For everyone traumatized by the recent ending of another era-defining work, The Sopranos, the anti-Sopranos ending of Harry Potter will be sure to satisfy you. It ends, and it ends definitively, and in my mind satisfactorily (though I was satisfied with The Sopranos as well).
In the minds of fans, this book’s primary function is to end the series, rather than function as an individual story and the book does that with enough panache, twists, turns, and dead bodies to keep everyone on the edge of their seat. J.K. sends out numerous callbacks to her previous books, dredging up all sorts of cute plots, forgotten monsters, and erstwhile allies. The major questions that have lingered coming into this book: Snape’s true allegiance, the Horcruxes, Harry/Voldemort’s prophetic relationship, the importance of Lily Potter, and Dumbledore’s final gambit are concluded.
The book begins very well, immediately establishing the perils of Harry’s world and the real danger within it. After that, the story meanders a bit, with the characters spending a lot of time listless and frustrated as they hope to blunder into a solution to their problems. These portions evoke the frustration that some readers felt during Order of the Phoenix. In this situation, it’s not necessarily that the characters are withholding information, it’s that they just have no damn clue about what to do. At times, it almost felt like J.K. actually no idea what to do without the comfortable halls of Hogwarts to guide her characters about. However, the rudderless middle portion quickly picks up steam into the aforementioned ending. Suitably epic and touching, both huge and personal, in true Potter-style the mysteries are concluded in both surprising and satisfying ways. Does Harry exit the series as he entered it as The Boy Who Lived?
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars.
This book had more blood than Hamlet would have as an anime…
‘X’ was pretty much up there as far as having as much death/blood as Hamlet would if it were an anime. As far as Harry Potter, despite my hatred of the first few films and tolerance of the newer ones, I’ve just started reading the first book to find out for myself.
The books are much, much, much better than the movies.
Favorite chapter: The Prince’s Tale.
So glad I called that one – and by that point in the book, I was almost nervous that they were going to gloss over that particular point!!!
I’ve finally finished the book. [potential spoilers]
JK’s problem, in my opinion, is a matter of perspective. Specifically, I did not find it very interesting to spend a nearly half a book trapped with characters who have no idea what they are going to do, and no external sources to bring new material to the table. This is only made more painful, by the inclusion of ‘other more interesting story opportunities’ not experienced by the main characters (and the reader. Lee Jordan’s pirate radio, for example could have offered an interesting setting to work with, from which the main three characters could come and go. Likewise, Ginny’s raids on Snape’s office, the attack on Luna on the train, and Neville’s rise to power as a revolutionary leader are all more interesting than sitting in a row house/tent/cottage talking about next to nothing.
She does (obviously) pick up in the last quarter of the book, and there are little moments before the end like the bank heist and the ministry invasion that are okay, but the payoff was not there for me. Simply having characters figure things out by luck, exposition, or random circumstances is just not very interesting.
19 years from now, I hope she still hasn’t written another book. 3 farts out of 5
I agree that it would have been nice to read about Ginny’s raid on Snape’s office and other goings-on at Hogwarts. But I think Rowling wanted the reader to have only Harry’s perspective for most of the book, if not the series. I don’t think we ever get to see the story from the perspective of any of the kids, just some of the adults (like Snape, Voldemort, Frank, etc).