This is probably the saddest Harry Potter book in my opinion. Although it is highly essential to the storyline, this book has always been the hardest one for me to get through. It is pretty much 870 pages of Harry being sad, upset, and mistreated. It is the reality of what he is going through at this point in the series, so no matter how much it hurts, we do need it to understand the entire plot, and to understand the depth of Harry’s feelings.

Although the book is obviously extremely dark and sad, there are a lot of key elements to this book that are majorly important. We get to meet the lovely Professor Umbridge! I will stand by the fact that she is worse than Voldemort, HA! She is quite literally the worst character in this franchise — I have never hated a character more than I hate her! She is a superb villain though, and this book does an amazing job at making me seethe whenever she is in a scene, complete with her obnoxious little cough. I do love the way that the other professors react to her though, especially Professor McGonagall. We also of course love the centaurs, obviously. 

I do love that we get more insight into Snape’s past and the reasoning behind his deep hatred of Harry. However, this does open another can of worms for me with my opinion on Snape. Specifically, that exact hatred of poor Harry for something that his father did to him…but I will not go into that! Regardless, it is a great part of the story and it adds a lot of depth to Snape’s character development, so I do appreciate it.

Of course there is one part of this book that I will never be able to get over and if you know, you know. I will not discuss it here, but I swear I will never recover from it.

This book does a fantastic job with its storytelling and setting the reader up for the rest of the series. I am excited to read Half Blood Prince next and to continue being at Hogwarts at the peak of all of the chaos! I rate this book 5/5 stars! 🌟 

I mean, it’s Harry Potter. This is my favorite in the series, the beginning of the end and the one that turns the corner into more adult situations.