First, I should say that I'm not a Harry Potter fanatic. Not at all. I think they're great books, but I don't own any of the movies or have a Harry Potter ringtone on my cell phone or anything. I just really appreciate the books and the world Rowling has invented.
That being said, I should say that I did love Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For me, it was one of the best--if not THE best--of the seven books. While there were some problems, I think Rowling did a magnificent job balancing the expectations of her millions of readers with an ending to the series that felt organic and tied things together nicely.
Things I didn't particularly like:
1) Some of the pacing was off. Soooo much time was spent in the woods with Hermione and Ron. And stopping the major battle scene twice for extended "back story" issues made no sense to me.
2) Though Snape died protecting Harry to the end, I wish his death had been more "noble." You know, laughing at Voldemort and jumping in front of Harry to save him. And I hated that we only got to see Snape's memories, not here him talk to Harry.
3) And speaking of Snape, I wish there had been more of him in the book. He was in a total of three sections.
4) I was sure Sirius Black would come back from the "dead." I expected him to. I hoped for it. Sad it didn't happen. Though Harry has Ginny now, it'd be great if he had one defacto parent.
5) The actual Deathly Hallows didn't make much sense to me. It felt really tacked on.
Things I loved:
1) Neville killing the snake.
2) That Snape was good, and when Harry told his son that Snape was the bravest wizard he ever knew. (I'm even getting choked up writing this!)
3) The book tied up things nicely, from Harry's awful cousin Dudley caring about Harry, to Bellatrix getting her comeuppance from Mrs. Weasley.
4) I'm happy that no major good guys I cared about (other than Snape) bit the dust.
5) The battle at the end of the book will be great to see as a movie. I love that all the characters contributed in their own way. I was grinning ear to ear while reading those scenes. (How about McGonagall screaming "Charge!" as she led a group of Hogwart's desks into battle?)
6) The epilogue rocked my world. And while I would have liked to know more about Harry's present-day life, I realized the epilogue did was it was meant to do: bring the story full circle with Harry and Ginny's and Ron and Hermione's kids heading off to school.
1 comment:
Excellent review and i agreed on pretty much everything. Especially seeing Neville come into his own. That was awesome.
I also was a little disappointed that there wasn't more Snape - the tension of not knowing which side he comes down on was kind of taken away.
Total Bummer: No Sirius!
Another Bummer: Dobby's death. Talk about noble!
Most agreed on: Woodsy Harry/Ron/Hermione stuff was far too long. If anything, it took away from the character that is Hogwarts. Sure, it was fucking amazing when they actually got back into Hogwarts and the battle was waged there, but i felt like Hogwarts was missed. I know that we were supposed to feel like Harry was forced to be a wanderer and had no home, blahblahblah, but I missed Hogwarts.
One thing I am wondering that you have not mentioned: Ron said, "effing" twice, and Mrs. Weasley calls Bellatrix a "Bitch." I cannot believe more people aren't in an uproar. Although I guess the ones who would usually roar have already forbidden their kids to read the books in the first place.
Finally, I am in withdrawal. Serious withdrawal.
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