Comments on: Revisiting Harry Potter: I have nothing to say about Grawp

By: Care

Care — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:43:28 +0000

Professor Jenny? I would like to enroll in your Harry Potter class. Where do I sign up?

By: americanbookjunkie

americanbookjunkie — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 22:25:35 +0000

re: the angst, I agree with you– everybody gets that Harry’s life kind of sucks right now, and what teenager doesn’t go through a really obnoxious kind of self-righteous phase, but omg is it obnoxious to read. & Grawp. & Sirius being obnoxious. & Umbridge. & Percy. I mean, it’s like NOBODY’s having a fun time in this book. Honestly. I can’t wait ’til we get done with this one and everybody gets over their attitude issues.

& I know that this is kind of shallow and there’s more to it, but I’m feeling grumpy about all the unhappiness.

By: raych

raych — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 02:16:13 +0000

Hermione tends to have Excellent Responses to Things (be they witty or intelligent or emotionally apt). Hermione for President!

I am all for Harry getting shouty about his feelings. SHOUT ABOUT THEM. I get snarly when he’s like, Whatever, no one understands me or likes me very much despite all evidence to the contrary so I’ll just hole up here and sulk. That Harry I could TAKE OR LEAVE.

By: Rayna (Libereading)

Rayna (Libereading) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:51:07 +0000

Ugh, Grawp is the worst. I will rant about this next week.

And I think that the contest between Voldemort and Umbridge to be the most despicable is a little difficult to say at this point. I mean, as a reader you know that Voldemort is terrible because has killed and tortured many people but Umbridge is right there in front of you for the whole book, being horrible and sadistic. In Order of the Phoenix she’s still small potatoes, though — I want to be super spoilery here but I will resist…. Suffice to say, I think at her core she’s just as evil as Voldemort (as evidenced in Deathly Hallows), but she works her evil within the system, as opposed to Voldemort, who doesn’t care about hiding behind the pretense of the law.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:55:56 +0000

The DA is the bestest! But I’m honestly kind of bored by Umbridge. I find her to be super one-dimensional. Give me some complexity.

By: Laura Rowsell (@LauraRowsell)

Laura Rowsell (@LauraRowsell) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:29:48 +0000

Aw, it is nice to see Harry being a leader! Because normally Hermione’s basically in charge until she inevitably gets taken out and then Harry has to do stuff on his own. So here we get to see how he can lead and he’s actually pretty good at it, right? Forget being an Auror, maybe Harry should teach at Hogwarts!

Percy is TERRIBLE in this book. I can’t remember if he gets better, but… I really don’t feel like forgiving him.

By: zibilee

zibilee — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:05:35 +0000

It’s true, this is my least favorite book in the series, but only because there is so much angst coming from Harry, but really, what do I expect? The kid has been harassed and attacked and bothered his whole life, and now he’s just plain mad. I do admit that this is the book I had the most trouble with, and that is only because of all the attitude. It gets better, Harry, I promise.

By: Tika

Tika — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:58:59 +0000

We are all a product of our environment. ALL. Sirius is the way he is because he hasn’t had a friend for what, 14 years now? So his last example of friendship was James, who is admittedly not the nicest teenager – although I like to think that if they’d grown up, they as a group would have been quite decent human beings.

Your point about emotional flight is SO ROUGH and SO TRUE. I have personal anecdotes about that, but they’re making me tear up at work, so we will leave it there and commune another time.

Grawp. BLEH.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:45:42 +0000

In reply to Katie. (DADA classes - I meant Dumbledore's Army.)

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:45:15 +0000

This is my least favourite book in the series, mainly because of Umbridge. There’s a really oppressive feel to Order of the Phoenix, and I think a lot of that is the way that she is always there, not just calling Harry a liar, not even the hand-torture, but the way that she threatens every refuge Harry takes in Hogwarts: the quidditch, the DADA classes, the communications to Sirius, etc. You see that in all her educational decrees, taking away one thing at a time.