Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

            While readers might be expecting a thrilling novel full of action and adventure in the sixth installment of the beloved Harry Potter series, Half Blood Prince is, instead, a tragic tale of loss and fear. Set against the back drop of teenage love and angst, the novel is full of schemes, plots and manipulations on both sides of the inevitable war between the light and the dark.

            In the beginning chapters of the novel, any devoted reader of the series will note a major difference from the preceding five books, in that Harry is picked up from the dreaded Dursley home by Professor Dumbledore, instead of the Weasley’s. The Professor takes him to visit a colleague in the hopes of convincing him to come out of retirement. This is Harry’s first “Dumbledore Approved” mission as the “Chosen One,” destined to defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and free the wizarding world. This sign of respect and perceived maturity from Dumbledore is in sharp contrast to Harry’s year of immaturity. Even as the aging Professor entrusts Harry with important missions of intrigue in an attempt to gather valuable information on Lord Voldemort, Harry spends most of his time tracking his childhood nemesis, Draco Malfoy and pines after the sister of one of his best friends, Ronald Weasley, while experimenting with potions and spells found in a book previously owned by the “Half Blood Prince.” Hermione spends the year frustrated with Ronald for not realizing her attraction to him and angry at Harry for his use of the mysterious book, which she claims is far too similar to the diary that contained a memory of Lord Voldemort in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts (as told about in the thrilling Chamber of Secrets). The year progresses quickly with considerably less danger than many years previous, leading to the all the more exciting and dramatic final chapters. Harry is taken from Hogwarts on a mysterious errand with Professor Dumbledore, upon their return the headmaster is gravely ill, and the castle has been overrun by the cloaked and masked followers of Voldemort, the Death Eaters. A battle is fought and Hogwarts triumphs with few casualties, though one of them is a leading character thought previously by Harry and his growing readers to be invincible.

            Rowling draws in her readers with detailed, clear imagery and thrilling language, all the while luring the audience into a false sense of security with the mundane happenings in Harry’s life. She draws them a picture of a teenager, much like them or their siblings and she juxtaposes this image with the harsh realities of life at war and being the “Boy Who Lived.” This allows the audience to better understand why Harry has moments of immaturity, such as waking up in the hospital wing with a cracked skull and only being concerned with whether or not he won the Quidditch game. She also gives insight to his growing perception of his own mortality and his responsibility to be an adult due to the circumstances, as evidenced by his rapid break up with the much sought after Ginny Weasley. He has realized now that he is a target, but so are those connected to him. He makes an adult decision and the audience is left to wonder where the boy disappeared to when Harry Potter became a man.

            Rowling uses language like a painter uses a brush. She creates this fantasy world of wizards and witches and Dark Lords, but it is so similar to our own world, our own struggles as growing adults, that it does not seem so much like fantasy, moreover, it appears as an alternate reality that readers can join at will. The novel is engaging, thrilling, frightening, saddening and at the same time so completely part of those who read it that they feel Harry’s fear, his sadness, his jealousy and his happiness as their own. It is not his struggle against the darkness, but society’s struggle against despair that draws people to the series.

            Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, is a story of growing up, losing loved ones and fighting a hard battle, but it is also a story of love and friendship that gives readers hope. If Harry can love when he has lost his parents, his godfather, his mentor and his girlfriend, to the fight with Voldemort, then anything is possible.