Rating: 
Summary: Themes as heavy as the book itself
Review: I loved the book (but then I just turned 40) but I am concerned about how kids will view it. I felt that the book was rich and intricate, but it was highly political and sociological with only a thin veneer of magic and fantasy on top. Many conservative parents have concerns about the magic and witchcraft element (claiming that they are satanic in nature) but that pales in comparison to the issues of government corruption, racism (in this case muggles, half-borns, pure bloods), oppression, terrorism, a media run amok (the Daily Prophet wont print the truth so the tabloid rag the Quibble is the media of last resort), and schools that fail to educate because of hidden agendas brought up here. The kids will either get lost in it all or gloss right over it. YIKES!! The last book I read before this was Four Blind Mice by James Patterson. I was looking for a light amusing read by turning to Order of the Phoenix. However, were it not Harry, Hermione, Ron, Snape, Sirius Black, and Dumbledore, I would scarcely be able to tell the difference!! Harry is older and perhaps too the audience who reads the Potter books, but perhaps a bit more of the magic world and much less of the problems of THIS world. Still a great book - at least from the adult point of view!
Rating:
Summary: I Didnt Sleep For 48 Hours, Just So I Could Finish the Book
Review: the new Harry Potter Book.... ... that book was so good that I didn't put it down- not once! where ever we went in the past 2 days- i took the book with me- which wasn't the brightest idea- cause I couldn't very well read while walking through malls- but I was so into it- that I didn't sleep either night. which explains why I slept for15 hours just now. so about the book? it was so amazing... I think its gonna be my favorite one now- its such a cliche to say that the new was is my favorite one- but i think the book is soooo good that my liking it is a cliche don't bother me too much. i think the second favorite would have to be the third- i still think it outranks the forth. just cause harry meets his Godpa and all- very dark and unexpected! hehehe... but we're talking about the fifth book. that thing was so good it made me cry at least ten times! and there were some parts that were just so outrageously crazy- that you'd think "how could I keep reading when it seems NOTHING can be good ever again?" cause the whole year at Hogwarts seems to be one annoying disappointment to harry to the next annoying disappointment. I don't know if this makes you want to read the book or not anymore- cause it sounds bad after what I just said, but I'm trying so hard not to ruin the story for you... its just that the way Rowling wrote this, you hate the character the harry hates so much that you just want to jump into the book and kill them! put a hex on them or one of those illegal curses!!! just to help harry out! and the ending- there is nothing more sad then the ending! but ... argh it so good, that last night I around nine i finished it- but then i sat back down and reread all the chapters the i liked the most! I strongly recommend that you not only buy it as soon as possible- but read it with out any interruption... read the entire thing straight through- it the only way to go. I'm going to borrow my cousins other harry potter books- and just read the whole entire thing! and I cant believe we'll have to wait so long for the next one to come out!!! read this book as soon as possible!
J.K. Rowling? if you ever read this review- know that I love your books and that ... its indescribable to say how much I love the Fifth Book. I'd say I liked it when Harry was in the Snape's memory... seeing his dad and all- very nice. But how could you do that to Harry, he's so very alone at the end, its so sad...
Rating:
Summary: Year Five
Review: I did enjoy this book very much however I think it lacked in twists. The previous books always had a big wow as I reached the final chapters. In this book Rowling does not do that so much. Its pretty clear who the bad guys are. I thought the new characters were great. Especially the ones in the Order of the Phoenix. The battle scenes were much bigger. However there is a bit of a suprise from Nevile Longbottom and what's in Harry's future.
Rating:
Summary: Bloody Brilliant!
Review: I have to admit that me, being a 29 year old single woman, I was a little apprehensive about standing in line with all of the excited children waiting to buy my copy of this book. But I have to say: it's bloody brilliant! The only thing I would change is the period in which J.K. Rowling waiting before releasing the book. Maybe for the next it could be quite a bit sooner? This book's adventurous and is probably the best in the series. It also shows the characters in a more mature light, what with the Weasley twins in their 7th year and Harry and all in their 5th. It puts them in situations in which 15 year olds would be in *crushes in particular* Ginny's also a bigger player in this book as well, which I love. I give this book two thumbs up. It's amazing.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book about Harry!
Review: J. K. Rowling continues to impress with this the fifth installment of her seven edition series. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is an exceptional story and more than worth the wait. A lot of the questions that have arisen with the series are answered in the book and the overall story is much clearer paving the way to the final two installments. Actually, my only complaint relates to that ... only two more to go! But then all good stories must come to the end. While an 8th which goes out of the series storyline might work, what I'd like to see from Rowling as much as a new series as captivating as her first would be an exhaustive and bicep building edition of Hogwarts: A History. If book seven is going to be the end, such a publication would make for a nice crowning touch to cap off the series and the Harry Potter universe. As others have stated, the fifth book is much tighter than the previous editions. So much so that the story would suffer to cut much of anything from it. What doesn't relate directly to the story at hand, surely foreshadows the story to come as it has in Rowling's previous editions. Looking forward to six and seven, hopefully I'll be reading them sooner than later. And regret it as soon as I've finished the final page of each.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the wait!
Review: Even after three years, the story line picks up immediately where it left off. Rowling seems to know when and how to release each piece of the Harry Potter puzzle. The unexpected death of a character was sad yet it added another good twist to the story of the tragic "boy who lived". Even though the book was nearly 900 pages, the story doesn't drone on but keeps you in suspense from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Completely engrossing, a worthy installment
Review: "The Order of the Phoenix" starts off by reminding us that Harry Potter is no longer the cute little kid who is happily discovering the wizarding world. By the time we get vary far, we see that Harry is indeed 15 and is very angry about ... well, just about everything. He barely escapes attack just outside of Number 4, Privet Drive, and despite his heroics (and his past heroics), he finds that the grown-ups don't want to tell him what's that's going on. Not only that, but his and Dumbledore's revelation at the end of The Goblet of Fire that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is back will have dire consequences for his fifth year at Hogwarts, and for his professors as well. And, of course, there's always Lord V himself, and his (somewhat) faithful Death-Eaters, as if life wasn't hard enough ... The Order of the Phoenix changes the tone of the Potter series; it becomes darker almost right from the first pages, and an oppressive tone runs through the entire novel. This makes absolute sense in that the wizarding world stands on the edge of a second civil war, and as we know from the end of Goblet of Fire, its government is in serious denial. Phoenix is more complicated, less straightforward, and involves more psychological pain than any of the preceding installments. It treats the characters (and the readers) more like adults than ever. I found this book absolutely engrossing. Like many fans of the series, I was hardly able to put the book down to get a decent night's sleep. It's been worth the wait to see Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore back in action (and there's a lot of that). Buy it, buy it now, and read it ASAP!! Please note that very young readers may be overwhelmed by the tone and the death of a major character near the climax of the novel.
Rating:
Summary: A book that shows the true pain of growing up
Review: In the other Harry Potter books, Harry has more or less been dependent upon the adults of the wizarding world to give him a moral compass with which to guide himself. In this book, Harry learns that sometimes even that isn't enough, that sometimes the people that you respect the most can sometimes become the people that you question the most as well. He begins to learn, fully and truly, that his destiny is not in anyone's hands but his own, that he is not completely safe with anyone and if he wishes to remain alive, he must make a terrible choice- not easy for anyone to go through at any point, but especially difficult at the age he is at. He suffers through the miseries of a doomed crush, a tragic loss of a great friend, and the realization that his father may not have been the most wonderful person to have ever existed, at least, not when his father was a teen.
Not only that, but the idiocy of the Ministry of Magic brings even more peril to the school in the form of Delores Umbridge, who will probably go down in Hogwarts history as the most despicable teacher ever to disgrace the hallways, and further disrupting Harry's trust in adult authority. It remains to be seen what these events will do to shape how Harry Potter grows fully to manhood, but if the previous books were any indication, we may rest assured that our hero will remain such, and will continue to gain the confidence needed to be the leader that he is so close to becoming.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! The Best Yet!
Review: J.K. Rowling gets more amazing with each book. The way she weaves a story and keeps you guessing right up until the end is great. Order of the Phoenix is easily the best Potter book to date. I devoured it in 2 days and can't wait to read it again...starting tonight!
Rating:
Summary: Things fall apart. . .
Review: It's hard to write about the 5th installment of the Harry Potter series without resorting to spoiling some of the most affecting and emotional parts of the book. Be that as it may, I will try to do the text the justice that it deserves. In OotP, Harry Potter is a different person than he was in the previous four books. He's much more angry, and much more aggressive--but, then again, he's fifteen. The book starts off with a blast of action bringing the Dursleys closer than ever to the wizarding world, and hardly takes the time to catch its breath. The introduction of a new foe, one with the power to make the lives of everybody at Hogwart's miserable, keeps the reader on her toes and gives a sense of a world that's falling apart under a conspiracy of lies, and that can only be saved by those who know the truth. Unlike GoF, the book stays together in a cohesive manner, and doesn't feel at all disjointed or overlong, despite actually having more pages and chapters. Additionally, many characters return for the fifth installment in the series. People who were only mentioned in passing in books one and two are expanded upon and given lives of their own. Also, we meet more Hogwarts students, and learn more about the ones we've already been introduced to. Those characters that we've already grown familiar with also surprise us; Fred and George Weasley in particular are fantastic in this book, as are Ginny, Ron, and Neville. We also gain an insight into Snape's past and his character, giving him yet another dimension. A warning, though, to those who would read this book; keep Kleenex nearby. There are many parts of the book that are very emotional. The series isn't strictly a children's series anymore; it's growing darker and more complex. This makes this book more suitable for adults than the previous four, but still a great read for children.
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