“”Spellbinding, enchanting, bewitching stuff.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

I’ve been reading the wand waving antics of Potter and his collective in one heap, book after book with no break in between.

This does give a slightly different perspective to them than would have been gained from reading them as they were individually released.

It shows just how aware Ms. Rowling was that her readers were growing and maturing, and to this end she ramps up the writing, content and language accordingly and with great skill. She never patronises the reader and has every confidence that her faithful are growing along with the story. I like this a lot, showing faith where many don’t.

So we come to the fifth instalment of the series. More in depth, more adult, more everything in fact. This is the transition book, the bridge if you like. Taking you from the relative naivety and innocent charm of the earlier books through to much more in depth, darker and more involved storylines. All of human fallibilities and strengths are here as usual, but they hit much harder and much deeper, with much more profound results for our protagonists. I won’t elaborate or spoil things for those of you that haven’t read it (are there such people still out there?) but there are real life and death situations here in all their dark glory.

Intertwined with the main events we now have lots of offshoots and sub-plots that give us subtle clues and references that lead us onwards to what is obviously going to be a climatic ending, and it’s plain that the whole epic saga was already in the authors head before even the first book was written, such are the details that are picked up and expanded upon throughout the series. It’s a real, tangible world that now exists and you can’t help but know you are actually in it, part of it, living it. It’s remarkable story telling of the highest order.

If you’ve read this book, you have already made it through the first four, and without doubt you are not going to stop here. It seems foolish to recommend this book because you’re in the middle of an epic adventure, of course you’re not going to stop here. So all I can really say is: we’ve come this far, let’s finish.

 

Reviewed by:

Jake Mann

Added 27th October 2015

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Jake Mann