Whoa the second

I got Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday. I finished it sometime this morning.

Whoa.

To begin with way, way, WAY better than the fifth. Firstly because Harry is no longer speaking in all capitals, which is always an improvement, secondly because...well...it would be very difficult for Rowling to do worse unless she started putting in Mary-Sues and random bouts of slash.
I warn you: There will be times, when reading it, that you will hear the distant screaming of shippers all over the world as their dreams are shattered into itty-bits across the gravel that is Reality.
If you are, like me, an absolute sap (read: cried during Beauty and the Beast) you will cry at the end. Repeatedly. And mournfully. Oh, and there are some chapters you will have to re-read because...man. You just keep thinking 'Whoa, that could NOT have happened!'
Suffice to say there is much death. And, dammit, she killed off one of my favorite bit-characters!
However, there is much romance. There are no less than SIX various romantic couples happening during the book (although at least two of them have dissolved by the final page) and, as usual, Harry is the more perceptive one. How can it be that Hermione, whilst able to read Girl Emotions (the language that all women know), still refuses to see the blatantly obvious? I'm sure I've seen worse train-wreck disasters of couple, but I can't think of any right now. Actually, no, wait I can. *winces*
Okay, so, let's do a checklist of what occurs:

Dumbledore waxes rhapsodic about the Prophecy and what it actually means-check.

We see more of Snape-UBER check.

We see various Order members get romantic-also UBER check.

Malfoy becomes 3-D-Oh, the checkiness of it!

A new Defence the Dark Arts teacher-ooh...open for debate as to whether the teacher is entirely new!

A major character dies-HOLY CRAP YES CHECK!

We learn more of Voldemort-Well, (SPOILERS: As that is the point of the entire point of the book SPOILER END) yes. Very much so.

There is near-gratuitous amounts of romance-depending on your definition of 'gratuitous' YES!

We find out who the Half-Blood Prince is-Nuduh. Check.

We find out how the book is linked to Chamber of Secrets-Ohhhhh yes.

We get to see funky things happen in the Ministry-HELL YES AND DAMN IT IS FUNNY!

We see more of Tonks et al-Check.

We see more of Percy-Unfortunately yes. Check.

It will have the kind of plot that will have all you who care about the books and have not yet read them screaming at me for giving it all away-Yes. Indeed it does.

Harry rocks the party that rocks the body-Yup.

Snape rocks my socks off-Oh yes.

Well. That is it. No more for this review-tune back later!
(By the way, the filming is going well, even if I do spend half the time unable to feel my hands. I suppose its good, because it means I don't have to feel the near-unbearable stickiness of fake blood).