Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Discussion

[sugar and spice]

I CRIED LIKE AN UGLY LITTLE GIRL FROM CHAPTER 27 ONWARD.

I mean, we knew it was coming (or at least I did) -- he had to die before Harry took on Voldemort or there would be no convenient excuse for Harry to do it alone. But OMG, the emotional manipulation here! She's going to have to do a lot to make the seventh book not pale in comparison (drama/emotion-wise) to the sixth.

Is Harry really not going back to Hogwarts next year? He has to be! It's not a real Harry Potter book without Hogwarts.

I agree that R.A.B. is definitely a Black, and probably Regulus.

You know that Ginny and Harry will be together eventually, and Ron and Hermione, so I'm not really that worried that they weren't together at the end of the book.

Mel, I absolutely agree that there is more to the Snape story. The thing is that I hate the guy and I really wish he would turn out to be bad -- but I just don't think he is. That's too simple. Imperius curse maybe?

fire1977, good spot with the locket in the Black house.

The Harry as Horcrux theory is definitely an interesting one, but I don't know if I buy it yet.

I was hitting myself on the head when it was revealed that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince -- how I did not see that earlier, I have no clue.

DaffyKD -- I have always felt there were much stronger Nazi/Death Eater parallels than al-Quaida/Death Eater parallels in the books, but I suppose the fact that it's allegorical means that you could interpret it either way.

On the whole, definitely better than Book Five. I think Goblet of Fire and Chamber of Secrets are still my favorites, but this one was definitely a good read.