Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: A review

Book - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Author - J.K. Rowling
Rating -

Harry Potter has returned!

After a long two-year wait, JK Rowling obliges her young fans with the sixth and the penultimate instalment in the continuing saga of the boy-wizard. And what we get is a book that’s thankfully leaner than its predecessor, which was a boulder… 870 pages long! At around 200 pages less, this one is just right! But what’s within those 650 pages is what matters!

So let’s see… if this Half-Blood Prince is really worth the long wait!

As I’ve already mentioned, The Half-Blood Prince is the penultimate instalment of the Harry Potter series penned by JK Rowling. As such, this book has the responsibility of setting up the stage for the grand finalé. And I dare say that Rowling manages to do that with a fair amount of élan… though only in final hundred pages of the book.

The Half-Blood Prince starts a few weeks after the showdown in the Ministry of Magic premises , an event which formed the climax of the previous book. The British Prime Minister is worried about some strange catastrophes striking Britain. As it turns out, the events of the wizarding world have spilled over into the Muggle world with the rise to power of Lord Voldemort, and minor disasters and killings have been reported throughout the country. The wizard world itself is in turmoil. Both the worlds, it would seem, have the shadow of Lord Voldemort’s domination looming large over them. No one seems to be safe. Extra-ordinary security measures are being put in place. Harry himself is taken to the Weasley residence by Prof. Dumbledore himself… from where he leaves for his new term at Hogwarts alongwith his friends, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, etc.

Back in school, Harry comes into the possession of a textbook owned by someone calling himself the Half-Blood Prince. His efforts at discovering the true identity of this persona almost always get thwarted by his rather more urgent quest to figure out what Draco Malfoy is up to. Added to this quest is the “journey” that Prof. Dumbledore takes Harry on — a journey to discover the birth and life of Tom Marvolo Riddle or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”. Even though his time is devoted to all these quests, Harry still finds time to attend his classes, play Quidditch and pine for a new sweetheart with emotions ranging between anger, jealousy and plain-old longing.

How Harry’s quests are answered and how the scene is set for the next book, at the expense of the death of a key character, is what this book is all about.

First the bad news. The build up to the climax is disappointing to say the least. The story seems to go nowhere in the first 450-500 pages. Almost everything that appears in these pages has already been seen in each of the previous five books. Rowling could’ve done some re-inventing. But she sticks to the tried and tested path. This may seem exciting to a new reader, but to readers who’ve been following the Harry Potter series, it’s repetitive and at times, dull. The only bright spots, perhaps, are Prof. Dumbledore’s private lessons for Harry and the reason for that is the slowly developing story of Lord Voldemort’s childhood and adolescence. References from previous books without enough explanation for them ensures that this book can never be truly enjoyed stand-alone. With the wizards going through a hormonal maelstrom common to teens their age, the reader has to plod through pages of ’snogging’ pairs and angsty jealousies… which gets boring after a while. Moreover, with free usage of “rude hand gestures”, words like “slut”, etc. even in the children’s edition, I am at a loss to explain why this book has been targetted at the age group 9-12.

Now the good news. Even though the first 500 pages disappoint, Rowling comes into her own in the final century of pages. The plot suddenly thickens, the narrative turns crisper and engaging and the action begins in earnest. The identity of the Half-Blood Prince is revealed. The fairly detached reader, thus far, suddenly gets emotionally sucked into the story. The price for this, however, is that we have to see a central character getting bumped off. Kids all over the world have stated that they shed copious amount of tears after reading about the death. Rowling sure knows how to influence the emotions of her young readers by making them get on to the emotional roller-coaster that Harry Potter rides in this book! But then, this is like having a couple of great songs in a CD full of mediocrity!

On the whole, Rowling has given this book the short shrift in build-up to the final instalment. It reads like an overture leading up to the grand opera. And the opera promises to blow the mind if the tempo and the emotional levels of the climax of this book are maintained.

Another thing that struck me was how The Half-Blood Prince is influenced by various books, movies and events. I could detect strong influences of The Lord of the Rings, more so towards the end. One event in the book will definitely remind you of the movie, Spiderman. Also, there are occasional references (some oblique, some very obvious!) to the ongoing war on terrorism.

JK Rowling has gone on record saying that keen readers will spot clues to the final book hidden in the last few pages of The Half-Blood Prince. I, for one, have spotted some of them and am keenly awaiting the final book knowing what those clues portend. And if you plan to read the final instalment in the Harry Potter saga, make sure you’re all prepared for it by reading The Half-Blood Prince.