This is the book that contains the biggest surprise of them all. But I’ll get to that later. First let’s talk about the main threads running throughout this book.
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!
The most interesting to me is Voldemort’s past. Harry and Dumbledore finally spend some time together and work on Voldemort’s past. A lot is revealed about him, culminating in the 7 Horcrux. I am obsessed about these books so I would have no clue what these could be. I will simply enjoy discovering them in the last book.
Another thread is what Malfoy and Snape are up to. I thought he wanted to kill Harry, but that was cleverly scrapped by Rowling when Malfoy didn’t kill Harry on the train to Hogwarts. This mystery was an interesting one, but Dumbledore obviously knew about it, but he didn’t tell Harry. I honestly don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t. He already admitted in book 5 that keeping things from Harry was a mistake.
There is also the titular thread about the half-blood prince. One thing I don’t understand is why nobody thought that Voldemort could be him. Snape was an obvious guess but I never made it.
On a more light-hearted tone, we also get romantic relationships and love potions. I must admit I was convinced that Harry drank a love potion for him to love Ginny. In the end I felt a little uncomfortable about this relationship. But I am glad to see that Ron and Hermione are getting closer.
My biggest problem with this book is the same as the previous one. Voldemort spent an entire year doing… nothing. Again. His only plan was to kill Dumbledore, executed by a kid…
Which brings me to the big finale. As much as I like Dumbledore, I always had a problem with his seemingly infallibility (is that a word?). He seemed to know everything that was going on and to be impossible to stop him. The only thing keeping him from going up to Voldemort and killing him seemed his kindness. So the fact that he died at the end of this book was a total shock and surprise. Could he have been so totally wrong in trusting Snape? It seemed impossible to believe. But I did believe it and kudos to Rowling for that.
However, the more I think about it the more I change my mind. I know that the last book has been out for some time, so people already know. But I think that he is not dead, and that this was all a plan made with Snape. We’ll see how wrong I am.
This is again not totally satisfying, but that ending was very good. Can’t wait to finally read the ending.