Like almost everyone else in America (and the world) I waited excitedly for the LAST Harry Potter book to come out. I pre-ordered my copy, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and the first time I read it, I did so within 24-hours. My feelings about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are twofold: I was thrilled, and I was disappointed.
It's been seven years since Harry Potter learned that he was a wizard and how his parents truly died. It has been three years since the dark wizard Lord Voldemort rose to corporeal form and full power again. Now, in the final book of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry and his friends must find a way to vanquish Lord Voldemort once and for all -- before he destroys their world forever.
I alternately love and hate this book. I hate it because it is the end of a franchise that I loved so much, my first true literary obsession. I discovered Harry Potter when I was 15 years old, after my sister took the books out of the library and insisted I read them. Having the end come, finally knowing what happens, who wins, how it all goes down -- is bittersweet. Of course you want to know what happens, but you're always sad to see the end of a series you loved so much.
All of the old favorites are back -- but reader beware. Some of the wrong people are going to die. Usually Rowling doesn't kill off her characters (or at least, not the major characters) until the end of the book. Three chapters in, a much-beloved character is lost, and I realized this is the direction she's taking it. Rowling definitely isn't writing for children anymore. Deathly Hallows is much more raw and gripping than any of the other HP books.
I feel again that Rowling tried to cram too much in to one book (sort of like Goblet of Fire). There was so much to take into account, that I'm not even really surprised that the directors cut the final film into two parts. The first whole half of the book has been described as "wizard camping", and while during my re-read I decided this wasn't really fair to Rowling, it does get tedious in parts. The Battle of Hogwarts is terrific. I did like the ending -- the part about the wands was quite a surprise, and I thought she did that up well. The Deathly Hallows was an interesting concept, I wish that they had been hinted at early in the books, but Rowling probably didn't think of how to tie it up up until HBP or so, so it's to be expected.
SPOILER ALERT: My three major issues with this book are the following:
1. Polyjuice Potion. When it first makes an appearance in Chamber of Secrets, Polyjuice Potion is not only an extremely difficult and time-consuming potion to make, it also requires ingredients that are damn impossible to find. Remember how Harry and Hermione have to steal some of the ingredients from Snape in Book 2? And Hermione had to get the potion from a book from the Restricted Section in the library. So why is it that by Book 7, everyone and their MOTHER is using Polyjuice Potion? It made some sense that Alastor Moody would have the ingredients in Goblet of Fire, though it was a bit of a stretch that Barty Crouch Jr. knew how to make it. But in Half-Blood Prince, REALLY? Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle can make it? Come on, Jo Rowling, I expected better. This is a plot hole you can drive a truck through. In Deathly Hallows, Hermione, Harry, and Ron make it through a series of scrapes by utilizing -- you guessed it -- Polyjuice Potion. It's a cure-all for everything in the HP universe -- and it just doesn't make sense.
2. House unity. Throughout the books, Rowling has the constant message -- from the Sorting Hat, from Dumbledore, etc. -- that the Hogwarts houses must set aside their differences and unite. Granted, she spent six books making Slytherin house and all its inhabitants and graduates the bad guys (I wonder if Rowling has a serious aversion to snakes?), but I figured that MAYBE, especially in light of Draco Malfoy's hesitation at the end of Half-Blood Prince, there was a chance that Slytherin House would be redeemed. NOPE. At the Battle for Hogwarts, Slytherin House is the only house that doesn't stand and fight with Hogwarts. All of the children abandon their classmates and teachers to death. So much for "house unity". AND, in a move that really did surprise me to the point where I had to read it twice, Potions master and Slytherin House Head, Horace Slughorn, in the final hour, turns and fights on Voldemort's side. Really? Even though Dumbledore himself said in Half-Blood Prince "Horace is no Death Eater?" Apparently it doesn't matter; if you have an ounce of Slytherin blood in your veins, that clearly makes you 100% evil in the Harry Potter Universe (makes Sirius Black even more of an anomaly, no?).
3. The epilogue. OMG, the epilogue. I am not the first person to say it, but seriously: it is terrible. It reads like Rowling just went on to Fanfiction.net and grabbed the first story she could find, and ripped it off. So disappointing. Especially since the book didn't NEED an epilogue, it could have ended right after the battle, and everything would have great. Guess not.
SPOILER ALERT: My three major issues with this book are the following:
1. Polyjuice Potion. When it first makes an appearance in Chamber of Secrets, Polyjuice Potion is not only an extremely difficult and time-consuming potion to make, it also requires ingredients that are damn impossible to find. Remember how Harry and Hermione have to steal some of the ingredients from Snape in Book 2? And Hermione had to get the potion from a book from the Restricted Section in the library. So why is it that by Book 7, everyone and their MOTHER is using Polyjuice Potion? It made some sense that Alastor Moody would have the ingredients in Goblet of Fire, though it was a bit of a stretch that Barty Crouch Jr. knew how to make it. But in Half-Blood Prince, REALLY? Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle can make it? Come on, Jo Rowling, I expected better. This is a plot hole you can drive a truck through. In Deathly Hallows, Hermione, Harry, and Ron make it through a series of scrapes by utilizing -- you guessed it -- Polyjuice Potion. It's a cure-all for everything in the HP universe -- and it just doesn't make sense.
2. House unity. Throughout the books, Rowling has the constant message -- from the Sorting Hat, from Dumbledore, etc. -- that the Hogwarts houses must set aside their differences and unite. Granted, she spent six books making Slytherin house and all its inhabitants and graduates the bad guys (I wonder if Rowling has a serious aversion to snakes?), but I figured that MAYBE, especially in light of Draco Malfoy's hesitation at the end of Half-Blood Prince, there was a chance that Slytherin House would be redeemed. NOPE. At the Battle for Hogwarts, Slytherin House is the only house that doesn't stand and fight with Hogwarts. All of the children abandon their classmates and teachers to death. So much for "house unity". AND, in a move that really did surprise me to the point where I had to read it twice, Potions master and Slytherin House Head, Horace Slughorn, in the final hour, turns and fights on Voldemort's side. Really? Even though Dumbledore himself said in Half-Blood Prince "Horace is no Death Eater?" Apparently it doesn't matter; if you have an ounce of Slytherin blood in your veins, that clearly makes you 100% evil in the Harry Potter Universe (makes Sirius Black even more of an anomaly, no?).
3. The epilogue. OMG, the epilogue. I am not the first person to say it, but seriously: it is terrible. It reads like Rowling just went on to Fanfiction.net and grabbed the first story she could find, and ripped it off. So disappointing. Especially since the book didn't NEED an epilogue, it could have ended right after the battle, and everything would have great. Guess not.
As an avid Harry Potter fan, I have to be honest. I would rate the books in the following way. Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets are the introductory books -- you can't compare them to the later books, they are simply too different. Rowling was writing for children then; she had no idea how her story was going to take off. Prisoner of Azkaban was, is, and will always be my favorite. I think it is the best book Rowling wrote, everything ties up neatly, so much is explained, and -- almost most importantly -- there is no Voldemort. Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix left me disappointed -- I didn't like the story pattern Rowling was sticking to of "action action action climax Voldemort someone dies conclusion." I also didn't like the emo kid that Harry became in Order of the Phoenix (after witnessing the death of a random schoolmate), but I couldn't understand his sudden disappearance in Half-Blood Prince (after Harry witnesses the death of a close friend). After Prisoner of Azkaban, I thought that Half-Blood Prince was the second-best book. I was disappointed in the ending (I had suspected who would die for quite a while before reading it) but allover, I thought it was a very good book, and I waited impatiently for Deathly Hallows.
The book is good, and it does tie everything up. I enjoyed it. But it's not perfect, it's not quite on par with some of her earlier works, and I can't give it more than four stars.
Rating: ****
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