Was I this bad as a teenager? Wow. Harry has become a sullen, whiny adolescent, and you find yourself wanting to smack him one throughout much of this book. It's an interesting choice by Rowling to characterize Harry this way, he really is a non-sympathetic protagonist in this latest episode. On the other hand, the back-room politics of the Ministry of Magic are incredibly slimy this time around, and the antagonistic characters are so entirely odious that I feel there must be some political caricatures here. Since I'm not British, there's probably a lot of satire included that flies right past me, but this is a good adventure yarn in it's own right. Tina thinks it's a bit long, and I guess I agree, but I still finished it in three days.