Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

• She had to kill Dumbledore. Like all great mythology, Harry has to face his greatest enemy alone. Plus its another great allegory for growing up, something that Rowling has done so well throughout all the novels thus far.
  • Side note here: I'm continuously amazed in how the books grow up with the characters within them. Each novel poses older themes for the readers and challenges for the characters through each book. Every novel takes the story closer to the reality of life, love, and death.
  Just like a teenager goes to college, Harry had to break loose of his "family" at Hogwarts and stand on his own, the final step of adolescence. If Dumbledore was there, he'd always have that safety net like a kid with a trust fund.
• I'm impressed but also disappointed at the level of which Rowling has played down the romance. I know its a dangerous sub-plot to row too far (as she states in a great interview with a couple of fan sites), but its such an integral part of growing up that it seems glossed over and superfluous with Harry's character, when Ron and Hermoine's relationship took center stage. Maybe it would've been too much of a soap opera with both story lines, so she chose one over the other.
• I was surprised about Snape. Like so many others I believed Dumbledore had supernatural abilities when gauging the intentions of other people. This makes me want to re-read through the previous books because if the Oracle isn't really an Oracle, what other decisions/observations did he make that could prove false? (of course, there is significant discussion on this point and even a great site stating that things are not as they appear in the end of the book)
  • Another side note here: I can't remember reading a book series that so effortlessly ties in barely visible clues, and foreshadowing that required re-reading of the books themselves to catch even half of them. Rowling has created an interactive frenzy around Harry Potter by placing so many of these throughout the series, of which only some come true, that the detectives are really the very thorough and detailed readers who can capture and deliberate all of the various clues.
• Its official. There will be mass hysteria surrounding the release of the final book, and it will set records that will be hard to touch for years to come.

Ultimately, I'll be sad when the last book comes, because its such a wonderful world that Rowling has created, and I feel like it hasn't been explored nearly enough. I know she doesn't intend to write anything after the seventh book other than an encyclopedia to the wizarding world, but I feel that we've only seen ¼ of this amazing place in her mind.