As you've no doubt heard by now, a major character dies in this volume. No, I'm not going to tell you who; the basic rules of narrative logic should make it fairly easy to guess. (And if you're able to read the table of contents without figuring it out, then you may just be, as me old pa used to say, "too damn stupid to live.")
By a creepy accident of timing, the book came out just after the London bombings, lending a eerie resonance to its early chapters, which depict an England under attack by Voldemort and his followers. As Harry and his friends read the newspaper, the same question is asked each day: "Did anyone we know die?" Security has been increased at Hogwarts, and some students are so scared of what might happen that they've left school.
For those who've chosen to continue their studies, life goes on largely as before, though with added layers of nervous tension. There are Quidditch matches, classes to struggle through, and the annual ritual of a new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor -- Severus Snape. Dumbledore has surprised and worried many with this appointment, but his faith in Snape's loyalty is absolute.
Harry and his class turn 16 this year, and Rowling takes up a fair amount of time with their flirtations, crushes, and jealousies. I could have done with a lot less of that, frankly -- a little of Ron and Lavender making goo-goo eyes at one another goes a long way -- but one of Rowling's themes in these books (pounded home in this volume with a bit less subtlety than usual) is that the ability to love is what ultimately separates the good from the evil.
Rowling's storytelling skill becomes more apparent with every volume; her use of the Pensieve's captured memories as a flashback device to tell the story of Voldemort's youth is particularly graceful. Lots of loose threads from earlier volumes are tied up in preparation for the final battle between Harry and Voldemort.
If there's a flaw here, it's that Half-Blood Prince occasionally seems to be marking time, allowing Harry to age another year in order to reach maturity (we are reminded repeatedly that the wizarding world confers adult status at 17) before that final battle.
But then comes that major death, in a beautifully told sequence, and it changes everything. The stakes are even higher now, and Harry's motives are no longer limited to the relatively abstract importance of defeating evil, or of avenging parents he never knew. Voldemort has taken someone Harry loved (though I fully expect that character to appear in some form in the final volume), and the final volume will no doubt center on Harry's struggle to avoid the rash decisions that may be prompted by the desire for revenge. It should be a doozy.
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