Historically my least favourite Harry Potter book, but let’s see if I can reconcile this view after a reread.

Read: Jul. 15 – Jul. 16, 2025

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Audience: Middle-grade, Teen
Book contains: bullying, accused madness, torture, death, tyranny

Purchase a copy from Indigo.ca

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Still Least Favourite in Series, but Good

Despite Voldemort’s return to full power at the end of the previous year, he seems to have vanished, leaving Harry with no news at Privet Drive. Meanwhile, Dumbledore has regathered the Order of the Phoenix to fight back, and begins taking steps to fight, all the while hiding his movements from the Ministry, who seek to topple his plans in a paranoid scramble.

This book is my least favourite in the series for a few reasons. It’s the longest, and while I love description as much as the next person, this one felt stuffed with unnecessary things. Secondly, Harry is so angry and moody throughout this whole thing, which, despite being understandable, was annoying to read. Thirdly, again with how long it is, most of it is about rebelling against the most hated character in the whole series, and thus I found it tedious.

Like all the books before, this novel is written in third person limited POV following Harry it does not stray from his actions whatsoever, following him in chronological order from August to June as he attends school, learns magic, and fights the establishment.

I’ve been super busy this week, but I liked listening along to this book while working. I was mainly bookbinding, but I also listened along to the audiobook on YouTube while I was cooking. I found The Falls Audiobook, which tells the story in three parts (though in part 3, they forgot chapter 34.

Harry is quite different in this book, as I mentioned above. He’s very angry and emotional, snapping at all his friends, raging at his teachers, and overall being very moody. As a teenager, this makes sense, double since he’s also experiencing Voldemort’s emotional swings at the same time, but it’s all very tedious and too different from the previous year. I understand that this is a reaction to the trauma of Harry witnessing Cedric’s death the year prior, but no mention of this reasoning is made, and thus it only seems to portray Harry as a typical teenager rather than a struggling one. Ron has his own emotional arc, being a nervous wreck when responsibility is finally thrust upon him, but he pulls through. Hermione is once again haughty and imperious, but also invaluably clever and insightful—especially when it comes to Harry’s mixed feelings about Cho Chang.

Harry’s relationships struggle in this book. Though he has Ron and Hermione for life, his connection with Voldemort works in yanking away his ties to his friends and found family. He struggles with this a lot, especially since Dumbledore has been ignoring him all year, and the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher might just be the worst one yet.

The book I have is a first edition, though I found no glaring errors whatsoever. Score! Otherwise, the writing did well in diving deep into teenage emotions (even if it was tedious). Its darker tone increases the audience age range from middle-grade to teen, though younger children can still comfortably read this book.

As expected since it’s so long, the pacing of this book is also quite slow. There’s a lot going on, and a lot of different moving plotlines to go with it, from Harry’s recurring dreams, to his classes, to the Order, to his love life. So many moving parts that slowed everything down—until the end, when things moved very fast indeed.

I recommend reading this book as part of the series, even if it remains my least favourite book of the bunch.

Related Reviews:

Harry Potter Book 1: The Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter Book 2: The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter Book 3: The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter Book 4: The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter Book 5: The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter Book 6: The Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter Book 7: The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts Book 1: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
*The Shadow Atlas Book 1: Initiate by Jenny Sandiford