This is indeed the darkest of the HP novels, mostly due to the range of terror in Hogwarts and Harry’s fowl mood :). I too was feeling tense while reading it. Still, the story is very rich. I saw the movie first and remember thinking: there’s not as much plot in here than in the other ones. But again the novel contains more layers and storylines than the movie. Despite the angsty feel, a very good read.

At first, I had a twinge of disappointment: I first started reading the HP books for something light and happy and relaxing. This one is none of those things: it’s dark and miserable, and at moments it did make me feel quite tense (less from the ‘danger’ than just the memories of teenage angst!).

And then… then I was galloping through 100+ pages in a sitting. Daft really, as having seen the film I did rather know what was coming! But it was great seeing all the bits that had been missed out, all the moments of ‘oh, that’s what that was in there!’.

Annoyingly, book 6 is currently with someone else. Nuts. Still, it’ll prevent HP burnout ;)

I didn’t wait 3 years for this book like some did, as I read Goblet of Fire just the year before it went out. But still, when I read it, I said to myself “I waited so long for… that?”. I admit at first I was really disappointed. I really like the time at Hogwarts in these books and it took, like, 150 pages to get there at last. Harry was plain annoying, and the infamous death felt so unfair. I even felt like I had read better fanfictions than this book!

It grew on me a bit after this first bad impression. Now it’s still not one of my favorites, but I enjoy reading it all the same. It’s interesting to see how JK is able to write books with entirely different “feels”.