My Experience with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
Set within what is easily identifiable as the trappings of a YA Fantasy novel, J. K. Rowling again expands her Wizarding World with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Like my previous thoughts on HP5, I will assume you’ve read the previous 5 entries. If you haven’t yet done that, it’s a fine time for you to catch up.
Ready? Let’s talk HP6.
The Half-Blood Prince is the darkest novel yet, surpassing the previous installment with effortless abandon. From the very start, the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, and Harry is forced to explore dark magic in ways he’s never encountered before. Our hero himself even makes questionable decisions with a few of the spells he casts in his own defense, placing him in a morally ambiguous place. And the ending ramps up the descent into darkness tenfold.
More than any other novel, young romance plays a large role in this story. The slow burn build between two members of our stalwart crew finally pays off. I vaguely recall picking up on the clues of this romance back when I originally read the novels (you can chalk that up to my complete cluelessness with romance as a teenager), but as an adult, it was much more obvious. And while that sometimes made the relationships feel a touch forced, the fact that I needed such a strong push back then is evidence that it’s not too heavy-handed for many younger readers.
As the series comes to a head, there are a lot of missing pieces that must be explained in order for a larger plot to make sense. For reasons that became obvious during this re-read, many of these pieces needed to be saved for this late in the series. Harry’s time with Dumbledore and his pensive was a clever method of inserting flashbacks and exposition for the reader. Because pensive time is essentially flashback time, it allowed for a grand ton of exposition delivery without boring us. Wise choice, Ms. Rowling.
Again, Harry’s relationship with Severus Snape has taken on new dynamics. And, perhaps to the surprise of first-time readers, Harry’s relationship with Draco Malfoy has also changed, becoming ever-more complex—a fantastic mark of a properly evolving series.
Another interesting point for me is that this is only my second reading of this novel. All the previous installments I’d read at least twice prior to this re-read. Because of this, I’m now more familiar with the film adaptation of this story than the actual source material. While the story is the same, I could observe what I’m currently calling an “adaptation in reverse”—how a story that is compacted for a different medium can be unpacked for another. The only other experience I’ve had with this is reading Star Wars novels.
J. K. Rowling has moved all her pieces into position for an epic climax in the last installment of her series. There’s little chance that you’ve gotten to this far in the series and decided not to finish the final two novels. But if that’s you, read on. It’s worth your time.
