(no subject)
Okay... I've changed my mind a bit, after having skimmed through the book again. My new position is here, if you wish to read it (spoilers, remember!).
... Okay, so it still read as bad fanfic in some (many) parts. But I find myself much less eager to bash dear Jo, now that my ship has not sunk :-P. I admit Ron and Hermione got on my nerves, but at least they almost got to the asking-out part, yes? And the Harry/Ginny (though not always represented in, uh, the best writing ever) made me dance around my basement with glee.
Snape and Malfoy, I thought, were really well-written. I'm really interested in them (and on what side is Snape? aaaaaargh). I thought the whole Hugadoo-or-whatever storyline was pretty weak, and Dumbledore dying? That's just plain uncool. Especially as my ship is nearly sunk right afterward! Except not, because see above. :-P
But overall... did anyone else get this total sense of, like-- where's the Harry Potter book and what is this thing I'm reading? Maybe it was because I read for seven hours straight without taking a break except to sob my eyes out, but it just seemed really weird and somewhat off. (And I don't think certain aforementioned problems helped... Tonks being whaaaaa?-I-thought-you-were-cool-in-the-last-book-what-happened? and Remus being all let's-discuss-our-relationship-in-public!, for instance.... In other words, they were pretty badly out of character.)
Oh well. I will read the seventh. I just hope... well, there had better not be any Remus/Tonks marriage, that's all. My tolerance only stretches so far.