Deathly Hallows thoughts.
I just finished my second reread, and although I have some issues, I'd say this book was easily as good as the rest of them put together, for the following reasons:
* It's very adult. Although I liked the school format, I'm a total sucker for a Quest to Defeat Ultimate Eeeeeeviiiiiillllll and that's exactly what this was. Harry's grown up. Hermione's grown up. Ron grew up. They are now the major players instead of just the pawns, and that made this book a lot more believable than, say, the first one. Who actually believed three eleven-year-olds could get through the defenses designed against the Dark Lord?
* See previous about Questing. I love questing. Also, I found the irregular pacing and sudden introduction of the Hallows added more realism rather than annoying me. If you're a seventeen-year-old wizard-raised-by-muggles, aren't there going to be many, many things you don't know? And if your lovable but batty mentor just sent you a bunch of his random possessions, wouldn't you putz around in the woods until you'd figured some things out?
* Danger around every corner! Hedwig's death threw me for a loop. I feared for Hagrid so many times. Nowhere was safe for our hero in this book, and not knowing what might be lurking kept me on the edge of my seat.
*Hallows or Horcruxes? I actually really liked that the Hallows played such a majorly minor part. They got introduced late, Harry figured out what Voldemort was after, and was briefly tempted, but decided to return to the task at hand: defeating the bad guy instead of making himself more powerful. This book wasn't about the Hallows at all, and I loved that.
* Neville kicks ass.
* Harry calling Voldemort "Riddle" in the final battle. In fact, the entire final battle, except for the parts about coats of armor coming alive and desks stampeding down the stairs--too Beauty and the Beast for me.
* All the greyness. Umbridge. Ollivander. The goblins. The Malfoys. Dumbledore.
* The rescue of the Muggle-borns in the Ministry.
* Ron and Hermione, throughout. Loved the Luke-Han-Leia dynamic.
* Petunia and Lily as children. If I'd written fanfic, I would have written it about the Evans household before Lily turned eleven. Also, Petunia is the older sister, right?
* Finally we understand why Snape hated Harry. Not because he hated James. But because Harry was a walking reminder that Lily chose James.
* Yay Harry keeping his own wand, at the end.
Things I am undecided about:
* The extreme amount of Dumbledore exposition. I can't decide if I like him as a foil to Harry, or if I wanted to keep him saintly, batty, and out of this book. Even dead he has to come along at the eleventh hour and explain everything.
* The greyness in how unforgivable the "unforgivables" really are. Maybe this is just to show that magic is magic, and the distinction between dark and light is just as fuzzy as the line between muggle-born and pure blood?
* Percy's return. I would have liked to see more time given to this. And actually, for Perce to be the one who died. Killing a twin seems like a cop-out: Fred and George have always come as a set in these books, and to kill one doesn't have quite the impact as, say, killing Percy or Ron. For Percy to die on his way to rejoin the good guys, or immediately after, would have had much more of an emotional impact on me than Fred.
* Lupin and Tonks. Were we supposed to infer that she'd gotten pregnant on accident, and that's why they got married so quickly? I never felt that Remus returned her affections, and his conflict with the baby and Harry felt flat, as if he'd thought long and hard about it and decided that he might feel that way, and tried all that angst on for size. Also, a very minor thing but one that drove me nuts, Lupin refers to her as "'Dora" in one conversation. Doesn't he call her "Tonks" everywhere else? Tonks leaving little Teddy to look for Lupin in the battle also rang false to me. I know she's an Auror, or was at least. But to have her priority be not her son, not the fight, but her husband's location? I guess it's believable. But it didn't seem in character. Then again, we don't really know much about Tonks's character.
Things I definitely did not like:
* Harry's been all about his dad for the past six books. Where the fuck was James in this book? I'm glad to see Lily get her turn, but Harry's veneration for and emulation of his father has been a key part of his personality from day whenever-he-found-out-he-had-a-dad, and I missed that, in this book. Suddenly, because Snape loved Lily, Harry doesn't hate him anymore? How does Harry's discovery of Snape's greyness affect his feelings about James?
* Actually, Snape/Lily in general. Ick.
* Harry's died! But he's noble of spirit, so he gets to come back! I hate stuff like this. If you die, you're dead. Stay dead.
* The LOTR-ness of the locket.
* Greyback being "given" Hermione. Ick. Although Ron's reaction really tugged at the heartstrings.
And some things I'd really like explained:
* What is the deal with that sword? Is there a more powerful magic on it yet, that it will come to the Gryffindor who calls it, no matter where it is? I'd love to hear some about that, and, really, about the other founder's artifacts. What was the story behind the Hufflepuff cup?
* The epilogue. I wanted to know so many more things other than how many kids everyone had and what they were named. I had Ernie pegged to be minister of magic someday--why else would he have been written so pompously? Whom did Draco marry? What happened to Luna? What are their jobs? Where do they live? What are the kids like? Do they all still hang out, or is the world a let down now that there are no more battles to fight? What happened to the professors? How long did it take to restore Hogwarts? Do they still Sort in the first year? What about Draco? Is he good, or evil? What about the rest of the Malfoys? Did the house-elves ever get liberated? What's the Ministry policy on blood now? Who's the Minister of Magic? Did Umbridge ever get what she deserved?
* Patronuses. Mcgonagall's Patronus is the same as her Animagus form--is this the same for everyone, or just a coincidence?