Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix
There are books you read, enjoy, and put back on the shelf. And then some books make you want to argue with the characters, yell at the author, and occasionally throw the book across the room. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the book you enjoy.
Okay, so there is this boy. His name is Harry Potter.
Spoiler-HE IS A WIZARD.
People may have seen the movies. That’s cool. However, I’ve read the books too. This was actually the first novel that I ever read. We’ll talk about this at the end of the review, though.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the 5th book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. This is the one where things start to get darker and more serious. I mean, the 4th part, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, was also serious, but it was more like an indicator before turning a complete U-turn. Order of the Phoenix is what comes after that U-turn. A whole lot of mess – An interesting mess, though.
I will obviously not write the whole story from start to finish because it is not fair to the Author and/or first-time readers. I will, however, write the major points of the book. The key points that make it interesting.
Without further ado, I’ll begin, because I know minds start to wander if the beginning is NOT BEGINNING.
So, as I said, the book starts on a dull day in Little Whinging. Harry is having a frustrating summer because he hasn’t been getting any letters from Ron, Hermione, or anyone. The Daily Prophet also seems weird; he isn’t getting anything from anywhere, and that frustrates him because of what happened a few months back. Cedric Diggory being murdered by Lord Voldemort and whatnot. But no one is talking about it, and that was making Harry Potter irate. On top of that, when the Dementors attack him and Dudley, and he defends himself against them, he somehow ends up in a court hearing at the Ministry of Magic for breaking the underage wizarding laws.
Harry is at his aunt and uncle’s place, which he already loathes, and on top of that, he feels ignored and ghosted by his friends and confidants, not to mention getting tangled in a court hearing. When he finally catches up with them and asks why they haven’t been writing to him, things get a little clearer but also more complicated, because he learns that Dumbledore asked them not to, but didn’t tell them why. Harry tries to ask Dumbledore about this throughout his fifth year, but Dumbledore keeps ignoring him. This becomes clear later in the book.
This was a difficult year for Harry. He had to face different kinds of obstacles, which were mostly Malfoy and Umbridge.
Not a SPOILER, but I would like to tell first-time readers that this book will make you furious, and you will want to kill Umbridge. You may also want to kill the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, because he’s an idiot throughout Harry’s fifth year. Tensions are high in this one. Things do get out of hand. And Harry’s life gets very complicated. And since Dumbledore isn’t talking to him properly or making eye contact, Harry can’t understand half the stuff going on around him. Things do get sorted out toward the end, but by then it is too late for someone close to Harry.
Basically, the gist of the story is that after the Triwizard Tournament in Harry’s fourth year, Voldemort comes back full strength because he gets a body. But power-hungry Cornelius Fudge isn’t ready to believe Dumbledore when he tells him. Various articles defaming Professor Dumbledore and Harry Potter are published in the Daily Prophet to undermine their claim that you know who is back. To make matters worse, when Harry starts his fifth year at Hogwarts, he has to endure many hardships in the form of people calling him a nutter and constantly ogling at him and making him awkward and uncomfortable.
Not to be sarcastic when I say it, but Dolores Jane Umbridge is the most mind-numbingly cute and loving character in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. OBVIOUSLY NOT. She is ridiculously arrogant and evil. She makes everyone’s life hell at Hogwarts. She is basically at Hogwarts on the Ministry’s orders to make Dumbledore’s life difficult by interfering in everything at Hogwarts and being a monster with her medieval methods (as McGonagall says) of punishing students.
The ordinary Wizarding Level examinations, that is, the OWLs, take place during this year. It’s been hectic for the fifth years, and a little extra for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, because they have a lot on their plates with the Hagrid & Grawp situation, Harry’s bloody detentions with Umbridge, tensions running high with the Ministry, Malfoy’s constant taunts, and Harry’s visions. All in all, the emotions run wild this year, and things feel like too much for the protagonist at times.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has many layers, and it offers a sneak peek at the hurdles ahead for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
The best characters apart from Harry, Ron & Hermione, of course, are obviously Nymphadora Tonks and Luna Lovegood. The way J.K. Rowling writes about them makes you want to love them. My personal favourites are these two because of their characteristics and behaviour. Luna is my absolute favourite because she is so unusual and bizarre. And I love these kinds of people. Fred & George Weasley are my absolute favourites. So Sassy and mischievous.
The worst character already mentioned is Dolores Jane Umbridge. No one could have done the job better. She makes characters like Draco Malfoy & Snape look meek. Actually, for that matter, she makes Voldemort look cute too.
Let’s talk about relationships. Not a lot, but Harry has a brief thing with Cho Chang. I did not really like it from the get-go. But it is what it is.
Everything in this book was a little too overwhelming, but it gets really tragic at the end when a significant character dies. It was one of the saddest deaths because of the way it happens. I am not going to say who coz it’s a spoiler. Read it and form your own opinion.
Setting everything aside, I want to continue what I said at the start of the review. This was the first novel I ever read. The writing blew my mind. I used to read in school, but this was different. Reading Order of the Phoenix changed me. Not so much in my personality, just my mind and heart. It taught me the power of imagination. I could see the story unfold before my eyes as I read. I could see it in my head, clear as day.
Friendship, love, grief, anger, power- so many things have been shown in this book. There are not-so-likeable parts to it. But not with the writing. It’s just how my mind saw it. You could totally love it.
Harry Potter series has been like therapy to me. I have read it numerous times, but it still feels fresh in my memory. I learned good vocabulary from it because I started reading it in school. This next-level understanding is what readers always talk about. I always tell teenagers, or anyone, for that matter, who wants to start reading to start with Harry Potter books. They will teach them how to read and what to feel when you read.
This is all I have to say about my first ever book. I hope when you read your first book, you feel the same kind of liberation that I did.
Harry Potter keeps me a kid at heart, but it nurtured my mind and helped me become more mature.
