The threat of Lord Voldemort has returned to the wizarding world. While the Ministry of Magic attempts to deny the return of this evil to the wizarding world, and band of wizards gather together in secret in order to foil the plans of the dark lord. In this Thrilling adventure, we see rebellion against society and the cause and effect that our companions we have been growing up with for years have on the world as a whole.

About Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the 5th installment to the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling. The book was published on June 21st 2003. The book has 870 pages for the US version that are shared between 38 chapters.

The Overall Story

This book starts out with an isolated Harry being tormented by his cousin Dudley. It doesn’t take long for things to go wrong and be visibility out of the ordinary for this story as Dementors show up and go after the two of them. In self defence Harry protects himself and his cousin from them dementors by using magic. This leads to him being expelled and needing to attend a hearing to be tried for his crimes.

The story essentially boils down to Harry being frustrated that he cannot do much himself for the Order of the Phoenix because he is still so young despite his past achievements and knowledge. He is frustrated that no one seems to be giving him the time of day or taking what he has to say into account. This comes to ahead with the interactions with Professor Dumbledore throughout the entire book.

This book introduces a split between loyalties of the idea of the return of Voldemort and the denial of his return. Harry deals with this especially as all the proof of what has happened comes from his word and Dumbledore ’s word having believed him. 

Friends at school are hesitant to follow in Harry’s footsteps any further as the Ministry begins to make a villain out of Harry. The idea sent across is that Harry and Dumbledore are using the story has a fear tactic to create change in the ministry.

Harry and his connection to Voldemort now that he has fully returned seems to cause him more grief as their connection has never been stronger. Harry begins to dream what he believes is what Voldemort sees and what he is doing. This sets up connections for the future and pays off past books on the importance of the connection that Harry has with the Dark Lord.

The climax of the book was really well done. I remember when reading the end of this book I simply could not put it down. The stakes truly felt high, the events at the end for the first time were not happening at the school but actually somewhere much different. This refreshing scenery along with some new refreshing enemies towards the end of this book was really well done and dark.

There are parts of this book toward the end that really expand on some loose ideas of what magic items are and how dangerous they can really be. It’s fascinating when looking into further what these artifacts and items represent for the world as a whole.

The setup of the villains in this book is really well done, especially for the books that are about to come. Though there was reveals in the past book of some of the death eaters, this book introduces more of them and shows that they are a legitimate threat that is doing the bidding of Voldemort himself. 

This book also solves the issue of children beating experienced adults on multiple levels. The training that students that go with Harry, Ron and Hermione who all go by the name of Dumbledore’s army, find themselves capable to withstand the abilities of the death eaters until help arrives. This has been a minor complaint that I have had in the past, but at this point, I would say that it has resolved itself for any of the main cast that are predominantly utilized in this installment to the series.

Pacing in Order of the Phoenix

One really good strength that this book has is the pacing overall. There never seems to be a dull moment or something that goes on for too long. For a book of this size, it would seem that it would be pretty easy to fall into that trap, but J.K. Rowling masterfully keeps the story moving on, making sure that all plot points are being utilized in a captivating way. 

There are several major plot points that occur and are equally spread throughout the book along with some more minor points along the way that allows for this book to tick like a metronome. 

The series also continues to work it’s way out of being grounded at the school. There are more events that happen outside of the school in this book what it feels the rest of the series combined attempts to do. This gives keeps certain parts of the book from getting stale as by book 5, we are all very familiar with the school.

Characters in Order of the Phoenix

This book also is the first book in the series that truly begins to bring in some past characters. We are reintroduced to characters past books like Gilderoy Lockhart when the party goes to St Mungo's (a Wizard Hospital). But the cast that sticks out the most in this book are the members of the Order of the Phoenix. Until recently, there was not much new character development of Professor Lupin who now being sacked from Hogwarts has nothing better to do then be a part of this order.

This book also gives Harry’s Godfather Sirius Black much more character as the author is now able to take more time to paint him as a less villain and more of a father figure.

The introduction of Professor Umbridge, a Ministry of Magic lap dog in my mind creates a new character that causes the students problems and leads them into the actions that they take later in the book. I think that this could have been done without this character, but pays off well. Professor Umbridge is a proxy unit to control how things are being done at Hogwarts and to make sure that Professor Dumbledore is towing the line.

Her character is also used to create a threat that Harry Ron and Hermione must overcome as the Ministry begins to tighten their grip on the goings on of the school.

Finally another minor character that is introduced is Mad Eye Moody. I feel like mentioning him specifically as he acts like a leader to the Order. He doesn’t get a fantastic introduction, but we know that he will be recurring characters in the future. Mad Eye makes the list as a new character because honestly, this is the first time we really get to see him actually be himself.

Character Growth

Harry’s character shows a lot of growth in this book as he truly becomes a leader and stands up for himself regardless of who is questioning him. This gets him into trouble several times in the book. It can feel a little heavy handed at times by the author to show that Harry is being an angsty teenager that has issues with authority. As a children's book through, anyone reading it around Harry’s age can relate. I know cause I did my first read through this book.

Ron and Hermione’s characters grow as well. They are awarded the roles of prefects, which are basically hall managers at the school. It’s because of this role that Harry continues to feel more isolated from his friends which only allows his thoughts to fester.

Aside from this Ron and Hermione do not grow much further as characters. They seem to be pretty fleshed out for the non main character based on the previous books and I personally feel that they play much more support roles in this book over any of the other installations to this point.

Order of the Phoenix does more growth with some of the supporting characters such as Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, a new character that was introduced in this book. As well as Fred and George Weasley. It’s good to see that the author is still growing these characters in the series as it helps keep the world from becoming very one dimensional.

Another character that gets surprising growth was Severus Snape. I feel like his character growth came out of left field in the book, but during the time in this book where his character is utilized is a rather messy turn of events. We get a better picture into his mind and why he turned into the man he is.

There are also characters in this book that get a surprising lack of growth. Dumbledore comes to mind right away. Due to his role in this book specifically, he becomes a very distant character for a good majority of the series.

Hagrid’s character also does not get a whole lot of growth in book. His role has been steadily on the decline in this series and is very absent here. With the amount of characters that play roles in this series now, it makes sense that some just need to be set aside for use later or to simply make room for the new characters that come into the series.

Conclusion

If it sounds like I am being too vague, that’s because it’s my intention to keep this review spoiler free to the best of my ability. Like the last book, we get a reality check that the story has taken a dark turn and that there are consequences to actions that have very serious ramifications.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a really well done book and I remember enjoying it significantly more than the Goblet of Fire. This book sets up the next two installments really well and grows the characters in a believable way. All the tools that J.K. Rowling utilized to move the story along and have key factions integrate into the entirety of the story and not just segments was very well done. 

Does this book rank in the top half of the series though? I would say the answer to that has to be no, but that is not a bad thing. This book is on the sad side of a 7 book series by not cracking the top half. It’s still a very good read and a much improved book the previous adventure. This book is certainly worth anyone's time and like all the books in the series does not really allow for skipping as there is critical content in this book for the rest of the series.

If you want to find out where this book ranks in the series you can check out our ranking list for the Harry Potter book series here!

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If you are interested in any of the other Harry Potter Book reviews that we have posted please take a look at them in the summary below.