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I'm surprised no-one's written one of these for the Post yet. There's certainly been a lot of discussion on Ask about the book's significances, and me[Andy]g and Ferrettbadger have written some fascinating Entries about the identity of RAB and Snape's allegiances respectively. I will try and minimise the spoilers in this review, but I can't promise it won't give nothing away. Sorry.

This review, then, is broken down into four parts: the book's 'Gryffindors' (the good bits), 'Ravenclaws' (the clever bits), 'Hufflepuffs' (the funny bits) and 'Slytherins' (the bad bits). OK, so it's a bit cheesy, but then what are we to expect when adults queue up at midnight to buy a kids' book.

I am in the habit of also using the following (self-explanatory) abbreviations for the previous books: HPPS, HPCS, HPPA, HPGF, HPOP.

Gryffindors

• Perhaps the most obvious plus is the sense of fun that has been restored to Hogwarts' day-to-day activities. HPGF and HPOP became gradually ponderous and plodding, but Book 6 is lighter in tone (despite the fact that we are all under Voldemort's black thumb) and no worse for it.

• The dramatic ending is easily the best yet. HPPA apart, I have found JK Rowling's descriptions of the action sequences at the end of books to be unconvincing. HPOP especially failed to convince me of the urgency of the situation, instead getting bogged down in silly detail. Even if you know who is going to die (and is there really anyone who doesn't), the denouement comes as a heart-pounding, stunning shock. Rowling, thankfully, has not lost the art of good storytelling.

• Again, the Ministry of Magic has been built up as untrustworthy, showing us there isn't always just one villain. In fact, by the end of this book, there may be as many as four, independent villains in Harry's life.

• More flesh is put on the bones of characters who might be otherwise boring, especially Ginny and Neville.

• Words cannot describe how much better the book is with a wise and protective Dumbledore, rather than the distant old man he was in HPOP.

• The roles of annoying marginal characters (Hagrid, Grawp, Dobby) are thankfully kept to a minimum. I doubt whether more than a handful of readers are really, genuinely interested in what happens to the non-humans in the story.

• Using a bit of inside knowledge, I can reveal that we have finally seen our last Quidditch match. Thank heaven's. JK Rowling is clearly not qualified to invent and write about a sport.

Ravenclaws

• You've got to hand it to JK Rowling. For the fifth consecutive time, the sophistication of language use, of sentence length, of slang and jargon, has been imperceptibly upped, providing a gentle learning curve for the children at whom the book is targetted.

• Deiberately, I feel, this book has been deliberately written to drive the conspiracy theories nuts. There are narrative loose-ends all over the place, tenuous affiliations between current events and previous stories/characters and a solid mystery for Harry to solve in Book 7. Harry Potter fan sites have been awash with theories, both sensible and insane, since the week the book was published. Rowling deserves credit - not only has she sold millions of books, she's made people spend millions of hours talking about it as well.

Hufflepuffs

• We finally get to see the interior of Fred and George's joke shop. And very entertaining it is too.

• Potions lessons are suddenly a lot more entertaining without Snape. Hermione's general distaste as Harry succeeds with the Half-Blood Prince's help is superbly done.

• In fact, not since HPPS have Hogwarts routine lessons been so entertainingly described. Yes, they're becoming increasingly marginal to the plot, but it does help us to lose ourselves in a fantasy school once in a while. Particularly those of us that have to see the real thing 40 weeks a year.

• Crabbe and Goyle as girls! Brilliant!

Slytherins

• Perhaps the most disappointing aspect is that the bare outlines of the plot of Book 7 have already been drawn. Readers have never yet come to a new Potter book knowing in the slightest what to expect. The final one will be different.

• The opening couple of chapters, as has become the norm recently, have seemed quite detached from the rest of the book. They are certainly vital, but I wonder if they need to be included right at the very fore. This is certainly true of many books other than Harry Potter, though.

• The sad aspects of the book don't sit particularly happily alongside many of the neighbouring events. I don't know if it's just me, but I got the continual feeling that the unfortunate incidents were being trivialised.

• Now, I know this is a kids' book, and I shouldn't really complain, but there seems to be a lot of naivete about kissing (which is presumably Rowling's substitute for relationships) at Hogwarts. Our protagonists turn 17 in this book: do we really believe that they are not up to any more than a protracted snog every now and then. Couldn't the rest of us at least have a 15-rated edition?

On the whole, opinion seems to be that HPHBP is probably the second-best of the canon thus far, just after HPPA. The tone and final revelation of the books has never bettered the third of the series, and - given what we know already about the final book - it seems unlikely to happen.

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