Customer Reviews

Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter: Analysis of Book 6

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3 star:		(2)
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Err. It's ok.
Typos abound & drive me crazy. Shouldn't true HP fans know how to spell "Ollivander"? Not to mention the countless other grammatical mistakes and "regular" English-language words misspelled.
I've read all their other guides, so was prepared for the casual, web-style grammar and word usage. But, after reading the other guides, I was still expecting some really thoughtful, deep insights into the book, and have so far been disappointed. Most of the time, they start leading the reader in a general direction and then leave us hanging, saying they want us to be able to "figure it out" for ourselves. But most of the time, that seems impossible. I have no idea what they're getting at & I've read & re-read all the HP books at least 10 times (Deathly Hallows three times). The authors touch on all sorts of theories, but just do a really poor job of expounding on them. I wish they would have chosen just a few interesting possible theories and gone all the way with them.
A big disappointment.

For those who are TRUE HP fans, this book is a great read. It's good to go through, even if you've already read "Deathly Hollows". There are still some unanswered questions and issues that this book covered, AND it has a lot of information here on all kinds of things - like the tarot imagery (hanged man, lightning-struck tower, etc.) in "Half-Blood Prince" and the other novels. Also, if you were a fan of the late great Madeleine L'Engle, you'll be floored by the ties between "Wrinkle in Time" and the Harry series these guys spotted. They even predicted that there would probably be somebody important kidnapped to force Harry's hand, just like in "Wrinkle", and of course there was.

Also, there were lots of fun finds, too. If, like me, you ever wondered how a kneazle might communicate... well, you need to read this book. They even spotted something that I completely missed. There's just tons of stuff! It gets kind of wild sometimes, but that's part of the fun.

I really like this guide series, it goes right along with the books and lets you think more about everything, it's almost like getting extra Harry books!

Unfortunately, this book got out just before "Deathly Hallows", which was a little bit of a disappointment, because I was really looking forward to having time to go through it all before "Hallows". But the research that went into it is just as amazing as the rest of their series. Like the previous guides, it has lots of definitions and backgrounds for words, plus other goodies that helped me appreciate Ms. Rowling's work even more.

The only suggestion I might make for any possible future editions is the addition of an alphabetical appendix, in order to find specific references in the analysis itself, to various characters, places, etc. There is so much in here, it's hard to sort through it all if you have a specific character or place you want to research.

This book came in very good condition and got to our home right in time for xmas, even though I waited until the last minute to get it ordered. My daughter LOVES Harry Potter and these books are great for the diehard HP fans.

I also have read all the other guides, and was really looking forward to this one. I don't know if it was Amazon, or the publisher, but the book came out a few weeks AFTER the 7th book. So there are tons of parts where I just skip over it. The details were starting to get very tedious. For example, they mention the part where Dumbledore is walking into the orphanage to see Tom Riddle for the first time. They note that the hallway has black and white tiles. Then they go off talking about chess, and pulling clues out of it. Now maybe because I already read the last book, I know that the orphanage just happened to have black and white tiles, and it is meaningless.
Like the previous reviewer said, they do not explain other parts enough. In fact, in one chapter, you are told that the answer to this particular clue is in the restricted section. No, actually, it is not. I have no idea what they are leading too, and there is no way to figure it out.
I just wish they would have spent less time picking apart every teeny, tiny thing, and concentrate on the bigger picture. It would have been so much better to read this book before the last book came out.