The first time I read
it, The Half-Blood Prince was one of
my least favorites in the series. While
I still wouldn’t put it up with the likes of The Prisoner of Azkaban or The
Goblet of Fire, I did find it improved on reread, and I feel I understand
better what it’s setting out to do (still too much teen drama, though.)
By now,
it’s unequivocally known and felt throughout the wizarding world that Voldemort
is Back. He’s gathering his forces, and
his Death Eaters are causing enough chaos and turmoil that even the Muggles
know something is up. In preparation for
the coming war, Dumbledore starts Harry on a course of private study: using Dumbledore’s Pensieve, they view
memories related to Voldemort in order to better understand him as a man, a
wizard, and a monster. One vital memory
is only available to them in a seriously corrupted form, and the only way to
acquire the real memory is for Harry to get in the good graces of the
coattail-riding Professor Slughorn, who has a habit of “collecting” important
young wizards.
One of
the biggest themes/plots here, of course, is Harry and Dumbledore’s examination
of Voldemort’s past. This is something I
wasn’t much of a fan of the first time around, but I think I like it better
here. With the benefit of hindsight and
coming at it from the angle in which it’s intended, I have a better grasp not
only on who Voldemort is, but also why
Dumbledore shows Harry the memories that he does. That said, there is a continuing sense of plot-driven withholding of
information: from the curation of
memories, it’s obvious what Dumbledore’s assumption is, but he doesn’t
enlighten Harry on it until an artificially-suspenseful moment.
There’s
even more teen-romance stuff than in the last book, and it’s even more grating
here (although it does give us that great line in Puffs where, during the Half-Blood
Prince section of the play, one of the characters says, “We’ll be okay as
long things don’t get super sexualized.”)
All the back and forth with Ron and Hermione and their love
interests(?), along with the lust monster for Harry’s chest (for real,) don’t
really appeal to me at all. So much snogging.
What I
continue to like, though, is Slughorn and the Half-Blood Prince plot itself. Just like Umbridge in the last book
introduced someone bad who isn’t a Death Eater, Slughorn shows us an example of
a Slytherin who isn’t in the vein of
a Voldemort or a Malfoy; it’s interesting to see that ambition express itself
in ways other than a violent devotion to blood purity. And I just love the idea of Harry “meeting”
an old Hogwarts student through the meticulous notes and corrections they made
in the margins of their potions textbook, using the Prince’s advice to become a
potions virtuoso and wondering about the mystery of the Prince’s identity. That mystery, I think, is rolled out pretty
well, and even if the ultimate revelation comes at a moment when it’s so not a
priority, I definitely like it on the whole.
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