Rating: 
Summary: Another great story!
Review: This book, although full of darkness, is another great addition to the Harry Potter set. My stomach was in knots from beginning to end.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: I had been waiting for this book for quite a while now and I am sad to have just finished it still eagerly awaiting book number six to arrive. I am not sad only because I have finished it, but because of further tragic incidences that had occurred to Harry near the end of the book. Harry begins the book at Pivet Drive as usual and is annoyed by the fact that his friends had not contacted him at all during the summer holiday. This silence between he and his friends were vital for his safety and protection. This silence was suddenly broken when he had gotten into trouble when performing magic in front of a muggle and then facing the Magic of Ministry's consequences. Throughout the book, Harry faces quite a substantial amount of adversity and he struggles going though puberty and his ever-aching scar. At the end of the book, I was so bummed out and feeling empty. This book definitely provides the answers to the mysterious questions that Harry had brought up ever since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. There were plenty of happy moments but it seemed that the tragedies overshadowed them which is why it made me sad and empty. This book is definitely worth reading if you are a Potter maniac.
Rating:
Summary: EMOTIONALLY MOVING
Review: If life is about going through emotions, I lived it through this book. In a single weekend, I felt joyful, angry, victorious, nervous, excited, fearful and sad.
Never in my life have I dedicated an entire weekend to getting through a 870 page book and investing the amount of emotions I did for these characters and their situations.
I don't want to spill out any of the details because I want readers to invest their time and hearts into this book. While the other Harry Potter books were about plot and magic, this is about real emotions that we all (muggles or not) go through. For me, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is not just the champion of the series but one of the most moving books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: How does Rowling do it?
Review: Ok, for all of us crazed HP fans this book is spellbinding. All 870 pages of it! I refuse to give away any of the details for fear of spoiling this outstanding story for any who have yet to finish it, but Rowling has outdone herself this time! Many questions will be answered in this book, satisfying the curiousity that has plagued us for the last four books, but many other questions will be raised. The most prevolent is: Who one will it be?Another question is: How does Rowling keep both adults and children enthralled in these stories? This series is transgenerational - crossing the barriers between "kiddie lit" and "adult fiction." Critics of Rowling say these books are "too dark and scary" for children - they are dark. They're supposed to be! They were not originally intended to be childrens' literature, therefore the intended audience is not a 7 year old. They are not a "happy fairy tale" with the assumed ending. These are darker and deal with darker issues - the most important : will good triumph over evil? Rowling has woven another spellbinding tale and personally, I can not wait until book 6 comes out to see what will happen next!
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: J. K. Rowling has done it again. It was wonderful to revisit the characters that I've grown to know so well over the past several years. In fact, there are many characters from the previous books...even a short time spent with Gilderoy Lockhart!
Harry is definitely older and much moodier and angry with everyone and everything throughout most of the book. Ron and Neville finally get to have some success and/or recognition of their own; Fred and George have some creative pranks; Hermione is as smart as ever; Hagrid is not present as often in this book, but he and his creatures still play an important role; and there is a truly horrid new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. You will definitely be groaning along with the Hogwarts students at her neverending rules and restrictions.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. I knew that there would be a death and it created a sense of worry in me each time a character was in danger or injured. I won't give away who it was, but it may not be who you think it will be.
We learn a few important things in this book as well...such as why Voldemort is after Harry, why Snape hated James Potter, and why Harry must stay with the Durleys.
This was definitely a fun read. I enjoyed it thoroughly and now I begin the long wait for the next installment...
Rating:
Summary: subtle, epic, mythic, and needs to be more so
Review: In terms of pure enjoyment "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" ranks alongside only a handful of other books I have ever read, and it certainly meets the expectations raised by the first four books. It is also more interesting than the first four books due to the fact that it more sinister and more grownup. The story is beginning to morph out of childhood and into adulthood and is shedding some of the childish simplicity of the first four books. If the trend continues then book seven will hardly be a children's book at all. This is not a bad thing, however. In spite of the increasingly complex and dark world that Harry occupies, however, I found myself on at least a half dozen occasions slapping my mattress (I read while lying in my bed) while guffawing. There is some good humor here, half of it due to Rowling's insights into the minds of fifteen year olds, and half due to her imagination which I consider perhaps the most fascinating one I have ever encountered. Tolkien had a strong imagination also, but it was not quite as mischevous and mirthful as Rowling's and The Lord of the Rings often gets bogged down by pages of imaginative description that perhaps only Tolkien himself could really appreciate. Rowling's imagination, on the other hand, is light, humourous, and has a more universal appeal. I do have a few minor complaints about the book. These are in no way serious enough to merit a rating less than 5 stars, but I think they are worth mentioning. 1) Evil in this book is a caricature. It is ugly, loves to torture, and is too easily recognized. Why would anyone want to be a Death Eater if all you do is snivel at the feet of Voldemort? Where is the perfumed, sultry, sexy appeal of evil? 2) We need more on Voldemort. As the series becomes more epic and mythic it begins to feel a bit lopsided as only Harry Potter is fully developed. (The Lord of The Rings suffered from this problem as well -- Sauron was never explained or developed satisfactorily while we got a lot of the history of hobbits.) Where did Voldemort come from? (I mean metaphysically, not biologically). He appears not to be merely a Dumbledore who has capitulated to evil. There is something more going on here and it was not fleshed out whatsoever in this novel. 3) We need more of the big picture about this world. What are the overarching principles? Where do the dead go when they die (a question Harry himself asks in this book)? What is the grounding for good and evil? On what does Dumbledore base his knowledge (what is his epistemology)? Why is Harry not in danger of capitulating to evil himself? Is Harry merely born destined to Good while Voldemort was born destined to Evil? I hope this world is not that simplistic! Why shouldn't Harry just join Voldemort, take over the world, then out-manuever and kill Voldemort, and then rule the world? It is not good enough merely to say that this would be bad -- we need to know why this would be bad. Why is evil evil and not good? These bedrock principles need to be fleshed out.
Rating: 
Summary: Soooooo Disappointing!!
Review: Okay, since no one else has come forward yet, I will begin. Let it be said that, up until this point, I was a huge fan of the series and a slightly smaller fan of J.K. Rowling. I anxiously anticipated her new book, just as every other fan of hers.
[...] This new book is filled with loosely tied together story-lines, disjointed thoughts and unnecessary ideas.
While the book starts out pretty good, filled with the trials and angst of a 15yr old "hero" who's left out in the cold at a very important time, it starts to get filled rather quickly with too much information and not enough storytelling. I don't want to give away too many details that would ruin anyone's reading experience, but my biggest gripe is near the last portion of the book. This is usually a time for discovery of the story behind and linking of all the little pieces of information. Ms. Rowling's explanations of the Prophecy and driving forces behind many of the characters feels slapped together and contrived. I just don't feel the emotions that she's trying to convey through Dumbledore or any other member of the Order. Even the villans left me feeling blah and unsatisfied.
[...]
Rating:
Summary: Harry Grows Up?
Review: In Order of the Pheonix you get a sense that Harry is getting older. In books 1-4 he seemed to be the same naive person, and 5 is definitely a step in the right dirrection. However, sometimes he just seems like a brat, not a maturing, young man. It also tends to drag at points, the summer taking up over a third of the book.
The book does offer up some important information. It's comperable to Episode Two of the Star Wars series, the begining to an all out war.There are some happy surprises, amd some very upsetting ones as well.
Like all the others, there's no real resolution, which should be expected by anyone who reads series books. But on the whole I put it as one of the best in this series, and is a definite must have for anyone who's a fan of Harry Potter.
Rating:
Summary: Best Harry Potter Book Yet
Review: I recently finished this book, and thought it was "thicker" (no pun intended) than the rest. The plot was fuller, and more things were going on at once, than in previous books. There was nothing I really hated about this book, other than perhaps the over-use of modern day language. I just didn't feel like "Yo" and "cool" belonged. But that was my only complaint, and J.K. Rowling released another fantastic book. I'd recommend it to everyone, even those that haven't read the previous books, becasue I thought Rowling did a pretty good job at explaining past characters, events, etc. Overall, a five star book.
Rating:
Summary: When's the next one coming out?
Review: I anxiously awaited this book(along with many others)for three years and now that it has arrived I see it was worth the wait. J.K. Rowlings has not lost any of her momentum or panache. This latest installment in the Harry Potter series is wonderful. The plot is intrict and yet it slides right into holes left by previous books. Harry, who struggles with not only the weight of Voldemort's return, but also being a teenager and talking to girls, acts like a prima donna at times, yet we can't help but feel sorry for him. Hogwarts no longer seems a place of refuge as one by one Dumbledore's powers as headmaster are stripped away by the unbelieving Ministry of Magic. There are too many surprises throughout the story to say more than: run, don't walk and get your copy today.
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