If you don't know which book I'm going to spoil, you've been living under a rock

[winter]

The heat's broken a little today, with intermittent rain. The perfect lazy day for lying around with a good book. And what do you know, I happen to have one.

One thing about it: it's better than OotP, as a book. It's immensely readable, nicely ordered and with a good climax. It's also less gloomy than you'd think. It only took me five hours this time; the first two in a cafe to take in the fresh air, but I kept laughing each time a fanfic I've read was Jossed out of existence, so after that I removed myself to my own home and bed.


First of all: Snape, of course. Props to JKR for the treatment of his plotlines - just the right amount of ambiguity there to make the reader doubt it right from the start. And of course he's magnificent in every scene. Plus, the book was a stroke of genius: otherwise Harry would be smugly going "I knew it all along", but the book made him admire and like Snape.

Draco's back with a vengeance, and immensely cuddable. The poor thing needs a hug, and so does his mummy. I was struck how much Cissy was the Cissy-in-my-head - aristocratic in the old vein, with all the regality and strong emotions that go with it. You could really see the kinship between her and Sirius, and for that matter between Sirius and Draco. I see Sirius treating Snape much the way Draco does Harry. Plus, both the train scene and the bathroom one will spawn a thousand smutfics I'll gladly read.

Albus? Just argh. The old schemer should take the opportunity that he's now One with the Force and take Ben Kenobi out for a drink. They're a pair, these two. More on that later.

Now for the ships. Remus/Tonks is one I hadn't seen coming; I rather thought Tonks would turn out to have been Imperiused. Meh. Will always be a rebound in my head.

I loved the treatment of Hermione and Ron, with Hermione being girl-like and the whole thing being so highschool to offset all the gloom and doom. On the other hand, while Harry/Ginny is a nice idea and they're a good match, someone should take JKR's Spiderman movies away. I know the cliche's older than that, but if your lead girl has bright red hair, and your lead guy's wearing clumsy glasses, you really should know better.

Now for the oh-so-obvious things.

I guessed the Half-Blood Prince thing right away, only wondered why Sevvie would choose a nickname like that. I should have figured it would be entirely true.

R.A.B.? Nice to see Regulus had better luck with outwitting Voldemort than Sirius did. And Harry will be glad to get rid of Grimmauld Place, I imagine. I assume Mundungus Fletcher is on it and has been taking the things to Regulus, too.

Argh, Albus. You would think that he would include Harry in the connection when he's telepathically telling Snape to kill him. Two words: angst vehicle.

EDIT: (from penknife) And of course that's what Albus was telling Snape about in the forest when Hagrid overheard them! Now if that's not pulling a Kenobi, I don't know what is!

Now off to snuggle the abused ex-Death Eaters. Sevvie, Cissy and Draco? You were the best thing about the book anyway.

Oh, and I might also read some of other people's entries ;)

Comments

[sukeban.livejournal.com]

Remus/Tonks? Argh, that's *worse* than the Dumbledore death thing... Ò___ó She's such a bloody Mary Sue.

[winter]

She is, isn't she? At least she's hardly in this book. Just hanging around looking depressed and acting so out-of-character, I really thought she was Imperiused.