★★★★★ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Full-Cast Edition), by JK Rowling
** spoiler alert ** The changing of the guard
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Full-Cast Edition)
JK Rowling
** spoiler alert **
The changing of the guard
Two big things happen in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the penultimate installment of the Harry Potter series. First, we learn about horcruxes. Although this is not the first appearance of horcruxes in the series, it is the first time they are named, and it is the first time we realize what they mean. Henceforth Harry's central problem is finding and destroying horcruxes. That is mainly what Deathly Hallows is about. (I am writing this review 10-May-2026, and the full-cast audiobook of Deathly Hallows comes out in two days, 12-May-2026.) The second big thing is the death of Dumbledore.
There is also a smaller thing. Harry is convinced that Draco Malfoy is up to mischief, and that Dumbledore is not paying Draco enough attention. Everyone who knows Harry knows that he is obsessed with Draco, and they discount his worries. Furthermore, they have entire faith in Dumbledore. They tell Harry that Dumbledore surely knows what Draco is up to, and that Dumbledore has put protections in place that will thwart any plans of Malfoy's. Indeed, Dumbledore himself, while not saying so in so many words, hints both of these things to Harry.
It transpires that the skeptics are right about the first part -- Dumbledore is indeed aware that Draco is up to something. But they, even Dumbledore himself, are wrong about the second part. Draco manages to outwit Dumbledore. He introduces Death-Eaters into Hogwarts under Dumbledore's nose, with disastrous consequences.
Dumbledore was always going to die -- indeed, we eventually learn that he had a secret deal with Snape that Snape would kill him. He was not supposed to die and deprive Harry of his guidance quite this early, though.
Putting these two things together: Dumbledore dead, and dead of a tactical error that Harry didn't make, and you have a changing of the guard. In Half-Blood Prince the leadership of the opposition to Voldemort passes from Dumbledore to Harry and Ron and Hermione.
My five-star rating is for the story, not, alas, for the full-cast edition. The new character in this installment is Horace Slughorn, voiced by Bill Nighy. Neither the character nor Nighy's portrayal struck me as particularly inspired. Nothing wrong with either, but nothing I would call outstanding.
So, on to Deathly Hallows!
Excellent review! 💯
I wasn’t a huge fan of this book when I read it, and then I never read the entire 7th book (though I did end up seeing the films of the 7th book).
Dumbledore and Snape certainly were playing some 3D chess, and Harry’s warnings about Draco certainly turned out to be very justified.
It probably wasn’t fair for me to not be a huge fan of this book, but that’s just where my reading preferences were at at the time. ⚖️
And now I pretty much only read books that are on sites like Substack, and so it’s sadly unlikely that I’ll reread this one or read the 7th one any time soon, though I should probably at least read the 7th one for the first time at some point.
Thank you for sharing this review with us readers! 🙏
boycott JK Rowling