Last night I finished reading my copy of Order of the Phoenix. It’s a fast read, even at 800-plus pages. I liked Harry’s transition into teenage angst. Rowlings could have done better characterizing the newest villian; she seems very two dimensional. She wants to stop Harry and/or make his life miserable (don’t all the villians?), but you never quite get a handle on why.
I won’t spoil who dies. I will say that when it happened I was as stunned as Our Boy Hero, but that when I thought about it, I shouldn’t have been.
All in all, I’d have to call book 5 a lot of good exposition, setting up for books 6 and 7. Ms. Rowlings, please don’t take years to finish the next 2 books.