harry potter & the half-blood prince

Oh my, my, my!

I loved this book! If you haven't read it yet, and plan to, hurry to it! And don't read any farther, because I'll spoil it for you...

This book had my attention from the very beginning...I remember the first few Harry Potter books...you could tell they were aimed at a younger audience. I still enjoyed the stories though. This book seems to have matured in style...and I liked that. I was completely into the story.

I zoomed through it...couldn't put it down. And then it happened. Dumbledore was killed!

I couldn't believe it!! Dumbledore! The good wizard. By Snape, the traitor!

Immediately I thought, okay, this is going to be one of those things like in the Lord of the Rings when Gandolf dies. He'll come back later in the story, he didn't really die. It just "looked" like Snape killed him, but really Snape was on the good side. But there was a funeral. And the spell he had put on Harry released, which signified that he was indeed dead. And his phoenix mourned, which leads you to believe he really was gone. How can Dumbledore be gone???

And so, it seems, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine won't be returning to the school. They'll be setting off in search of the evil wizard. So that Harry can destroy him. That will be interesting, not being in the school anymore. But I guess there is only so much you can write about in that setting. Hm.

I must say...I was fascinated by the whole idea of the evil wizard splitting his soul into separate horcruxes to try to make himself immortal. Very clever idea. All horcruxes must be killed before the wizard will die. I think there are 4 more to go...

I'm ready for the next book!!