759 Pages Later

The more time Harry and Ron and Hermione spend hopscotching around England, the more the reader misses the familiar rhythms of a school year at the wizarding academy ? the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the Quidditch matches and intra-house feuds ? and the vivid supporting characters, teachers and students alike, who usually crowd the pages of a Potter novel. Rowling tries to compensate by ratcheting up the tension, with break-ins and break-outs and close encounters with Lord Voldemort, but action sequences aren't precisely her forte, and after the fifth close shave and hair's-breadth escape the reader pines for the familiar pleasures of the Gryffindor Common Room and the Forbidden Forest.