[WPF] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling - 3.5 stars

[Theresa]

I started re-reading this last fall as part of my reading the entire series again for the first time in decades, this time the British edition. However just 200 pages in, I had to put it down for various reasons, and only now finished it. I have to say that Order of the Phoenix held up far less well than I expected.

The 15 year old Harry is just too relentlessly the angry angsty teen. It was irritating even boring, and simply dragged the book down. Reading nonstop anger for 800 pages...jeesh. It even pulled away from the many delights also delivered: Grimmauld Place and the Order, the DA, Fred and George's glorious departure from Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge who epitomized the dangerous evil of being narrow-minded, racist, and power hungry, and those rich scenes in St. Mungo's.

Chamber of Secrets was always my least favorite in the series. Order of Phoenix may just be vying for that position now.

[Patricia]

I read the first book which is Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone. I haven't still read the second book. I'll try to read the whole series:)

[KateNZ]

This is my least favourite of all of them for exactly those reasons, Theresa. Interestingly the angst bothered me a little less when I was listening to the audio (Stephen Fry - love that man). It’s usually the other way round - audio leaves nowhere for a book’s faults to hide - but he smoothed it somehow. This is definitely the book where I started to get annoyed about the unnecessary length of it though. Great story but needed a firm editor’s pen. The later ones are the same

[Theresa]

I just pulled out Half Blood Prince to start, and it is a mere 650 pages! Feels short by comparison and opens with one of my favorite scenes: the Wizard PM meeting with the Muggle PM. That scene was a stroke of genius.

Jim Dale reading the audio series is my favorite travel listen. One of my CD sets is even autographed by him....he lives in NYC and walks his dog daily in Central Park. Then stops at the Boat Basin restaurant for coffee. A friend who walked his dog met him many times, borrowed my audio CDs to listen to. Instead it was to get them autographed.

[Andie]

I love the Harry Potter series but I agree, this book had too much angst/yelling in it. The characters, story, etc. keep me going and I greatly enjoy the last books in the series, but for me this one is the low point.