Cover: Beautiful. I have the original US hardbacks and I really like this monotone color palette the artist went with.

Worldbuilding: As with all the books, Rowling does a really nice job of expanding on the world. We get to discover thestrals, which along with nifflers are my favorite magical creatures. We also see some of the darker sides of the wizarding world. The prejudice and racism that's an integral part of the world that in previous books we either didn't see at all or were only hinted at.

Characters: First: Umbridge. Suffice to say, I'm pretty sure I hate this woman more than I hate any actually living person and definitely more than Voldemort. Moving on. Harry is awful in this book. He is constantly pissed off at everyone about everything and develops the bad habit of unjustifiably lashing out at people. Hermione and Ron pretty much sit back and take his garbage but thankfully: Ginny freaking Weasley. We finally get to see more of Ginny in this book and I like what I see. She puts Harry in his place and stands up to both Harry and Ron when they try to treat her like she's somehow inferior because she's a whole year younger than them. We also meet Luna in this book, whom I love with all my heart. She's so odd and unaffected by all the poor treatment she receives from basically everyone, including the Golden Trio. I don't know that anyone is particularly nice to her throughout the entire book, which I found extremely irritating. Lastly, Neville makes some great progress in this book. We get some of his backstory and we get to see him gain confidence in himself slowly throughout the book. Oh ya, and Dumbledore gets humanized in this book. He admits to some mistakes he made and shoulders the blame for the outcomes of those mistakes.

Plot: Anger. Loss. Fear. Prejudice and bigotry. This series has suddenly become much more grown up. I've always looked at this book as the transition point of the series. Before now, things have been relatively upbeat. Dangerous stuff has happened, but the overall tone still contained a lot of wonder and joy just at being in this amazing, magical world. Book 5 starts showing you the darker, uglier side of the wizarding world. We see how bigotry is really an engrained part of this world and isn't necessarily apparent until you really start taking a closer look at things. This is where we start seeing things set in motion for the big ending. Despite being the longest book in the series, Rowling maintains her usual pace, slipping in hints and clues for both the end of this book and for the rest of the series.