one of the best books of the series, albeit the largest! ( )

I believe that "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the one of the best entries in the franchise. I love this book and the movie its based on. I believe that people don't give this installment nearly as much as credit as it deserves, and I'll try to explain why I believe so in this review.

The greatest aspect of this book is its mature tone and themes. Now, I know that people may laugh at what I just said, claiming that all Harry Potter books are for children. While I would agree with that opinion if they were talking about the first 2-3 books, I heavily disagree with it with regards to the remaining entries, especially this one. It is much more serious, dark, and depressing than any of the books in this franchise thus far. By the end of the book, Harry's depressed mood isn't completely gone. He's still miserable. He yells at Albus Dumbledore, he storms out of Hagrid's cabin without letting him complete his good-byes, and he wishes nothing for himself but death to end the insane amount of grief he has over Sirius Black's death. At the same time, not every good character is made out to be perfect. As I mentioned in my Prisoner of Azkaban review, I love that they made Black a morally grey character (pun not intended). It is more apparent than ever in this book, where his arrogant younger self (as well as that of James Potter) is revealed, and where his horrible treatment of his slave, Kreacher, is what inadvertently causes his own death. I love the fact that our exceedingly positive views of James and Sirius are put to question, as well as our exceedingly negative views of Severus Snape. The characters don't feel like cartoons anymore. They feel like real people, and I love that.

Yes, this book goes on for quite a long time, but I actually kind of like that. In the first 4 books of this series, practically every single paragraph is important and drags the plot forward. There is very little information contained in any paragraph that doesn't affect the overall story in one way or another. However, this book takes its time. It lets the world, the dialogue, the plot, and the characters soak in. It takes its sweet time describing scenery, and it lets us read these characters engaging in dialogue for quite some time before moving on to the next thing, and that's what makes the pay-offs immensely satisfying in the end. It's a slow-burner, for sure.

I will say, however, that the plot was not perfectly planned by Rowling here. Some things seemed very convenient. The whole section where Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Neville get cornered by Umbridge in her office and Hermione tricks her into coming to the Forbidden Forest so that she can get attacked by centaurs feels very convenient. A lot of unlikely things happen that help propel it forward. Also, the protagonists have quite a lot of plot armor when fighting the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries. Lucius Malfoy orders them to kill everyone but Harry Potter, yet they resort to Stunning spells instead and never take this perfect opportunity to murder them.

With that being said, this is still a fantastic story in my opinion, and I wish more people would give it credit and analyze what it does right instead of simply dismissing it as "the long one." ( )

Fantasy

I liked this one a little more than the previous ones. I can start to see the characters developing, but it's insanely long for no reason. ( )

tl;dr: Why is Dumbledore being so stupid?!

I have read this book, in its entirety, for something between the fifth and tenth time now. It is a brilliant book like all of the others, but it is definitely the most tedious and probably least enjoyable one. The obvious reason for that is the frustrating experience of reading through anything related to Umbridge. (Also, sometimes Snape). ( )