(I’m never quite certain what constitutes a spoiler. It’s one of those lines that moves back and forth from reader to reader. And I’ve noticed that some parts of the Harry Potter audience are understandably sensitive the anything that even resembles a spoiler. So, while I won’t be giving away any specific plot developments and my comments will be fairly generic, be warned that some of the following remarks might cross your Personal Spoiler Threshold.)
Like many, many other people, I spent much of the weekend locked in a room with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was probably the most predictable book in the series so far, but that didn’t keep it from being compulsively readable.
There were some interviews with younger readers on Morning Edition today, and they approached it the same way I did: sit down and don’t stop reading until the book is finished. One of the interviewees nicely summed up the what-happens-next urgency of J.K. Rowling’s prose, and I really agree with her. Even when I’m fairly certain I know what’s going to happen next, the urgency is still there.
Take the big death in the book. If anything, I’m impressed that Rowling has managed to hold it off as long as she has. The event’s inevitability doesn’t diminish its impact, though. As loyal as Rowling is to the formula she’s established over six novels (and the tropes she’s appropriated from other fantasy classics), she keeps giving that formula so much detail and punch. The craft alone is startling.
One thing I did notice this time around is that Rowling seems to have largely abandoned the idea that anyone reading Book 6 might not have read Books 1-5. That’s a sensible approach, and there was much less exposition this time around. (I actually found that I kind of missed it, to be honest. While Book 6 was more streamlined, I’ve never really objected to being reminded of previous events and adventures.)
I’m always suspect when people say they couldn’t put a book down, but that was pretty much the theme of my weekend.
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The down side of all of this is that this week’s Flipped is kind of a mixed bag. I’m sure trusty editor Shawn Hoke managed to remove all of the inexplicable references to Luna Lovegood that were in my first draft, though.