Don't know how to respond to this novel. I still remember when i first heard the title: Harry potter and the half blood prince. My first thought was I love the title. Second thought, it would be darker than the last and might have the plot element similar to "Harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban" since the title is relation to someone mysterious. I hoped that this book would be better than book 5 which i thought was too long, nothing critical happened, and the death of a certain character was handled quite poorly.so.........after reading book 6, i was frozen in shock. First of all, the way she killed (you know who if you read the book) was surprising. I give J.K. Rowling points for originality. In another author's hands she or he wouldn't have the gut to kill this character that millions of people (especially children) have come to love. I didn't like that he died at first, i thought something wasn't right about it but now i think that this person's death made the book a bit special and unique. Okay that's what was good about book 6. The bad things about book 6 is that it really had no plot, it seems like a series of scenes were put together with a thin plot that held it altogether. The romance in the book seemed forced especially the one with Harry and Ginny. The romance should have been a subplot not the majority of the book. The flashback of the villain's past was somewhat interesting. I wished J.K. Rowling link something currently with him while harry and dumbledore discovered about his past. J.K. should have made the villain as the main point of this book ( not just his past but what he currently was doing.)instead of romance. Overall this book made me like book 5 more( at least it had a plot going for it.) but the ending to this book was really good and it made me crave for book seven to come out like yesterday for me to read.