it's my favorite book besides book four. rowling delivers when it comes suspense, adventure, and suprise. plus, i got to use my imagination a lot. it was a fun read all the way through and i wanted to be thrilled and i was. i like that life and choices get more complicated for some of the characters, too. malfoy and voldy were interesting developments. so was the romance stuff. it'd be cool if malfoy makes a choice at a crucial time to break ranks so that he ends up helping harry in book 7.

i became more ok with feeling that rowling doesn't have the chops to write marathon books. i think that's related to how come i don't get geeked as much as some of my friends do about the appearance and use of clues/evidence in the series. they take it too far in a way that i don't think is warranted. it's fun, though. i decided that the books are more suspense/thriller/clever than mystery. the upside is that i think she handled the challenges that come with writing a book that long much better than she did in book 5. in preparation for book 7, i'm fully prepared to ignore her writing style because i simply want to enjoy the ride.