Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was hyped as bleak and scary, but despite the murder of Harry’s beloved godfather, a little gruesome imagery, and a whole load of caps-locked, ellipses-laden teen angst that made this reader want to give our hero a well-deserved spanking, it really wasn’t all that terrifying: there was nothing in it as horrific as the graveyard scene at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
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But it’s obvious from the first chapter, when the Minister of Magic meets with England’s prime minister–his “real world” counterpart–to fill him in on disturbing goings-on in the wizarding world, that the sixth and penultimate in J.K. Rowling’s absurdly successful series is going to be deeply, creepily dark.
As Rowling’s characters have aged from children to teens to young adults, the plots of the Potter books have become more complex, and the adult characters appear less and less powerful or trustworthy. The ending of each volume since the fourth has left young Harry a little bit more alone and short a few more allies. By the end of this one, he’s running out of them, and he’s ready to commit murder to get Voldemort. People call him “the chosen one”–a phrase that should indicate that the series has jumped the shark–but there’s nothing remotely Christlike about the passion of Potter. The forces that “chose” him aren’t benevolent and his responses to their tests of him aren’t noble. Even his saintly mentor Dumbledore comes off as desperate, manipulative, and ruthless in a way that, say, Gandalf never does. When he is shockingly, theatrically assassinated at the book’s climax, both the reader and (almost) all the characters can see the roads that led to this particular Rome, and it’s uncomfortably clear that Harry may not have a quarter of the years left that his teacher had. By the end of the book, Harry and his friends Ron and–incredibly–bookish Hermione have all announced that they’re quitting school to fight evil full-time.
