thistlechaser | On my second reading of OotP...

Since Chia is still not done with her first reading of it, I'm putting this behind a cut. Once she's finished, I'll probably stop cutting potential spoilers.

So I read the book a second time, my intent being to like it. I didn't *hate* it the first time through, but I didn't like it.

Unfortunately, my opinion really hasn't changed. I didn't hate it, and there were parts of the book I liked, but for me the bad way outweighed the good.

Plotholes. Big, honking plotholes. Other than her being "more verbose than god" and wasted chapters on Hagrid's brother, it's the holes which really killed the enjoyment for me.

How could she write this? Why did an editor not say 'Hey, wait...'? So Harry is taking special lessons with Snape, yes? Snape able to do this both because he has that special ability and because he's a member of the Order. Then Bad Things happen, but Dumbledore and McGonagall are gone from the school, so the three kids have no one from the Order to turn to, so go racing off on their own!

How could they just forget that Snape is in the Order? It's not just one of them, Harry says to the other two that there is no one left from the order in the school. How could Hermione, who knows all and tells all, forget? How could Snape-hating Ron forget? It just makes no sense, and without that the whole ending of the book wouldn't happen.

There were lots of things I liked, including Luna, Dumbledore calling Voldemort 'Tom', and Harry using (or trying to) an Unforgivable. The bad really outweighed those though: HARRY IS REALLY MAD. CAN'T YOU TELL BY THE CAPS? Tonks: While she is cute, *why* is she an auror if she can't walk down a hallway without always tripping over the same thing every time? (And I cringed when Harry said he wanted to be one. Hello fic cliche!)

The whole death thing didn't work for me, either. Ho-hum. A boring, melodramaric, self-centered bully died.

For me, all the problems in OotP added up to one thing: The joy was missing from the book. Last night I read the two new chapters of Bittersweet Potion. Over the weekend, I've been reading the Durmstrang Chronicles. I *smile* as I read good fics, they make me feel good. OotP was more like a chore, even when not speeding through it.

AND I WOULD THINK THAT AN AUTHOR COULD CONVEY EMOTION IN BETTER WAYS THAN TYPING IN ALL CAPS. Seriously.

In other news, I'm blue. Not mood-wise, my skin is blue. I put new sheets on my bed, and though I did wash them before using them, the dye on them rubbed off all over me last night. My face, my arms, my legs, everywhere. It didn't come off in the shower, either. I'm very displeased. And blue. Very blue.