He knows his friends Ron and Hermione are together - somewhere - and can't understand why he has to put up with his awful relatives. He's angry when the book opens, and also rather hurt: nobody has contacted him since the end of term, and he's worried about what Lord Voldemort's return might mean. My main problem with the book is that Harry does not seem so consistent as a character. Perhaps this is as well, since much of the subject matter is far more suited to teenagers than to children.
But it felt like rather too many subplots for my taste, and I should think it would be overwhelming to a young child. JK Rowling manages all these cleverly, building them together to the thrilling climax of the book. Oh, and Harry has to take some private lessons from his least favourite teacher, Professor Snape, he organises a group for practising anti-dark-arts spells, and he tentatively gets involved with his first girlfriend. At the same time, Harry and his friends are taking their OWLs (wizarding equivalent of GCSEs) and being overloaded with work.
The whole Weasley family play larger roles than previously too, and there's yet another thread involving the half-giant Hagrid. The horrible Dolores Umbridge, evidently a caricature of an OFSTED inspector, takes up a fair amount of the story, as she takes on more and more authority in Hogwarts school. There are a lot of subplots interwoven through the book, too.
Worse, his headmaster Dumbledore, who believes Harry, is treated as being almost senile. The government refuses to acknowledge the possibility of his having returned, which means that Harry is considered to be deluded. The evil Lord Voldemort returns to power at the end of the fourth book, and is beginning to rally his forces at the start of this one. But when I re-read it, a couple of years later, I wasn't so sure.įrom the point of view of the overall plot, it worked very well. This is the longest of JK Rowling's books to date, and the first time I read it - aloud to my teenage sons, when it was first published - I liked it considerably better than the fourth. Summary: The government refuse to accept that Lord Voldemort has returned, and the horrible Dolores Umbridge gains influence at Hogwarts School.
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