Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Four Stars)

Children's fiction
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
J.K. Rowling
Raincoast Books
©2003
ISBN1-55192-570-2
766 pages
$43.00

"Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. ‘It is time,’ he said, ‘for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.’

"Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is desperate to get back to school and find out why his friends Ron and Hermione have been so secretive all summer. However, what Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down…

"This is a gripping and electrifying new novel full of suspense, secrets, and – of course – magic, from the incomparable J.K. Rowling."

Author J.K. Rowling steers her incredible craft into seething waters in this novel. Considerably darker than the novels that have preceded it, The Order of the Phoenix chronicles Harry’s obsession with dreams that lead him down a mysterious hallway to a prophecy that tells the final truth about he and his enemy, Lord Voldemort. The Ministry of Magic proves that it is under the thrall of power-seeking wizards who try to tell the wizarding world that Harry is lying about the return of Lord Voldemort to power. They even send an evil witch, Umbridge, to be a High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, who eventually takes over the running of the school.

Whatever boundaries Rowling may have created in previous books are shattered in this tale, as Umbridge devises cruel detentions, Snape’s past is revealed and Harry’s own fond memories of his father and Sirius are blown apart. At the close of the book there is an explosive battle between Voldemort and Dumbledore, and the whole wizarding world is finally forced to believe the awful truth: Voldemort is back.

The longest book in the series and, personally, the most painful to read, this book stays true to modern teenagers in their angst, their inadequacies, and their first loves. This book is phenomenal.