With the release of the fifth book, Harry Potter has become more of a legend
than ever before.
And with good reason.
The book, which has already blitzkrieged through all sorts of publishing
records, is unlike the other four in more than one way. One, it is the biggest
of the four, with 776 exiting pages. Two, it has a much simpler plot, which
does not revolve around a single item, as the previous four do. Also, the
number of unexpected occurrences, a hallmark of J.K.Rowling’s books, settles
the score for the lack of inventive imagination.
The story begins innocently enough-Harry is bored to death, as he had got no
news about Lord Voldemort.All of a sudden, his idyllic holiday crashes to a
halt as he is attacked by Dementors.
After that, there is a plethora of surprises .The Ministry of Magic tries to
interfere in the running of the school. Fred and George Weasley are in the
thick of things again, as they now have adequate finances for their joke
shop .Snape is his usual menacing self , and there is plenty of Quidditch as
well.
Some of the personalities undergo a change in their character -noticeably,
Harry himself. Harry is impatient and a mite stubborn and shouts at
practically everybody- Ron and Hermione, Cho Chang and even at Albus
Dumbledore .His relationship with Cho provides for some humour. Albus
Dumbledore is not the strong character he is in the other stories.
As for the much promised ’’death’’ of an important character, it turns out to be
a something of an anti-climax. Voldemort himself appears (that too briefly)
only at the end.
Even after taking into account these factors, the book remains a real page
turner-you just cannot put it down. Expectation of the unexpected insures this.