sadness, all of which is underpinned by the wonderful Characters- old & new.
10/10.
Great end to this series of Books - By: Luke Hadlow, 20 Aug 2007 
Careful Spoilers included:-
An enjoyable end to this series of 7 books. Darker, more intense then most of the other 6 books, this novel has few if any laughs but the battle scenes towards the end of the book are exciting, & there are some nice twists to the story, even if some of the story is a little predictable.
The last 200 pages were especially good & I found I couldn't put the book down & it great to have Gringotts featured again & of course nice that a lot of the ending happened at Hogwarts as that did seem to be missed from the beginning of the book.
I was disappointed that Mad Eye Moody was killed off so suddenly & found the scene where Dobby the House Elf came to rescue Harry & the others & then got killed by Bellatrix was especially emotional & was written really well by JKR. Also felt sad about Lupin, Tonks & Fred & of course guessed that Snape would kind of come goodin the end, after all Dumbledore had never doubted him & he was usually right. I did however feel that the Epilogue at the end was a bit of a mistake & was just the publishers push to JK to tie things upin a neat ribbon for younger readers at the end, but it was so rushed & added little to the story that it really was unnecessary to have it there.
Allin all a really good book & thorougly enjoyable to read & a shame the series has come to an end. Don't feel it should be read to very young children though as they may feel very upset with the scenes where people die as these are writtenin quite a bit of detail.
I don't think JKR should write any more HP books though, it should be left at this one & its fantastic that she has got people of all ages reading again. She should be highly commended for this.
A great ending to a fantastic series - By: R. G. Long, 30 Jul 2007 In years to come, these books will be ranked along with the greats of child literature. A modern classic.
Bad but better than the last one - By: Matty W, 16 Jul 2007 
all I can say is its better than the last one but that's only because the last one is one of the worst books I've ever read (such a disappointment after the first 4) & to point out how truly bad the 6th & 5th are the bullet proof ness of Harry Potters die hard fans have actually been broken & I call upon any non extremist of Harry Potter to write a review about how much of a disappointment this is compared to the other 4. They are actually only 4 & a half stars it doesn't sound like much but if you think about it its is huge. And it proves my point
How will it end? - By: KM, 11 Jul 2007 'Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince' is the sixth bookin JK Rowling's magical 7-part series & the Second War is nowin full swing.
At the end of the previous novel, The Order of the Phoenix, Harry found out the details of the prophecy & so now, with the power of the pensive & the help of Professor Dumbledore, Harry visits memories from other witches & wizards revealing key momentsin his nemesis, Lord Voldemort's past, providing useful information for his unavoidable battle with himin the near future.
Also during this year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardary, Harry obtains a Potions Book that was previously owned by a student who named himself "The Half-Blood Prince". In this book are hand-written notes giving Harry extremely useful tips on potions, making him the topin his class & also some homemade spells.
Relationships are also coveredin book 6, including some jealousy problems with Ron & Hermoine & also Harry has a new love interest but worries about the consequences of asking the girl out as it is his best mate's sister, Ginny.
This is a much darker & more serious book than some of the previous onesin the series & also feels like a huge introduction to the final book. There are so many shocking twists & surprises that'll keep you wanting to read more & more to find out what is going to happen next. This is an extremely exciting & important bookin the series & one of the best yet.
If you haven't read any of the series before, this probably isn't a good place to start, (even if you have seen the films before as there are many scenes & characters missing from the films) as it is based almost purely on everything that has happenedin the previous 5 books.
This is a top read that will have you gagging for book 7 once you reach the end of it. I just want to know now "how will it end?".
