Year 5 at hogwarts — and things (from a writing perspective) get a little long winded!

I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix about 10 days ago. I am only getting to the review now. This book, more than the previous, is the beginning of the coming of age portion of Harry’s life. More hormonal outrage, crushes, and growth stuff. More on some of those. This book also shows JK at her author powers over editor. This book weighs in at a whopping 870 pages. Now, this is longer than any previous volume by about 20% but it is even longer than that!! ALL of the other volumes are set in 12 point type, this is 11.5. You say “big deal”. Well let’s do some quick math. The smaller type face allows for approximately 5% more words per page. By that argument, the book would be 5% longer if set in 12 point - making it about 914 pages. I have not gone and counted the number of lines on each page, but if that was even increased by one - that would have the book ring in at about 1000 pages. I am not oppossed to long works - not at all - IF THEY can carry that length. And here is where the problem with this book comes in. The middle - it is VERY bulky. Like 200- 250 pages bulky. Seriously. I know all the fans of the series were so hungry for more HP that getting something this long had to be joyous, but folks, the editor checked out on this one.

My thoughts on this volume are as follows:

• Opening and Ending: This book has a ultra great opening and ending. Maybe the most exciting of all the works. REALLY good, gripping and well thought out. I started and thought - WOW! This is GREAT!!
• Middle: THEN - we get to Hogwarts - USUALLY where things come together (thought the cookie cutter fashioning of the school year is a bit wearing when reading them all in a row). Instead we get an interesting idea of the Ministry of Magic attempting to run Hogwarts and lots and lots and lots of day to day coverage. WAY more than needed. YES - there are some great parts but they are streatched so thin it is hard to appreciate them as much. This could have bee a really great concept. She just has run-away author syndrome. And because she had sold something insane like a 250 million books or something, they (aka the editors) let he write and write and write. Kinda suffering from Stephen King issues. Great story - iffy writing - NEEDING an editor!

I feel like she wrote the beginning and end and outlined the middle. She then sat down to write the middle and let it all fly! This book took twice as long as any other to read through.

The one thing I find a bit frustrating in the relationships between students and teachers (aka adults) is the sometimes lack of adult-ness from the adults. There are times you want the teachers to be “grown-ups”. Off advice, properly punish, and move on. Instead we get some petty arguments and thin egos. There are times this is very weird.

I have finished HP6 by now and the editors show back up - and thankfully really do a great job. This comes out as a film this summer and it will be interesting to see how they edit this mammoth volume down to a 2.5 hour film. It actually may benefit from it.

On a side note, THIS book I have in a slightly different edition than the other 5 (soon to be 6). This is the Reinforced Library edition. For those that do not know, this is a hardback that is typically bound with heavier boards for the front and back covers, a stronger “tape” for the spine and heaver paper along with stronger thread and glue in the spine. For such a long book I am very happy this volume was in this format. It is REALLY well made.