Definitely getting darker in the series and more adult. I'd say that these books are still decent for children to read, but there may be a few scary parts. That being said, adults should love this book! The Order of the Phoenix adds a definite adventure element in to the story. Harry does get a bit angsty though so be warned.

This was a good book.  It starts out with Harry getting expelled from Hogwarts because he used magic outside of school while he in underage.  As a result he has to meet with the Magic of Ministry to plead his case.  When Harry returns to Hogwarts there is a new system at Hogwarts along with a new Defense against th eDark arts teaxher (no surprises there).  Dolores Umbridge refuses to teach the students spells to protect themselves so Hermoine convinces Harry to teach any student that is interested, they call themselves Dumbledores Army.  There are good scenes in this book, the only thing I hate is that Sirius gets murdered.

JK Rowling is a pure genious. How could anybody write such a good series where all the plots come together perfectly. Order of The Phoenix is my second favorite of the books Half Blood Prince is my favorite.

This is by far my favorite book in the series. This is also the book where I begin to hate Dumbledore. There is no more blood protection for Harry since Voldemort now has Harry's blood running through his veins and yet Dumbledore still makes Harry stay at the abusive Dursly's. He also wouldn't tell Harry anything that is going on in the war even though Harry is the key player. Plus, telling him the prophesy right after he watched Sirius die is just plain wrong! The boy was suffering enough and then to throw that in his face only made it worse. I think J.K.R. has done a wonderful job with this novel and I am looking forward to reading her seventh. I was actually able to read this book in full the day it came out and have read it about 6 times since. I just love this book!!

Bloody Brilliant!

i give this book a 4 because of the simple reason that j.k rowling killed off one of my faveorite people-Sirius. At least DRACO MALFOY is still alive!!!!!!!

I think this is where I stopped loving the Harry Potter series. When I first read book 5, I got sick of it and put the book down towards the middle. Several months later, I decided to finish it. I shouldn't have. This is not only the worst Harry Potter book ever written, but also the worst fantasy novel I have ever read in a long time. Harry gets treated like trash in the first few chapters, and no one will tell him what is going on. Very annoying. And throughout the entire book, the authorities of the Ministry of Magic ruin Harry's year with their impotence and their false rumors. But what J.K. Rowling doesn't realize is that the many tragedies that Harry experiences throughout OotP simply escalates the level of garbage in this book. Percy becomes evil. Harry and the Weasleys cannot play Quidditch. Hagrid cannot teach. I mean, there's no magic or wonder in this book, just drama. It's not fun. And what's with Umbridge? Was J.K. Rowling out of her mind when she crafted this character? Did she think Umbridge would add great elements to the book? She made the story more unbearable to read than Snape. Finally, Sirius dying? What kind of a stupid ending is that? I'm convinced that if this book ever becomes a movie, it will get a PG-13 rating. It's just awful.

I write this on the eve of the release of the 6th book of the series, which I'm almost nervous to read. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is an amazing book. I will admit, I got a bit irritated at the beginning, which was about 5 chapters of complaining, but then I realized that before my eyes, Harry had become a teenager, and, well, teens are angsty. After thinking about this, I realized that this really is an important part in making the story move forward, and Harry grow up. They can't stay innocent little darlings forever. In addition, he is also dealing with what happened at the end of the previous year, which would be difficult for anyone. This book also evoked a lot of anger towards people you were meant to love, most notably Dumbledore, which was very strange after all this time. Once I got through the first several chapters, (during which I was a little worried that the story would never start) I found this book as easy to read as the rest of them, and just as enjoyable. I can't wait until tomorrow, HBP has got a lot to live up to!

Interesting, but it drags far more than any other book in the series. Several seemingly unneccesary plotlines (SPEW, anyone?), and not much of a definite plotline. However, it introduces many things new to the series. I personally enjoyed Harry's overall crabbiness, it makes his character a bit more interesting. Some of the new characters like Luna and Umbridge are great. And Harry has a mission for the rest of the series with the Prophesy. Nonetheless, it seems like a bit of a fizzle after the fireworks at the end of Goblet.

Sure, this was an immense book, but it was immense fun reading it, as well! There was the usual action, but Harry's teen angst this time around was an interesting part of the story. Of course, the death of a major character -- and one of my favorites, to boot -- made me cry for hours afterwards . . . now I just have to wait three freakin' years to see what happens . . .

I am a Harry Potter fan, but I agree...this is an everlasting book and it is somewhat confusing.It took me all summer, plus a month after to read it. I can't even imagine what the 6th book is going to be like...But all in all, it was good,, and it left me in suspense everytime I had to stop reading it!

this is the most confusing book of the series. especially because of the gap between this book and the last ones, i found i had to read them all again in order to place some of the things in this one into context with the others. I like how this book and the one before it took a dark turn, not everything in HP universe is hunky dory, and it had a very sad ending. I guess Harry had to learn that he can't always get what he wants, but at such a terrible cost?

I agree that this book dragged on a bit much, but you could say that about the Goblet of Fire as well. I, too, found myself not caring about certain things and I agree that Sirius shouldn't have been killed, but I wouldn't write him off just yet. Luna Lovegood gave some pretty good foreshadowing that he just might come back, say, in book 7 (because he can't come back in 6 - that would be too soon. The whole death would be a petty tease and his return wouldn't be nearly as exciting). Overall, this book carries one incredible story rather well. I almost feel bad for J.K. though, because I think after book 3, she has a lot to live up to, and I think she's trying to do that by making the books extra long (with some shock factor in the end - Cedric: Dead. Sirius: Dead. see a pattern?), rather than extra good. Prisoner of Azkaban is still the best of the bunch. Order is a close second.

It wasn't as good as the others, mainly because it dragged to much. There was a lot of stuff I just found myself not caring about, not to mention Harry's emotional problems. I was dissapointed in the ending.

The newest of all the Harry Potter books lives up to it's predescendents. I still am kinda depressed and upset that J.K. Rowling killed off Sirius in this book though. He was a really great and important character. I don't think that she should have killed him off. She is probably trying to make a complicated plot, but, I mean this is Sirius after all. I don't think he should have died. He was my favorite character only though he only really appeared in the fifth book, a few times in the 3rd book, and a few in the forth. I think he shouldn't have died. But who am I to say what J.K. Rowling rights, right? But the book did live up to it's predescesers. And that's good. Great job, J.K. Rowling.

I love all the Harry Potter books. I thought the fourth was great, this is even better. Through out the series it continues to get darker. Even though this may be it is still a great and intoxicating book!

Definately the best in the series so far. It really gets to your emotions - the death, Umbridge and Dumbledore at different times all pulled my heartstrings (for good or bad). Great new characters are introduced. My only complaint is that there seems to be a lack of plot. It could be retitled 'Harry's fifth yr of high school where suddenly all that raging teenage angst kicks in and he gets angry at everyone'. I was expecting a huge war between Dunbledore & co. and Voldemort. Instead there was hardly any mentioning of 'war' until the very end. Hopefully the sixth book won't be such an anti-climax.

Excellent book, with continuing character development along with the introduction of new, memorable characters. An 870 page book could have had a lot of slow spots in it, but Rowling manages to steer clear of that common occurence. It would be hard to rank this one compared to the others, but I would probably put it as second, right behind the Sorceror's Stone. Can't wait until the next one.

Definitely the best book in the series yet, and my current favorite. I couldn't put it down until I had read the last page. The death of my favorite character had me pulling my hair out, and my heart wrenched during the scene in Dumbledore's office at the end of the book. Augh. It was so good. I can't even describe it.

I've heard and read so many good things about the latest Harry Potter book, I'm giving it five stars off the bat. I'd love to hear what people think of it. How do the characters develop? How does the book compare to the previous four? How do you see the plot moving forward? Thanks in advance for your feedback.