The Ethan-Kenzie romance is annoying rather than endearing and Kieran sacrificing literally the entire world, faery and mortal, for the girl he loves when it's not what she wants? That's some bullshit. If he loved her so much he'd respect her opinions and decisions more. This book was easily the weakest of any of kagawa's books about the fey.

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.

------In light of J.K. Rowling's recent bullshit, I've decided to remove my ratings entirely from all of her books. I had previously decided to leave the 5 star ratings up due to my enjoyment of them as a child (when I was the actual target audience). While I loved the world she created (and still do), the stories within that world have obvious problems and flaws/inconsistencies/gaping plotholes that have become more apparent as I've gotten older and become more widely read and aware of the world.-------

Yes, I was one of those kids who eagerly devoured each HP book as they came out. I absolutely loved them . My daughter is nearly 8 and she's also come to love the series. For that reason, I'm leaving my 5 star rating on here, despite the fact that I wouldn't give it that rating today.

Now, having read the books innumerable times, I am also capable of seeing the problems. This book isn't as bad as later installments but there are flaws and plotholes to be found. From basic worldbuilding issues--like the low standards for teachers in terms of not only the quality of education students receive but also in terms of teachers singling out and even outright bullying students--to plot problems--

what takes Dumbledore sooooo long to return from London when he apparently knows there's a giant threat at the school?

If you're coming into this book as an adult there are plenty of reasons not to enjoy this book. If I were to post a rating of my current level of enjoyment when reading these books, book one would get a low 4. Enjoyable, but plenty of problems.

After a previous DNF, I pushed myself through this for my "Best Fantasy" project. While not as bad as I thought it would be, I still wasn't overly impressed. I'm still having a tough time believing a group of ruthless adult men would take orders from a 10 or 11 year old. Jorg's bad attitude throughout was over-the-top for me, a little too try-hard. A lot of the things attempted in this book were done better in A Song of Ice and Fire-grey morality, lack of morality, political games. While I didn't hate Prince of Thorns, I also didn't find myself at all curious about the rest of the story.