Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows reviews (SPOILERS)

[Pearly Di]

Hi, Eru!

Well ... yeah ... I suppose I was thinking of Hedwig as a symbol of childhood though.

I wouldn't have been that upset if Hagrid had died, to be honest.


Although it's very moving when he carries Harry's body when he thinks Harry's dead.

[WampusCat]

I went to Barnes & Noble two days after the book came out and after I had finished it. There was a large display of lots of cute little stuffed Hedwigs. I suspect that nobody told the toymakers that this particular toy might make little kids (and their parents) cry.

I was struck by how much Harry loses in this book. Having the first loss be a living companion innocently resting in its cage ... well, that hit like a hammer.

[Teremia]

Golly, I didn't even think about about those cute little stuffed Hedwigs -- now surely being drenched with tears!

[Pearly Di]

I went to Barnes & Noble two days after the book came out and after I had finished it. There was a large display of lots of cute little stuffed Hedwigs.

I want one!!!!!!!!!!! I. So. Want. One. In memoriam Hedwig.

I was struck by how much Harry loses in this book. Having the first loss be a living companion innocently resting in its cage ... well, that hit like a hammer.

Wampus, Harry suffers a LOT throughout the whole series. Raised by abusive relations ...

And he certainly suffers a lot in Book 7 - the guilt he feels that so many are dying on his behalf - and then rises magnificently to his final, and darkest, challenge.

The Epilogue is getting a lot of flak but to see Harry surrounded by his wife and kids - and feeling a keen sense bereavement as Al Severus departs on the Hogwarts Express - so worked for me.

[JewelSong]

I want one!!!!!!!!!!! I. So. Want. One. In memoriam Hedwig.

Me, too! And my birthday is coming up next month, too!

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Read it. The emotional punch is greater throughout this book than the others. I liked the pacing, even the slower middle section where you get the feeling of their helplessness. Walking to his death in the Forest accompanied by his parents was a wonderful conception.
I have heard comments regretting the absence of Hogwarts but his return there and reception by the beleagered Dumbledore's Army (and their false expectations of his powers) is very effective. The battle felt very 'British'.
The epilogue may have seemed bland but that tribute to Snape was worth a chapter, so was the curt nod from Draco.
I enjoy JKR's sly touches:
'It's pure gold, (says Ron), ...Explains everything you want to know about girls.....I've learnt a lot. You'd be surprised, it's not all about wandwork, either.'

[WampusCat]

Wandwork!

* snicker *

[Primula Baggins]

Innuendo aside (though I do love me some nice innuendo, let's be honest), I really appreciate Rowling's plan to write each book at a higher level than the one before: darker, more complicated, more frightening, with more at stake and greater moral sophistication. I've enjoyed them right along, but my kids have literally grown up with the series—they were 9, 7, and 4 when the first one came out in the United States, and are 19, 17, and 14 now. Deathly Hallows would have been way too much for them back then, and Sorcerer's Stone would not have grabbed them now.

I can see that it's going to be tricky, now that all the books are available, to figure out the best time for a given child to begin them.

[Rebecca]

Innuendo aside (though I do love me some nice innuendo, let's be honest), I really appreciate Rowling's plan to write each book at a higher level than the one before: darker, more complicated, more frightening, with more at stake and greater moral sophistication. I've enjoyed them right along, but my kids have literally grown up with the series—they were 9, 7, and 4 when the first one came out in the United States, and are 19, 17, and 14 now. Deathly Hallows would have been way too much for them back then, and Sorcerer's Stone would not have grabbed them now.

I can see that it's going to be tricky, now that all the books are available, to figure out the best time for a given child to begin them.

I started reading them when I was around 17 or 18... What are you implying?

I love all of them, but my favorites are books 3 and now also 7.

[Primula Baggins]

Oh, I don't mean the books would not interest them at the ages they are now; but Sorcerer's Stone was a challenging book for my two older ones ten years ago, and it wouldn't have that extra draw now.

I was 38 when I started reading them and quite enjoyed them from the start. I agree with you that 3 and now 7 are the best of the bunch (a good bunch).

[Athrabeth]

I can see that it's going to be tricky, now that all the books are available, to figure out the best time for a given child to begin them

I've been thinking about that too, Prim. I really can't recall a series of books that has developed at essentially the same pace as both its characters and its original targeted readers. This must be something close to unique in the literary world?

Last weekend, we had a big family get-together, and the topic of the DH came up, as no less than seven of us had read it. It was interesting to note that the two youngest members of the clan (aged 11 and 13) were the most upset and confused about the story, often stating that they didn't like or "just didn't get" a lot of Rowling's decisions, especially "the deaths" and the decloaking of Dumbledore's youth. The two young adults (aged 17 and 19) seemed more.........wishful (like wishing Snape could have been dealt a nobler death, or that the Malfoys had a more dramatic impact on the last chapters of the tale). It was the old-timers (myself, my brother and my mother) that seemed the most impressed with Rowling's choices - surprised by some, but still impressed. There are depths to some of her themes, I think, that may be more appreciated by those who have faced the hard truths of "growing up." I have no doubt that many, many younger readers will re-read this book one day and discover a lot there that they just couldn't see before.

I was quite unprepared for the impact that the book had on me. I've already read it a second time to pick up on things I knew I missed the first time around. Harry's walk towards his death was simply outstanding: so moving, so believable: "Stay close to me.".......... When he saw the green light and fell, I consciously thought how glad I was to have known this boy, how glad I was that as a mother and a teacher, I was introduced to him and stuck with him on the long and difficult errand Rowling set for him over the years.

I'm glad that Rowling didn't give Snape the noble death that I had long envisioned for him. It would have been terribly cliché, and Snape deserved better than cliché. I thought her treatment of the Malfoys was just about perfect - subtle, yet powerful in its implications. To see Lucius and Narcissa fall from Voldemort's grace and face the same terror and doubt and pain that they have inflicted on all those "lessor beings" over the years; to see them openly fear for their son's life; to see them huddled together at the end, no better or worse than any of the other families finding comfort in each other's arms, unnoticed, unimportant, unsure of this new order that is now beginning.... wonderful stuff. The Malfoys are "saved", I think, because despite their wicked ways and their dark histories, they are, in the end, capable of love.

I was pleasantly surprised that one out of three sub-plots that I thought would go nowhere, actually did go somewhere. Yes, it seems there WAS a point to the whole house elves meander - Kreacher's rehabilitation and Harry's understanding of his resentment towards Sirius, and Ron's late-blooming social consciousness (it's certainly not "wandwork" that rouses Hermoine's passion! ).

BUT.........giants and centaurs? Those two detours from the OotP were absolutely a waste of time, as far as I'm concerned. They both had no impact whatsoever on the course of the tale, except to make it overly long and complicated. And Grawp just makes me cranky.

[Frelga]

BUT.........giants and centaurs? Those two detours from the OotP were absolutely a waste of time, as far as I'm concerned. They both had no impact whatsoever on the course of the tale, except to make it overly long and complicated. And Grawp just makes me cranky.

Well, I thought it was a bit like letting the Eagles show up at the Battle of the Five Armies. Tolkien could have let Men, Elves, Dwarves and Beorn mop up the goblins. It's just nice to have all the good guys have a lick at the bad ones. And vice versa, I suppose.

And the epilogue, I thought, was just a preemptive strike against slash writers. Now there is canon proof that Harry did NOT end up with Draco, or Hermione with Snape. But yes, a nod from Draco and Snape tribute were masterful.

[Athrabeth]

Well, I thought it was a bit like letting the Eagles show up at the Battle of the Five Armies. Tolkien could have let Men, Elves, Dwarves and Beorn mop up the goblins. It's just nice to have all the good guys have a lick at the bad ones. And vice versa, I suppose

I must admit, the Battle of the Five Armies did pop into my head when the centaurs came charging from behind. But thankfully, Tolkien didn't subject us to pages and pages of pointless "eagle exposition" just in order for them to make a kewl appearance at the end of the tale. It seems to me that Rowling just got carried away with her whole theme of prejudice and the injustices that come with it. First it was the house elves. Fine. As I said, at least there was some kind of meaningful resolution to that plotline. But then, she came up with the whole "angry as hell" centaur line, with Firenze and Bane et al taking up valuable space in my reader's mind. It ticked me off having to file that bit of flotsam, just in case I needed it for future reference (ie: there might actually be a POINT to the whole muddle by the last book!). And don't get me started on the Hagrid-goes-to-giantland-and-finds-his-long-lost-half-brother detour in the OotP! Like Di, I've never been much of a Hagrid fan, and think that Rowling overindulged his character. If she wanted to give him a "significant other", I would have preferred having him get hitched up with Madame what's-her-name from GoF. And is it just me, or does the thought of Hagrid's tiny wizard dad getting it on with a humongous she-giant leave others in "ewwww" mode, or at the very least, ?

[Rebecca]

I agree about the giants and centuars. Grawp was not needed at all, OotP should have been shorter, and that would have helped a lot. I do enjoy reading about him and pretty much anything about their world, but I think books 4 and 5, especially, we overlong.

The part where he walks into the forest was the most emotional for me, too. Probably my favorite part of all 7 books. There are others that I'll enjoy for different reasons, but that part is just so moving.

[Primula Baggins]

I must read this again pretty soon. I did it in one huge gulp, and I'd like to go back and enjoy some bits—particularly the ending, where my anxiety for Harry kept me racing forward too fast. (I was sure she wouldn't kill him. But not sure sure. )

[Rebecca]

I must read this again pretty soon. I did it in one huge gulp, and I'd like to go back and enjoy some bits—particularly the ending, where my anxiety for Harry kept me racing forward too fast. (I was sure she wouldn't kill him. But not sure sure. )

I read it too fast, as well. Right afterwards, I reread the ending. Then the whole thing. Then the ending again.

Oh my.

[Alatar]

Well, you could all join me in the "Read all 7 from the beginning!" if you like.

My 8 year old is just starting into Chamber of Secrets, having read Philosophers Stone in a couple of nights. I imagine she'll miss a lot of the subtlety of the later books, and will enjoy it in "broad strokes", much as I did when I first read Tolkien. The subleties come later.

[Pearly Di]

And is it just me, or does the thought of Hagrid's tiny wizard dad getting it on with a humongous she-giant leave others in "ewwww" mode, or at the very least, ?

Athrabeth, you are not the only one who finds that

I don't hate Hagrid. He's just not my favourite, in Rowling's colourful pantheon of characters, and like you, I do think she over-indulges him.

And yet, other times, she is wonderfully ruthless in how she despatches beloved characters. As I've said elsewhere, the positioning of Hedwig's death is just masterly. It hits you in the solar plexus - so early on in the book, in the middle of a crucial and desperate battle, Harry's life on the line, everybody's lives on the line ... bang goes his beloved childhood pet. Awesome.

Harry's walk towards his death was simply outstanding: so moving, so believable: "Stay close to me."...

I open at the close.

Oh, Harry! Rowling,

I'm glad that Rowling didn't give Snape the noble death that I had long envisioned for him. It would have been terribly cliché, and Snape deserved better than cliché.

Snape's death was ... ... well done, IMO.

People have been speculating muchly on his last words to Harry, "look ... at ... me". Obviously the common consensus is that Snape wanted, in his dying moments, to find some sort of comfort in looking into LilyHarry's eyes. Yup, that works for me.

But somebody on Live Journal also said she thought Snape was asking Harry to look at him, to really look at him, as he died. Snape has just given Harry everything he needs to know in order to defeat Voldemort and complete the great plan. Harry will also find out everything about Snape's true character and motives. "Look ... at ... me" - there's so much there. Once again, Rowling demonstrates her extraordinary use of economy as a writer.

I thought her treatment of the Malfoys was just about perfect - subtle, yet powerful in its implications. To see Lucius and Narcissa fall from Voldemort's grace and face the same terror and doubt and pain that they have inflicted on all those "lessor beings" over the years; to see them openly fear for their son's life; to see them huddled together at the end, no better or worse than any of the other families finding comfort in each other's arms, unnoticed, unimportant, unsure of this new order that is now beginning.... wonderful stuff. The Malfoys are "saved", I think, because despite their wicked ways and their dark histories, they are, in the end, capable of love.

Rowling is a much, much better writer than her detractors give her credit for.

Oh, and wandwork. *snerk*

I've so got to read this again. Maybe after I've reread the whole series.