Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #323568 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Synopsis
Six fan-theorists attempt to unravel the clues of THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. Joyce Odell of Red Hen Productions, Daniella Teo of Mugglenet, Sally M. Gallo of The Leaky Cauldron, Wendy B. Harte and the mysterious "Swythyv" - along with editor, John Granger (author of Hidden Key to Harry Potter, etc.)- provide Harry Potter readers with exciting and insightful ideas of what happened and what will happen based on their close reading of the texts ...ideas that will challenge and engage readers everywhere. Travis Prinzi, creator of THE SWORD OF GRIFFYNDOR website, writes that these essays "will stand as a monument to the kind of guesswork we were all involved in as we awaited the final Harry Potter book."

Customer Reviews

Maybe a little too in depth?
I bought this book a while ago, and have given it several readings to try and see how the authors of this book have pieced together their arguments.

Overall, it's a great way of getting you to re-read the books, as it gives fresh insight into certain scenes, and you find yourself treating the original series more like a crime investigation than before.

The concepts are good, especially those concerning stoppered death and its involvement in how the half blood prince was really told, but some parts felt like the authors were seriously over-reaching, and perhaps ignoring some of the canon in favour of their theories (they do try to chase this up as much as possible, such as Smythk's theories about Lupin, and how she missed one scene that seemed to counter her argument) - for example, in the theories based around Slughorn, there seems to be some major gaps to support 'Evil Slughorn' theories.

One thing the authors tend to do, which does spoil the book, is treat Harry as an idiot. As the title character, most readers will feel a certain affinity with Harry, and this 'Harry Bashing' could make readers turn against the more valid theories within the book.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who doesn't like serious analysis either, as the basics of the English Language, and story telling, are used in the book also, to explain how the series has run so far and how these structures support the theories within the books. For those who want to play detective however, this is a great book to use to start thinking of some out-of-the-box theories.