Goodreads Reviews: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After the intensity, heartache, loss and grief of the previous year, Harry Potter isn't sure what to expect as he enters into Hogwarts School for the sixth time. However, he's not the same boy he was before. His time as a leader, teacher and even rebel has begun to mold him into the man he is wanting to be. The Wizarding World has completely accepted the Voldemort has returned and Harry himself is once again at the forefront, but no longer as just 'the boy who lived,' but rather as 'the chosen one,' the one destined to destroy Voldemort, according to a misty prophecy discovered the previous year.

As the Wizarding World begins to prepare for the full on return of Voldemort at any moment, Hogwarts has begun to settle back into its normal, unpredictable and never boring manner. While Harry sets his sights for his upcoming graduation year in hopes to become an auror (dark wizard catcher), he takes on the difficult job as the coach of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, finding himself falling in love with the most unlikely person, dealing with his friends own private love trials and actually enjoying some time as a regular teenager for once.

In hopes to get through his challenging classes, especially advanced potion making, Harry stumbles along a schoolbook with the name 'the Half-Blood Prince,' written inside. The book contains spells of dark magic and Harry is drawn to the power that he could harness in hopes of combating his enemies. He especially finds this book useful when he believes that his school rival, Draco Malfoy, whose behavior this school year is unusually quiet and secretive, is possibly acting as a double agent for Voldemort, due to his pureblood family.

When Harry is not engaging in normal teenage activity, he's assisting Professor Dumbledore in uncovering the past of Tom Riddle and his dark, twisted journey into becoming Voldemort. A process that was done with the use of horcruxes. Objects that hold a part of ones soul, so that the person may in a sense remain immortal. Voldemort created seven and Harry and Dumbledore must find all seven and destroy them to put an end to the Dark Lord himself.

Love and war are intermixed quite well in the sixth book. As compared to The Order of The Phoenix with its dark and foreboding plot, The Half-Blood Prince was streamlined, lighter and humorous as it dealt more with the in and outs of teenage love and trouble-making that harken back to the earlier years. Above all, Half-Blood Prince produces a maturing Harry Potter who by the end, finally understands his destiny, discovers his reason for having survived and strengthens his courage to fight for the lives of those threatened by Voldemort.