Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[Occhidiangela]

I just finished my 7 hour read-a-thon from when I picked up the book at midnight. I'm not quite sure how to react to the end...

Maybe I should've gotten some sleep before starting a topic, but I will say this: it is entirely the opposite of what I expected. With J.K. Rowling's statements that "blood will be spilled" I was expecting death and destruction to hit a little bit closer than it did.

The chapter King's Cross also through me off. I have no idea what to make of most of that.

Gah.

I am flabbergasted right now.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

-Baylan

Too many pages for not enough story. A bit of repetition of some of the plot from books 5 and 6.

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Don't read Further if you don't want a


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1. Snape's true motivations revealed, though she tries a head fake early on, only to nicely play it out as ambiguous. Trouble is, the motivation is mindlessly simplistic/dramatic/schmaltzy romantic tripe, and actually takes a three dimensional character, Snape, and squashes him to almost two dimensions. Booo. Hisssssss.

2. Albus Dumbledore's eye fooled me. Barman at Hogsmead struck me as a detail that should have been easily uncovered in books two through six. Hmmmmmm.

3. Harry's horcrux link to Voldemort was explained in book six, and re explained in book seven. Waste of pages.

4. Godric Griffindor's sword returning via the choosing cap after a Goblin had recaptured was a deus ex machina that rather floored me. Indeed, the entire foray into Gringots struck me as zero value added. While the Gringot's adventure had potential, it was resolved rather clumsily.

5. Sorry to see the dead red head. A favorite character of mine.

6. Ginny-Harry romance was almost an afterthought. OK, good enough, Rowling was not trying to steam up the novel. Perhaps a hurrah for that.

7. The time line of Harry and Ron and Hermione's continually being 'on the run' after Voldemort takes over the Ministry, with him being public enemy number one, was an absurdity. See also the arrival of Voldemort in Godric's Hollow: Harry and Hermione escape, even though Voldemort has them on the run and in his sights, and Harry's wand is cracked, and Voldemor later shows command of incredibly powerful magic. Major inconsistency. The later discussion of Voldemort's uncertainty about wand tech almost covers it, I guess. Uh, no, it doesn't.

8. Lupin got screwed, IMO.

And on and on.

The whole thing is loosely constructed, and had a page count about 100 to 200 more than I think the content required, to include the overly schmaltzy ending at the train station.

Glad I got it out of the way, and glad I read fast. I read as I watched the British Open Golf Championship, so at least I got two things done at once.

For fans, a must, on its own, a doorstop.

Occhi