[First read: 16th July, 2005. 2 stars. 
 Second read: 26th February, 2016. 3 stars.] 
 Read as part of The Infinite Variety Reading Challenge, based on the BBC's Big Read Poll of 2003. 
 I think this is the best book of the lot. We are seeing the plot coming together much more and, of course, we have the ultimate plot device that will take us right to the end now. However, it still felt... just a bit meh. 
 Harry and Ron have still not changed (excepting the hormones) and I find that rather annoying. They've been the same kind of stupid-brave, semi-intelligent boys throughout and it seems only external things have changed with them. Whilst Hermione has altered pretty much every book, in this one I found her quite irritating, though I can't quite put my finger on why. There seemed a small shift just in the way she was and spoke. Perhaps that was hormones, too. Whilst we did get a lot more of Dumbledore here (which I think was long overdue) he didn't seem as well-developed as he could have been. The other characters were, again, purely background and just there to fill an otherwise empty space. 
 It was faster paced than the previous books have been, yet the smallness of the world kind of means that everything takes place right here and right now, which contributes to propelling the story forward more than the writing did. I thought it carried well from the previous book better than the others did (it always felt like an abrupt ending preceded an abrupt beginning) and I think that is a reflection of the way the plot has surpassed the idea of them being individual books and instead a whole, full series. 
 Usually I am not bothered about spoilers, and since I've read these before, seen the film and looked at a thousand Tumblr posts about them, there's no getting away from knowing what happens. However, when I do read with a previous knowledge to a book, I always find that the writing still holds a surprise for me: not in this case. I didn't see any surprises anywhere at all and that was very disappointing. 
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