While I enjoyed reading this latest installment of the Harry Potter series, it seemed to me sort of, well, slipshod to me. It seems to me that the author is spending more time trying to come up with clever twists and backstory/foreshadowing than she is on actually writing a compelling story. It seems at times that the idea behind the story gets in the way of the story itself in this book, almost as if there are passages in red ink that say ‘I almost forgot to include this very important plot detail so I’ll jam it in here before I forget again.’ And some, like what happens in the first few chapters, seems to be simply dropped by the middle of the book.

Muddled as it is, it’s still a good read. I’d recommend it, with others before it of course.