Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Book Review

     I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I'm very emotionally drained after reading this.

     This book opens with Harry back living in Privet Drive with the Dursleys. Dumbledore comes to get him and takes him try and recruit Horace Slughorn, old teacher at Hogwarts to come out of retirement and teach again. He teaches Potions and Professor Snape finally gets the job he's always wanted, teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Throughout the year at Hogwarts Harry gets he gets help from the mysterious "Half-Blood Prince." Also, the war against Voldemort rages on. Hermoine checks the obituary section of The Daily Prophet every day for familiar names. 

     There's also a lot of mystery in the book as well. The reader will continue to wonder who the Half-Blood Prince is. I thought it was Voldemort at first. Because his mother was a witch and his father was a Muggle so he was a Half-Blood. Also when Dumbledore comes to pick up Harry, his hand is injured and you'll wonder how that happened. All this leads to a very interesting and shocking twist ending.

     I would say this is the darkest book in the series thus far. Mainly because of the final climax of the book. There's a big battle at Hogwarts between some Death Eaters and the Order. It was very suspenseful and that's why I'm so emotionally drained right now. This book is the only one in the series that has a sad ending. The characters are at the lowest they could possibly be. I keep thinking to myself that this is the "Empire Strikes Back" of the Harry Potter series. Because without spoiling too much I feel as if Voldemort and his Death Eaters have won a huge victory.  Professor Umbridge is not in the book too much which I was extremely happy about. But the way the book ended left me devastated.

    Overall I really enjoyed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's not my favorite of the series thus far. It's a tie between The Goblet of Fire and the Order of the Phoenix. But this book was very suspenseful and it leads right into the Deathly Hallows. I'm going to give Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 5 stars out of 5. I'm looking forward to reading the Deathly Hallows and I'll have a review for it whenever I finish it.