Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5): Adult Edition

Book five in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series follows the darkest year yet for our young wizard, who finds himself knocked down a peg or three after the events of last year. Over the summer, gossip (usually traced back to the magic world's newspaper, the Daily Prophet) has turned Harry's tragic and heroic encounter with Voldemort at the Triwizard Tournament into an excuse to ridicule and discount the teenager. Even Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of the school, has come under scrutiny from the Ministry of Magic, which refuses to officially acknowledge the terrifying truth: that Voldemort is back. Enter a particularly loathsome new character: the toad-like and simpering ("hem, hem") Dolores Umbridge, senior undersecretary to the minister of Magic, who takes over the vacant position of defence against dark arts teacher--and in no time manages to become the high inquisitor of Hogwarts. Life isn't getting any easier for Harry Potter. With an overwhelming course load as the fifth years prepare for their examinations, devastating changes in the Gryffindor Quidditch team line-up, vivid dreams about long hallways and closed doors, and increasing pain in his lightning-shaped scar, Harry's resilience is sorely tested.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, more than any of the four previous novels in the series, is a coming-of-age story. Harry faces the thorny transition into adulthood, when adult heroes are revealed to be fallible, and matters that seemed black and white suddenly come out in shades of gray. Gone is the wide-eyed innocent, the whiz kid of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Here we have an adolescent who's sometimes sullen, often confused (especially about girls), and always self-questioning. Confronting death again, as well as a startling prophecy, Harry ends his year at Hogwarts exhausted and pensive. Readers, on the other hand, will be energised as they enter yet again the long waiting period for the next title in the marvellous magical series. --Emilie Coulter

28 hours after it began I have just reached the end of the Order of the Phoenix (I spread that out over 3 weeks, I couldn't quite manage one sitting!). Stephen Fry is truly amazing providing significanlty differnt voices for each of the many characters contained within the book. For me Fry is Hagrid! It is easy to get swept up in his telling of the tale, its almost addictive, you may find yourself having listned to 3 cds in a row, and at 75 minutes per CD this is no mean feat!

Even if you have read the books (and in this case I had) go back to the beginning and buy his reading of the Philosophers Stone. Lie in bed at night, turn the lights out and enter the world of Harry Potter through a different door...


Better than the rest   October 21, 2003
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

Despite taking a little while to get started, The Order of the Phoenix is unarguably the best Harry Potter yet. We see Harry during adolescence and can identify with some of his actions. His relationships to his friends and Cho Chang reflect a great deal about his character and a sense of what a person with his experiences goes through.
Most importantly, however, i believed that the book was a very accurate reflection of the power of the media (Daily Prophet), the ignorance and naivety of politicians (Ministry of Magic), the manipulation of the media by the Ministry, and the lack of preparation for what could turn into a war (Voldemort's return). The book is more than just a children's story, it brings out elements from the real world and emphasises the dangers of naivety.
After reading the first hundred pages, the story is also a fast, irresistable read due to its high action. Revelations of Harry's past further complete his story and we also learn more of Snape and Sirius.

Overall, an excellent read, by far the most mature and valuable of all Harry Potter books.


pure magic   June 29, 2003
dragondrums (Ingleby Barwick, United Kingdom)
33 out of 37 found this review helpful

J K Rowling has yet again produced a very readable and engrossing book. It should prove as big a hit with Harry Potter fans as the previous books in the series though how well it will appeal to the younger reader I am not sure as this book is a lot 'darker' than the previous ones. Harry is now 15 years old and has become an angry, moody teenager, very different from how he has been portrayed previously. At times it is difficult to like him and his behaviour can be downright annoying. However, Rowling has sympathetically portrayed the 'angst' of teenagers and the difficulties of growing up whilst still managing to weave a captivating story and maintaining the magic that is Harry Potter.
Favourite characters are still around as well as some new ones including the truly horrendous new 'defence against the dark arts' teacher, professor Dolores Jane Umbridge who proves unpopular not only with the pupils of Hogwarts but also upsets the majority of the staff.
Harry learns more about his past in this book and also discovers why he has to spend holidays with the Dursleys even though they obviously don't want him and he also grapples with the difficulties of his first romantic relationship.More of Professor Snapes past is uncovered and certainly explains some of his antipathy towards Harry.
As readable as all the previous Potter books, I would highly recommend this one.


Brilliant and Complex   August 11, 2003
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

There has been a distinct strain of bemusement in reactions to this book. It's as if people recognize the features of the first four books - the cracking plot, great characters, hilarious episodes - but sense that there is something, well, a little bit different about this one.

And they'd be right. Because this is a more mature, more serious, more political book than the previous volumes in the series. The problem is that people don't like to recognize the fact that books are political. Especially children's books. Many adults are absolutely desperate to read their favourite kid's classics as fluffy, cutesy, comforting works, which have no engagement with their "real" world. So when a text like this comes along, which mixes contemporary satire with fantastic and magical elements, they become slightly uncomfortable.

The problem for this type of reader is that it cannot be denied that this book deals with some highly contentious current issues. Most obviously, it's a satire on government regulation of secondary education. But it also has some serious things to say about action and appeasement, about truth, narrative and the press and, above all, about cultural imperialism.

For example: the house elf plot. In book four this seemed to fizzle out into acquiescence in the "naturalness" of their oppression. But in book five it becomes the lynchpin of an impassioned argument for respecting difference. The central image of the novel (cleverly used by Bloomsbury on the back cover) is the statue at the Ministry of Magic - look out for Rowling's rather wonderful description of Harry's reaction when he first sees it. From a distance, it looks great, but closer to, Harry is able to see all of its weaknesses as a representation of the different magical beings. Measuring the extent to which it falls short of his own personal experiences of other "races", Harry gains an insight into the ideological work which the statue performs. Art, in this novel, is political. It's a real "Tom Brown" moment, - the fact that Harry's adventures have taken him outside of the normal confines of the wizarding world enables him to achieve an important insight into the workings of inequality.

Similarly, there are other elements which one wouldn't expect to find in a fluffy children's novel - in particular, Rowling's trademark treatment of pain. Few children's authors can write about the suffering created by death and loss in children's lives with such pathos. But here we also have a darker side of pain, the operations of torture and sadism in the actions of both Umbridge and Belletrix. Rowling manages to achieve the impossible, dealing with such subjects in a manner suitable to the youth of her readership, while maintaining a sense of their deeply disturbing nature. And while the much-hyped death of the "major character" is understated, Rowling uses it to ground Dumbledore's extraordinary view, which could come straight out of Dickens's Christmas books: that it is suffering which acts as the ground of humanity.


Growing Pains   June 14, 2004
Annette Gisby (London, UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Harry is eagerly awaiting his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The
holidays are no fun stuck with his Muggle (non-magical) relations. Why does he have to spend
every summer with them anyway? He hates it and the way he is constantly mistreated by them.

He has been miserable ever since school broke up, with worry over You-Know-Who's return at
the end of the fourth book. He's also missing his friends, Ron and Hermione, who have been
sending him cryptic letters full of hints at secrets they can't or won't reveal.

Then to top it all, someone wants Harry dead and has sent Dementors after him, magical
creatures that suck the happiness from a person leaving them only despair and madness. Harry
has to use magic to get rid of the creatures, (in front of his cousin Dudley) but then he
gets in trouble with the Ministry of Magic for using magic outside of school and in front
of a Muggle too!

Harry thinks that things can't surely get any worse, but he would be wrong...

Oh, I loved this book. It was a darker book than the other four, but I still enjoyed it.
Here was a Harry who was getting so fed up at everything the world had been throwing at
him for the past four years and he snapped. I'm not surprised at all, and he still remained
sympathetic, even though at times his temper flared so often it was a wonder he had any
friends left!

You bristle at all the unfairness heaped upon him, especially by Professor Snape and

Professor Dolores Umbridge (the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher), who was
appointed by the Ministry and she wasn't a favourite with the staff either.

Not only has Harry to take all this abuse from his teachers, it's his O.W.L. year (Ordinary
Wizarding Levels), he suffers horrible nightmares and visions of his friends' deaths and the
newspapers are hinting that he has gone mad and is unstable. Maybe a stay at St. Mungo's
Hospital for Magical Maladies may be in order?

We discover a few new characters in the book, as well as some secrets from old ones, which
keeps the suspense going. Although the overall tone of the book is dark, there are some
welcome moments of comic relief.

Is it a good book? Put it this way, the book is over 700 pages long and I read it in one
day. I just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. Nothing on
television was as interesting as finishing the book that night!

I'm eagerly looking forward to the next installment of Harry's adventures!

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Drowning Rapunzel and Shadows of the Rose.