Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Review

     Last night I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was the longest book in the series thus far and it took me about two weeks to read.

     This book opens with Harry and Dudley getting attacked by dementors. Harry has to use magic to save them but since he's underage, he gets expelled from Hogwarts for underage use of magic. However he gets a hearing and he beats the case. He also finds out about a secret order of witches and wizards who fought Voldemort in the last war called the Order of the Phoenix which Ron, Hermoine, and he joins. The main plot of the book is Harry starts teaching his fellow students Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry must teach them because they are not allowed to practice the counter curses and jinxes under the order of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; Delores Umbridge. I must say Joffrey Lannister has serious competition for my least favorite literary character. Umbridge was just awful. I don't want to spoil too much in case anybody hasn't read the series but I will say this, you will hate Umbridge more than you will hate Voldemort. That says a lot because Umbridge is not a dark witch she's technically on the good side. She's the undersecretary for the Minister of Magic. But the Ministry on Magic is so full of Bureaucrats I can't say I like any of them.

     One thing this book does really well at is just when you think things couldn't get any worse for Harry and his friends, they do. I would say this was the darkest book in the series so far. It seems to get darker and darker every book. I also loved the direction J.K Rowling took with the characters of Fred and George. There's a scene when they start a riot to get back at Umbridge. I felt a similar feeling when I was reading "A Clash of Kings" when Tyrion slapped Joffrey. It's just so satisfying when a character you cannot stand gets humiliated in some way. 

     I don't think I have any problems with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In my opinion it didn't beat the Goblet of Fire that's still my favorite of the series. But I still will give The Order of the Phoenix 5 out of 5 stars. I have not yet started The Half-Blood Prince however I will review it when I finish it.