I finished it yesterday (or rather, early morning today
) and
LOVED it.
Haven't had such a riveting read for years! I haven't had such palpable fears about things turning out differently from what I thought they should since being worried sick that Tolkien might kill off anyone of the fellowship.
I had been pretty sure that Harry would survive - but, wow, when Dumbledore asks Snape to tell Harry he'd have to sacrifice his life was a blow.
I started feverishly thinking of ways he could still live through this, and must admit that I found the resolution as it was handled a bit confusing. It might have had to do with the fact that it was past five in the morning, and I'd been up since six that day, and I'll probably re-read some bits there to see if I missed something, but it seemed to me Rowling had three or four different ideas of how to resolve this and tried to combine them all into one. First, Harry is the last Horcrux and needs to destroy himself to destroy Voldemort, then Harry gets to choose whether he wants to survive, then Voldemort's wand is not powerful enough to kill him anyway, because Draco mastered Dumbledore (when did that happen?
) and should be the owner of the wand, and then people can't be killed by Voldemort because Harry meant to die to protect them...
Just a bit too much, I thought.
Still, the idea that Harry, carrying a bit of Voldemort's soul, needs to destroy himself to destroy V., and agrees to do so - AWESOME, shattering, deeply moving.
Snape - I'm one of those "I trust Snape" swooners, longing for an ending that would show Snape to be one of the best. From the previous experience with Rowling's way of thinking, esp Book III, I felt justified to hope she would have him turn out a hero - but, man, did she do a good job for the first 300 or so pages to convince me she might not.
And, as it was - well, I'm pleased to see that everything concerning his role in Hogwarts, in killing Dumbledore and in working for Voldemort turned out just the way I would have it turn out, but I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with his motivation. All just out of love for Lily?
I mean, that's sweet and deeply human - but not all that noble, IMO.
Also, while I personally would have let him live, I was expecting him to get killed, it seemed the obvious thing to do - but I would have preferred if it had happened in less casual, meaningless way. Poor Snape.
Totally thrilled that we finally got the full story of his youth etc, though.
I loved the fast pace of the first half - unlike the three books before, it didn't get lengthy until well into the second half, and even there it was bearable.
I also really liked the epilogue, even though the nature of everybody's future lives made me smile, it was so typical for anglophone cultures.
But we needed a rounding off, a finishing "what became of them", and doing it as a single scene, rather than narratively was pretty nifty, I thought. I mean, it reminded me of the epilogue of 'Tale of two cities', and it had all the same info, and I was surprised Rowling managed to give it without the narrator coming in explicitly.
I also really liked humanising Draco and his parents. But, because of that, I was also a bit disappointed that there wasn't more of a reconciliation.
Also, at one point towards the end I loved it when someone says "We sort too soon", I thought 'YES' - but, then, nineteen years later, they are still doing it, and the old prejudices persist. Bad habits and old enmities die hard, I guess.
And wasn't it an odd ending? I'm not sure if we are supposed to be sure that if Voldemort hasn't come back in the last twenty years, he's not going to come back at all, or whether we are supposed to stay aware that he might still come back at any time, Harry's just been lucky to have had twenty years of peace.
Not a bad idea to keep it ambiguous, though.
A few things I didn't like:
- too much duelling and general 'action' on a rather childish level (breaking into Gringotts, for example).
(But, then, it is a book for younger readers, so one can hardly complain.)
- everybody... really,
everybody... popping up out of nowhere for the great showdown.
- the showdown as such, the kids taking the lead, school revolution etc - all a bit simplistic, for my taste.
Some more good things:
- Hedwig getting killed was an amazing idea - what a blow so early on in the book!
Gave me quite a lump in the throat, too.
- Dobby's death, Harry's mourning for him - really moving.
- Ron and Hermione's love
- Luna and Dean - wasn't he the Quidditch Captain? I read someone in the first posts here said what a pity Luna didn't get someone, but she seems to be hooking up with Dean at the end, I thought. Case of geek girl gets captain of football, er, Quidditch team.
- hearing more about Petunia and Lily: one can understand Petunia's resentment, but it was also clear how much she lacks the generosity of character Lily possesses.
I'm sure there would be more, but I'm a bit tired still. Also, I'd like to try to respond to posts in this thread better, but couldn't both respond and write up my own first impressions at the same time, so more later, I hope.
I kept having to back up a few pages and figure out who was where doing what. I was too eager for the resolution to enjoy the fighting itself.
And she was in a sulk with him to the last, bless her snowy feathers! Harry's reaction totally got to me, because he's so horrified and distraught but uppermost in his mind is his terror for his friends, who are laying so, so much on the line for him. Awesome, JKR.