Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsThe only disappointing book of the series.
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2020
I love the Harry Potter books and this is the second time I’ve gone through the series. The Order of The Phoenix is long and filled with paragraphs of unnecessary details, especially during suspenseful moments- which makes me largely skip them. Where details would be appreciated (in the rooms at the Ministry of Magic, especially in the final chapters), they’re largely missing. This is frustrating.
Harry’s irrational anger and self righteous social ineptitude fills the book, and there are few bright spots. I get that he’s a full-blown teenager, but still, there’s enough negative things happening in this book without making me dislike Harry intensely. It’s like Rowling thought she’d better give Harry some not-so-nice characteristics as a twist. Again, I think it was unnecessary.
The other books in the series are hard to put down and I typically read one book in about a day. This one was easy to put down... there was never anything good to look forward to. I think it took me 4 days to read it (this second time, during self isolation for covid) and it wasn’t because there were so many pages.
