srah blah blah

1. Describe in five words or less how you feel about Order of the Phoenix. (your initial reaction)
Depressing, frustrating, long, hope-inspiring. Hey, it's like adolescence!

2. What are your feelings on Harry's personality? Do you think he is overly cynical, depressed, etc. . . .?
I think he's overly self-centered (said she who blogs about herself all day long) and emotionally delicate, but that's probably par for the course at 15. I think he's worse than most 15-year-olds, though, because he's been through so much and he's used to so much attention and adoration from the wizarding public.

3. Do you think Order of the Phoenix is appropriate for children 13 and younger? Why or why not?
No. Rowling says that the appropriate age group is Harry's age for each book, so that 11-year-olds are the target audience for Book 1, 12 for Book 2, etc. That said, some people mature faster than others and can read at a higher level than others. I think the language level is higher with this book, which should hopefully discourage people who aren't ready for the subject matter. Parents should know where their kids are, intellectually, and judge whether they're ready or not.

4. List your five most hated characters (either in Book 5 or the whole series, non-humans can be included).
Dobby aka Jar-Jar Binks
Umbridge
Draco Malfoy
Cho Chang
Cornelius Fudge

5. Percy turned away from his family. Will he come crawling back to them now or . . .?
Percy has a lot of pride, but I think he also has such a loving family that some of it must have rubbed off on him. I hope he'll be back... there are sides forming, and I don't think he'd be on Voldemort's. Now that Fudge seems to have been convinced, I guess Percy will be too, although he'll never have the same place in the Weasley fold that he had before.

6. What did you think of the new DADA's punishment? Why didn't Harry nor Lee complain?
It was rather horrific, although for a moment I thought Harry was into S&M or something because Umbridge was cutting into him and he was getting peculiar feelings in his midriff. Turns out it was just Lord Voldemort being happy. Harry didn't complain because he's too proud. Lee surprised me - I would have thought he would have said something.

7. What do you think of James and Lily now?
Meh. James is kind of a jerk, or was at 15 at least. You have to assume he got better, though, because Lily seems to smart to have gone for someone that jerky.

8. Has your opinion (which is probably not too good) of Petunia Dursley changed? If yes, how so?
Aunt P has given me a spark of hope that life at the Dursleys' won't be as miserable this summer as in summers past. Maybe she can finally open up to Harry about his mother.

9. What's the meaning of Snape's nickname in your opinion?
Snivellus? They called him that because he was snivelling. What else?

10. What do you think of the character death? Do you think s/he will return?
Return? Hadn't even thought of that. I hope not.

11. Do you think fanfiction will be hurt by Book 5? Do you see any new pairings arising? Do you see any huge ships falling apart?
Oh, for heaven's sake, fanfiction. I don't really care. Worst thing that happens is someone's entire fanfiction universe is ruined by Book 5. Then they can go out and write their own stories. I don't get the obsession.

12. What was your favourite chapter in Order of the Phoenix? Why?
My favorite is chapter 37, where I got goosebumps thinking about my firm belief that Neville is going to save the world in Book 7.

13. Talk about Fred and George's "flight."
It was good, but I felt like it could have been better. Fred and George had to go out in style. This was stylish, but I felt like they could have accomplished something while they were at it.

14. Give some thoughts on Ron.
Ron is my sweet bazoo. I'm glad he finally got the chance to escape Harry's shadow a bit in this book... but I'm upset that people kept trying to shove him back under it. As if Ron couldn't be a prefect because he would be a good prefect! Everyone's reaction was "Why isn't Harry a prefect?" Because Ron is. Deal.

15. What did you think of Dumbledore's explanation?
Kind of a let-down. He didn't tell us much we didn't know, and it seems like there would have been a way to explain things to Harry... at least to explain to him that they couldn't have contact while Voldemort was possessing Harry, or to explain why the Occlumency lessons were so important.

16. Do you feel satisfied by this book?
No. I feel like JK Rowling was too influenced by her readers and by the series' fame. Things like Cho and Harry getting together, then breaking up definitively, felt like a reaction to shippers who wanted them to get together. I feel kind of like this is the Phantom Menace of the Potter series.

7. How anxious are you now for Book 6?
Anxious, but not as anxious as I was for Book 5. Book 4 was so good that I figured it could only get better. Now I'm afraid that I'll like Book 6 less than Book 5 and it's all downhill from here.

[via [Note to Self]]