Harry Potter gets a heaping helping of teen angst in this installment, trying to figure out girls as well as murderous wizards in the fifth installment of the long-running series.
Although I don't think Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix held the dramatic tension of the prior two entries in the series, this novel does include who I think is (to date) the series' greatest villain in Dolores Umbridge, a sickly-sweet-acting teacher with a cruel streak who rises to prominence at the Hogwarts School as Harry's stock continues to plunge. Umbridge does help fill the gaps left by the lack of some of the other memorable characters, including Dumbledore, Hagrid, and Sirius Black, gone for unfortunately long stretches of the narrative.
I did enjoy how the storyline continues to pick up threads and minor characters from earlier novels to create its own rich, full world. I still find interest in the depictions of the casual cruelty of the British boarding school, though Harry Potter fans I have spoken to generally don't agree that Hogwarts, when looked at in a clear-eyed fashion, is a rather poorly-run and shabby-appearing school.
As with the other Harry Potter novels, I listened to the very good audio book version by Jim Dale, checked out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.
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