AnHeC (I'm too fucking busy and vice versa)

word count: 190,637

rating: a turning point

I know some people say it's slow and boring (especially the first half) but for me it worked out great. Reading it took me a while, since I had very little free time, but was fun.

Rowling becomes more at ease with every book. Writing in this one is smooth, but she tries to grow and expand (look at the prologue with its switching POV). I didn't like that. I would prefer consistency.

Now a few random notes:

- Hermione stopped eating when she found out all the food was prepared by house elves. I can't think of any reason that would make me stop eating at a wonderful feast. Seriously, what's wrong with her?

- I've also noticed that Dumbledore is much less serious in the books than in the movies. Just saying. But I guess it's hard to convey a 'mischievous eye twinkling' XD

- *I HATED the fact that in the film Beauxbatons seemed to consist of girls only and Durmstrang of boys. Sexes were clearly mixed. Shitty film-makers *mutters*

- HOW did Hagrid come to be? Seriously. If his mother was a 20 feet tall giant... Mechanics of the whole thing always perplexed me. Did his father have sex with a giant? But aren't they aggressive and unlikely to mingle with humans? Is that even physically possible? WTF? I really want to know!

- Cedrik is an ass. He should have told Harry what he found out instead of giving him vague clues. I guess he really wanted to win, but didn't want to feel like shit for not helping Harry.

- I've always thought Crabbe and Goyle were names, but they must be surnames, because there are deatheaters called Crabbe and Goyle and they couldn't possibly serve Voldemort as infants. So surnames they are. I have no idea why I was confused about this one...

This is the book where things change. The series has been becoming more and more grown up with each book (the third one resulting in win/loss situation) and now Voldemort is back and someone dies. A GOOD GUY DIED. And not just a random stranger (though that happened too) but someone we've been following for a while. And he dies without much fanfare. He's there, and the next second he's not. That's cruel and abrupt - definitely not kid's stuff.

I love this book, I love observing how the tone of the series slowly changes. It didn't feel too long or drawn out. We still get a mix of school stuff but with much more of the world outside of Hogwarts being exposed. Harry still isn't an invincible hero and gets saved by luck and courage, but he's slowly growing and becoming more competent, more mature (but not for long, since he's about to enter a crazy teen phase). Now he knows some spells, he grows.

With that 'deep' thought, I'm out.