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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5) by: J.K. Rowling

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Rating: - One of the Better Pieces of British Literature

Please note: this review is intended for those who have not yet read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix but it does not make a huge difference if you have.

This is my favourite book in the much-praised Harry Potter series. It describes Harry's fifth year in much detail presenting new challenges for Harry to face and some growing up emotionally that he has to do.

A new character is introduced with the return of many familiar ones, including for a short spell, Professor Grubbly-Plank. (I'll let the reader of the review who has not yet read this book to form their own conclusions about this piece of information). A character close to Harry's own heart is lost in the struggle against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Harry feels anger, first crush, despair, loss and amusement in this fast-paced, unputdownable book. I recommend this book to anyone deliberating on buying, it is a fantastic example of J. K. Rowling's writing prowess. I have been nothing but praising of this book in this review, and the reason I have not given it five stars is because nothing is perfect, and somethings, personally, I mildly diskiked on a very small number of occasions. Let this not dissaude you in buying this book, it is fabulous!

Rating: - Everybody loves it!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! What does that spell?
AMAZING i love it! I am in top english
and you wanna know where all my brilliance came from...
Harry Potter audioboooks read by the fab Stephan Fry.
They ALL, i'm tellin ya get them ALL, rock the hats off
the books and movies! Really and TRULY they do.
I NEVER switch them off, in the bath, bed, shower, kitchen...
you name it...ITS ALWAYS ON! It'll get some of your kids
away from the TV that can never teach you as much as these CDs!
GET THEM GET THEM TOTALLY GET THEM they are and always will be

100% W-I-C-K-E-D!!! xxx

Rating: - Best Of All The Harry Potter Books.

I love Harry Potter, have done since i was handed the first book years ago by my friend who said it wasn't really her cup of tea....as for me i was hooked and rushed out to buy my own copy of the second book.

All the books have being brilliant and if you're fan of the films thinking about giving the books a try i recommend it....its well worth it.

This book for me is the best of all! i didnt think it would be due to the length...i opened the book wondering how earth a story this long could be consitently brilliant throughout!

The story is full of twists and turns and we join Harry in much darker times since the end of book 4, hes grown, feels isolated and is frustrated and angry with those around him for being left out all summer. Alot of readers dislike this book for that fact but i read it thinking thats exactly how i'd feel if i was Harry.

There are also some key events in the book which the recent film adaptation doesn't address and are very important for the last 2 books.

Trust me don't just stick to the films you're missing out on so much of the story.

Rating: - Easily the most complex, and in some ways most satisfying, of all the Potter novels

ORDER OF THE PHOENIX could well be my favorite book of them all, if Azkaban and Deathly Hallows weren't as good as they were. For all the talk about GOBLET being the one where Rowling really hikes up the intensity and the complexity in the series, it is here, in PHOENIX, she gives us Potter's darkest, and most complex, adventure of all.

The second most complex novel in the entire Potter sequence (the first being Book 7), this book is probably the second best one, though I still like Azkaban better. This novel introduces the Order of the Phoenix, a whole litany of new characters and a more indepth look at the Ministry For Magic.

Potter has been having bad dreams about a locked door. So he must find out what to do about that. While at home with the Dursleys, he and Dudley are attacked by dementors, and so he stands trial before the Ministry for the inappropriate use of underage magic. He ultimately must appear before the Ministry, and it is only by Dumbledore's appearance he is saved.

But the Ministry is not finished yet. Still under staunch denial that Voldemort is back, Cornelius Fudge sends a new teacher, Dolores Umbridge, to bring Hogwarts under the Ministry's control. Much of the storyline revolves around Umbridge as she takes over Hogwarts, eventually ousting Dumbledore, who goes on the run. Her end is very well justified.

I remember when I read the book back in 2003 when it initially came out being rather disappointed. I wasn't a big fan of GOBLET, and I couldn't way to spend more time in Harry's universe, being back at Hogwarts with characters I know and love. But when I read PHOENIX, though, I felt even more lost and rather alienated. Hogwarts was being taken over. Hagrid was missing for half the book. Dumbledore is extremely distant (for reasons explained at the end of the novel). The Ministry is taken over, and it's run by a man who doesn't know what the hell is going on. There was a lot going on in this novel, and it was all rather depressing. Harry became angry and had severe mood swings, and was always snapping at the people around him. On the positive note he did get some romance,but ultimately even that frizzled out. Harry even had to take "Defense Against the Dark Arts" underground, as Umbridge refuses to even acknowledge Voldemort at all, as per Ministry order.

When I reread it in 2007 in prepration for DEATHLY HALLOWS, my stocks in this book absolutely soared. This is a dark, dark book, and while I still felt rather alienated and cut off from Rowling's magical world and the Ministry Interference, this time around I realised how masterfully crafted this novel truly is.

ORDER, as far as I'm concerned, is where Rowling truly stopped writing children's fiction, but crafting a dark, bitter book about dark, bitter times in her character's lives. Reading ORDER, and especially about Umbridge, keeps reminding one of Orwell and his horrific visions in 1984 and ANIMAL FARM.

Umbridge is easily one of her best characters she ever wrote, and one of the most despicable characters in all of fiction. It is people like Umbridge that brought Hitler to power in the early 1930s, and who would enable him to commit the many atrocities that he did during WWII (and I thought that for a long time before HALLOWS came out, in which Umbridge has turned into a type of Nazi who fully subscribes to Voldemort's racial genocide).

It is here, with ORDER, in which Rowling shows us the evil of bureaucracy, of how Voldemort isn't the only person in which massive evil lurks.

I also love how Rowling greatly expands her environment from the previous novels. We see for the first time St. Mungo's (and have a rather morose encounter with Gilderoy Lockheart from Book 2). We get to go inside the Ministry For Magic, and a very impressive place it is. Grimmauld Place, along with Sirius, is also very entertaining.

And we get some great new characters. Thestrals. The beautifully bizaare Luna Lovegood. Gwarp. Kingsley Shacklebolt. And a personal favorite, Nymphadora Tonks.

The series also has one of my favorite scenes in all of literature: when Dumbledore brings Firenze on during the rainstorm as the new divination teacher (a scene I was so disappointed they cut on the movie. The seeds were they but they cut it damn it.).

The climax of the book is great, with Dumbledore's Army truly coming into their own as they fight against the Death Eaters, who are trying to take the Prophecy from the Hall of Prophecy in the Ministry For Magic. I love that whole end sequence. And the death Rowling includes is just brutal, not really how she kills off the character but the fact she killed him off at all. Interestingly enough, Arthur Weasly, who survives an attack in this novel, was originally slated to die, but Rowling could not bear to kill him off. He was also supposed to die in Book 7, but she couldn't kill him then either, and he was the only real normal fatherfigure in the series, and a good father at that.

And naturally, we get to learn some vastly important information about Neville Longbottom. Following the trend of other installments in the series in regards to introducing apparently non-essential characters and information,, he turns out to much more important than you would suppose. We also begin to learn Dumbledore isn't as flawless as you would like to think.

Another thing I really like about the book is you really do feel like the stakes are really high, which you should as we're only two books away from the end. In fact, HALF-BLOOD PRINCE seemed almost a step back in terms of complexity and highs takes atmosphere from this one.

One thing that should be noted is this is a real doorstop of a book. At a quarter of a million worlds (half as long as Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS), this is easily one of the longest children's books ever published. Rowling has even said she wish she could go back and edit this book down, as she feels it is too long. But what would she cut? Great stuff, but very long for kids. Speaks to the amazing appeal these books have that children have read something as long as this.

Overall, one of my favorite Potter books. I think it's even better than AZKABAN on a literary level, but I still prefer Azkaban to this as a personal preference. Still, this is one of Potter's best. Don't go in thinking you'll have as much fun at Hogwarts. These are dark times, and the war really is beginning.

We can only hope Potter and his friends will pull through.






These are my order of Potter books by preference:
Deathly Hallows
Prisoner of Azkaban
Order of the Phoenix
Philosopher's Stone/Chamber of Secrets (I rank them both the same)
Half-Blood Prince
Goblet of Fire.

Rating: - harry potter

Excellent book, this really does set up the last 2 books of the series nicely, some reviewers are complaining that the book has too many pages and to be honest I was slightly put off when I realised that I had 950+ pages to read, but I think Rowling has done a wonderfull job because after every page I read I couldn't wait for the next.

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