December 21, 2004
NOT HAGRID!:
Plot clue is chronicle of a death foretold (Jack Malvern, 12/22/04, Times of London)
THE actual contents of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are known only to J. K. Rowling, but she has let slip a handful of clues.Posted by Orrin Judd at December 21, 2004 11:15 PMOne racing certainty is that at least one character will die, although the field is wide open for candidates. Bookmakers are predicting it will be Hagrid, Harry’s mentor.
The author has given ambiguous answers to so many questions about specific characters’ longevity that Books 6 and 7 could resemble Titus Andronicus.
Speculation is also rife about the identity of the Half-Blood Prince himself. Rowling has confirmed only that the prince is not Harry or Voldemort.
Is it just me, or is the tone of the Potter books getting grimmer with each new volume? We had a character die in the fourth book but he wasn't anywhere near being one of the core group, but then we had a more important character kick the bucket in volume 5 (no spoilers). I read somewhere that Rowling once said that she was adjusting her delivery to make her books more "adult" with each volume as her core audience grew up, but somehow I didn't quite expect this.
Posted by: Joe at December 22, 2004 5:15 AMI once read an interview in which she said, in effect, that the books were about the fight against evil, and that she wasn't going to soft-soap the cost of that fight.
Posted by: David Cohen at December 22, 2004 7:28 AM