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As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Returning to Hogwarts will be a relief... or will it? The fifth book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series follows the darkest year yet for our young wizard, who finds himself knocked down a peg or three after the events of last year. Somehow, over the summer, gossip (usually traced back to the magic world's newspaper, the Daily Prophet) has turned Harry's tragic and heroic encounter with Voldemort at the Triwizard Tournament into an excuse to ridicule and discount the teen. Even Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of the school, has come under scrutiny by the Ministry of Magic, which refuses to officially acknowledge the terrifying truth that Voldemort is back. Enter a particularly loathsome new character: the toadlike and simpering ("hem, hem") Dolores Umbridge, senior undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, who takes over the vacant position of Defense Against Dark Arts teacher--and in no time manages to become the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, as well. Life isn't getting any easier for Harry Potter. With an overwhelming course load as the fifth years prepare for their Ordinary Wizarding Levels examinations (O.W.Ls), devastating changes in the Gryffindor Quidditch team lineup, vivid dreams about long hallways and closed doors, and increasing pain in his lightning-shaped scar, Harry's resilience is sorely tested. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, more than any of the four previous novels in the series, is a coming-of-age story. Harry faces the thorny transition into adulthood, when adult heroes are revealed to be fallible, and matters that seemed black-and-white suddenly come out in shades of gray. Gone is the wide-eyed innocent, the whiz kid of Sorcerer's Stone. Here we have an adolescent who's sometimes sullen, often confused (especially about girls), and always self-questioning. Confronting death again, as well as a startling prophecy, Harry ends his year at Hogwarts exhausted and pensive. Readers, on the other hand, will be energized as they enter yet again the long waiting period for the next title in the marvelous, magical series. (Ages 9 and older) --Emilie Coulter Product Description
The fifth hefty installment in J. K. Rowling's renowned Harry Potter series takes a uniquely psychological dark turn. There is a Door at the end of a silent corridor. And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror? | | | | Product Details
- Audio CD: pages
- Publisher: Listening Library (Audio); edition ()
- ISBN: 0807220299
- Average Customer Review:
 Based on 5501 reviews. - Amazon.com Sales Rank: 957
| | | | Customer Reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 The Boy Who Kept On Living, May 20, 2023
The Order of the Phoenix is about the suffering Harry Potter must face and endure in order to support publicly his statement of what he knows to have really happened: Voldemort's back.
The novel has to do with terror-stories at some points. I think JK Rowling has become so skillful at writing her stories that she even teases us a bit by means of what we might call "suspense". At times we feel that something terrible must reveal itself or happen and yet... The author is happy with just a hint: the story goes on and we are left wondering about what we've just read.
One of those places is the scene between Potter and that incredibly silly and weeping girl called Cho Chang on chapter 21 "The Eye of the Snake". Is Voldemort using her to hit Harry?
All we know for sure is that Harry's nightmares change in quality just after that scene. He dreams of Mr Weasley in mortal danger only a few hours later.
I think the narrative loses a good deal of its grip towards the end of chapter 34 onwards: the neverending fight in "Beyond the Veil" (35) could have been reduced to half its size or length and we might not have missed anything important.
The old Voldermort's connection that bounds Harry grows progressively stronger in this novel. From chapter 32 "Out of the Fire" on it is so powerful that our hero does not even realise Voldemort is using him as a tool to fulfill his own plans (Voldemort's).
I think Dumbledore's brilliant performances are among the best stuff in this book: see "The Hearing", "The Centaur and the Sneak" (ch. 27) and "The Only One He Ever Feared" (36). On the other hand, chapter 37 shows an unbelievably helpless Dumbledore talking too much and letting the hero rage in a melodramatic way without doing anything at all.
If JK Rowling meant to convey to us some of the anguish and sorrow Harry no doubt must have been passing through after Black's death, I don't think she has succeeded in doing so. Yet I do think she lets us see a real glimpse of her heroe's loneliness on chapter 38 "The Second War Begins", pages 753-54 (1st hardcover edition, 2003). Harry walks down the lawns around Hogwarts and sits down alone by the lake. From "Harry crossed to the door as fast as he could" until "Wiping his face on his sleeve as he went" there is a moving picture of the real Harry Potter. The words "he was -he had always been- a marked man. It was just that he had never really understood what that meant" are believable, though some might say they're hollow. They do tells us something important and they may very well reach our hearts.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Beautifully written, May 19, 2023
Great read but the end is draining. While the Goblet of Fire was dark, this book can be confusing, dangerous, and downright scary at times. The GOF had an innocence to it, and despite the tragic ending, we still felt happiness... but I dread to say that this book left me feeling as though I spent the day with a dementor. You are drawn into the emotions of the characters and the end brings no relief. There is no triumph over evil this time. There is no satisfaction. The ending brings terrible emotions and no closure. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but Harry is more alone than ever in this book, and the death at the end is so forceful that you take a step back to shed a tear. This is intensfied by what Harry saw in the pensieve and how Harry has lost yet another father. (does anyone see where I'm going with regards to who dies?) Dumbledore's explanation at the end has a sense of foreboding (Will Voldemort triumph or will Harry? Either way, Harry MUST face death). The beginning drags on much too long, and the "middle" is much too short. I found myself, at times, wishing someone else would die.... and there ARE a few "near misses" where you think another character has or will die (this is before the death in the book).
I found the book wonderfully written which is why I gave it 5 stars, but it was draining and I will have to re-read it to clarify much of the book... but unlike the previous books (which I have re-read several times) I find myself dreading this, possibly because Rowling's writing is so captivating and REAL that you feel as though you are living it.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Better than before..., May 17, 2023
Although this book is exciting and fun to read, it feels like a drag to get to the end. Sometimes I almost fell asleep reading the "unneeded" information.
The reason I put unneeded in quotes is because I know that J.K. Rowling likes to put in little bits of information that might come up in the following books. Like clues... :)
I suggest this book for ages 9 and up. I started reading the harry potter series when I was 7, but this book is much more intense.
4 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
 A mean-spirited book, May 14, 2023
I've liked the previous Harry Potter books, and enjoyed them all to various degrees, but this one left me feeling angry.
For example, the character of Dolores Umbridge is so arbitrarily mean and unfair that it just seems to be a method for Rowling to invent mean things to do to Harry. The character needed something to indicate human motives. It was a neat idea to throw a nemesis for Harry who was not on Voldemort's side - someone evil while not EVIL - but the actions of Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic just seemed too phony, not organic with the 'Potter' world, but more manufactured as a hurdle.
There are some good things in the book. Harry's peak into Snape's mind, the secret classes, the stumbling of Harry in the romantic area, Neville at the hospital.
In the midst of this, there is a startling revelation about Harry's father that is quite a nice turn. It's the best thing in the book. You'd think that Harry would learn something from it. It should have led him to change the way he deals with Draco Malfoy, but the book ends with a mean-spirited conflict with Draco that shows that Harry has learned nothing.
In the world of "The Order of the Phoenix," meanness is best met with meanness, cruelty with cruelty.
The portrait of the Dursley's has always rung of this sort of meanness. It has always bothered me that the Dursley's are practically the only Muggles we ever meet, and that they are such narrow-minded sadists that they deserve their frequent commuppances at the hands of Harry's magic. In past books in the series, it has been easy to overlook the mean-spiritedness of those sections because the rest of the books have been good-to-great. In "Order of the Phoenix," the cruel tone of the "Dursley" sections is spread out throughout the book.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A Good Book, May 14, 2023
This is a great book. I read this book before any of the others while i was deployed to Iraq. by not reading the first 4 i was a little lost, but still enjoyed the book. now that i have read every single book twice in the last year now. and every book is great in its own right. i would and will read them all again, and i can't wait for the 6th to come out. the one thing i've noticed about a lot of the reviews. is that people say it dark and glomy, and you hate the Harry is actting in 5th. all's i can say is that Harry is growing up and i remeber when i was becoming a teenager and adults told me what to do, i always questioned it with why do that when this would be better and its my way. its a part of growing up thinking you know everything and adults know nothing. now for Harry blowing up at everybody. he just has a shorter temper its not something that happens to everyone. but by what he felt as being left out he just got madder and madder at everyone. ther for he got a shorter temper. alls i can say is try and remember when you where Harry's age and how you felt. now that i'm done with that I Love the book and can't wait for the next.
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