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Instead of a review, I’m just going to share my memories of this book. Back when this came out was the high time of midnight bookstore release parties. Yes, I did go to one and no, I didn’t dress up.
It was held at a Barnes and Noble and of course John Williams’s soundtrack for the first 2 movies was played on a loop throughout the night. Amidst the crowd eagerly awaiting the stroke of 12, were tired adult chaperones and sullen workers who had had enough already. My brother brought me to the store and one of his friends was working there; of course being the only ginger on staff he had to dress up like Ron and did not appreciate it. I think he actually hated Harry Potter so that kind of made it worse.
Let me preface this next paragraph with the following: I grew up in Las Vegas, so some weird stuff went down that probably wouldn’t have happened anywhere else that night. Not only did the Mayor show up, but “Master Magician” Lance Burton did too. They are local celebs, though why they put in an appearance is beyond me. More on this in a minute.
So at about 11:30 everyone starts lining up to get our books. The store decided to release them before midnight and that made it all the more like catnip. I remember seeing some four year olds plopped down in an aisle with their copies, pretending to read them…and I thought, who would stop me if I just took it from the kid and ran out? I didn’t though, obviously, but Potter fever makes you think strange thoughts, especially while waiting in line for a highly anticipated book.
Both the Mayor and the “Master Magician” were signing copies of the book. I don’t understand this at all, and still think that somewhere on ebay somebody must have bid on an “autographed copy” and gotten one signed by one of these men. While that’s technically true, can you just imagine the disappointment??
When I did finally have it in my hands… oh, that beautiful gloriously blue cover. You knew from Mary GrandPré’s artwork that something major was going to go down, and it did. I started reading it with a booklight on the drive home but was told that the light was distracting my brother’s driving. Buzzkill. Didn’t he know how important this was?!?!?!?!
Arriving home, I went straight to bed and stayed up all night reading. At some point, I think at about 2am, my mom came into my room. She took the book from me, and flipped towards the end, read about Sirius’s death, then gave it back to me without a word. (She had read the first 4 to her third grade class and still chokes up at the mention of “the boy who lived”). She never actually read the fifth book or the rest, but always insisted I tell her everything that happened once I finished them.
I finished it later that day. I didn't care too much that Sirius died, but I do remember being slightly miffed that Rowling never cleared up more about that Veil in the Department of Mysteries. That was such a cruel tease, Jo.
