SPOILERS - Harry Potter & the Death Hallows
I've been wanting to post about HP&tDH but I wanted to wait until more people had read it...
So it has been a full week, I will post under the cut (do NOT open it if you haven't read the whole book!)
Harry Potter and the Death Hallows
Reflections on JKR's very harsh final book... But we'll get to her being very cruel and hard hearted (and a little short sighted). Let us start at the beginning:
I kinda wish I hadn't seen the movie so soon before reading the book, because I don't picture the actors as the characters and when I read the book immediately after a film I start to, and I don't' want to (my Remis Lupin is MUCH better looking).
Chapter 1 - I thought that Dudley's change of heart was very sweet, there was a theme here about redemption that extended to a lot of different characters, and I always appreciate that.
The 7 Potters ruse was a surprise, and of course ALL the good laughs belonged to the Weasley twins. But I thought that starting off with killing Hedwig was very rough, I really felt that ripping George's ear from his head would have been plenty for the beginning of the book (and I think that JKR forgets that many of her young fans have pets, and killing a pet is going to hit home for all of them).
My first tears were shed for George's ear (and the pain he was experiencing).
Chapter 5 - JKR kills off Mad Eye Moody! Ack... we are not even 100 pages into the book and she is really getting awfully violent.
I ended up creating a chart to keep track of the Horcruxs, because it started to feel like there were too many of them... More on that later.
I loved the tie ins all the way back to the first book (when Harry caught his first snitch in his mouth), that was REALLY clever, and funny!
Chapter 23 - JKR kills Dobby, and okay... I liked that this opened up the mind of the Goblin Griphook and made him willing to work w/Harry (but frankly, having Harry save Griphook was really enough...). I wept long and hard for Dobby.
Chapter 31 - JKR kills Fred. FRED! I love Fred! I am sorry, but this is so wrong. Clearly Percy should have bought it, Fred was more adept at fighting and defending himself, and is the funnier more valuable character! I had had hopes of a spin off series of Fred & George, but you can't do that (even in prequel form) when your readers know that the character has no future: it is too painful. I really do resent the death of Fred. This was too harsh.
Chapter 32 - JKR kills Snape, this was the death I had expected... but I hadn't expected it to be so cold bloodedly done in a back room - I was expecting something with a little more public heroism. And I'm really not sure that the whole pensive thing with the prolonged fan fic of Snape's undying love for Lily, was actually very effective storytelling.... But she did give everyone an hour break, and the pensive thing was long established, so I guess she gets away with it.
Chapter 33 - JKR kills Lupin and Tonks, jeez Louise...we really needed to orphan Teddy? Sigh
Basically too many people died, and far from amping up the threat level, Fred's death depressed me to much that I was having trouble caring about the rest. I think she killed too many characters.
By the time we get to Chapter 35, I was feeling emotionally spent, and not really caring whether Harry was alive or not, it had been over-kill...literally.
Chapter 36 - I loved the business w/Neville offing the snake, but I thought that having the last Horcrux killed off should have more visibly weakened Voldemort, he seemed completely unphased by all of the destroyed horcuxi.
So about Horcrux: I'm not really getting how this works. Voldemort divided his soul into seven parts, right? Am I wrong here? And he created horcrux to make himself immortal because they would be protected....
1. The diary: which Harry destroyed w/basilisk venom
2. The ring which Dumbledor destroyed w/the sword of Gryffindor.
3. The locket (wow I can't believe how long THIS took) destroyed by Ron w/the sword.
4. Hufflepuff cup: destroyed by Hermione w/basilisk tooth (the venom survived?)
5. Ravenclaw diadem: destroyed by Crabbe's fiendfyre
6. Harry himself was holding part of Voldemort's soul...was that just a fraction of the 7th part?
7. The snake Nagini: killed by Neville with the sword of Gryffindor (I guess the Goblin didn't get to keep it after all?)
8. Voldemort himself...I'm thinking he had to have had some left inside himself...but it was less than a full 1/7th because he had given some up it up to Harry? *eyeroll*
I really did enjoy the book a lot, but I do think that JKR forgot that her audience was primarily children, I was glad (of course) that she didn't kill off our core three major characters,
It is a great series IMO, and will last hundreds of years.
So it has been a full week, I will post under the cut (do NOT open it if you haven't read the whole book!)
Harry Potter and the Death Hallows
Reflections on JKR's very harsh final book... But we'll get to her being very cruel and hard hearted (and a little short sighted). Let us start at the beginning:
I kinda wish I hadn't seen the movie so soon before reading the book, because I don't picture the actors as the characters and when I read the book immediately after a film I start to, and I don't' want to (my Remis Lupin is MUCH better looking).
Chapter 1 - I thought that Dudley's change of heart was very sweet, there was a theme here about redemption that extended to a lot of different characters, and I always appreciate that.
The 7 Potters ruse was a surprise, and of course ALL the good laughs belonged to the Weasley twins. But I thought that starting off with killing Hedwig was very rough, I really felt that ripping George's ear from his head would have been plenty for the beginning of the book (and I think that JKR forgets that many of her young fans have pets, and killing a pet is going to hit home for all of them).
My first tears were shed for George's ear (and the pain he was experiencing).
Chapter 5 - JKR kills off Mad Eye Moody! Ack... we are not even 100 pages into the book and she is really getting awfully violent.
I ended up creating a chart to keep track of the Horcruxs, because it started to feel like there were too many of them... More on that later.
I loved the tie ins all the way back to the first book (when Harry caught his first snitch in his mouth), that was REALLY clever, and funny!
Chapter 23 - JKR kills Dobby, and okay... I liked that this opened up the mind of the Goblin Griphook and made him willing to work w/Harry (but frankly, having Harry save Griphook was really enough...). I wept long and hard for Dobby.
Chapter 31 - JKR kills Fred. FRED! I love Fred! I am sorry, but this is so wrong. Clearly Percy should have bought it, Fred was more adept at fighting and defending himself, and is the funnier more valuable character! I had had hopes of a spin off series of Fred & George, but you can't do that (even in prequel form) when your readers know that the character has no future: it is too painful. I really do resent the death of Fred. This was too harsh.
Chapter 32 - JKR kills Snape, this was the death I had expected... but I hadn't expected it to be so cold bloodedly done in a back room - I was expecting something with a little more public heroism. And I'm really not sure that the whole pensive thing with the prolonged fan fic of Snape's undying love for Lily, was actually very effective storytelling.... But she did give everyone an hour break, and the pensive thing was long established, so I guess she gets away with it.
Chapter 33 - JKR kills Lupin and Tonks, jeez Louise...we really needed to orphan Teddy? Sigh
Basically too many people died, and far from amping up the threat level, Fred's death depressed me to much that I was having trouble caring about the rest. I think she killed too many characters.
By the time we get to Chapter 35, I was feeling emotionally spent, and not really caring whether Harry was alive or not, it had been over-kill...literally.
Chapter 36 - I loved the business w/Neville offing the snake, but I thought that having the last Horcrux killed off should have more visibly weakened Voldemort, he seemed completely unphased by all of the destroyed horcuxi.
So about Horcrux: I'm not really getting how this works. Voldemort divided his soul into seven parts, right? Am I wrong here? And he created horcrux to make himself immortal because they would be protected....
1. The diary: which Harry destroyed w/basilisk venom
2. The ring which Dumbledor destroyed w/the sword of Gryffindor.
3. The locket (wow I can't believe how long THIS took) destroyed by Ron w/the sword.
4. Hufflepuff cup: destroyed by Hermione w/basilisk tooth (the venom survived?)
5. Ravenclaw diadem: destroyed by Crabbe's fiendfyre
6. Harry himself was holding part of Voldemort's soul...was that just a fraction of the 7th part?
7. The snake Nagini: killed by Neville with the sword of Gryffindor (I guess the Goblin didn't get to keep it after all?)
8. Voldemort himself...I'm thinking he had to have had some left inside himself...but it was less than a full 1/7th because he had given some up it up to Harry? *eyeroll*
I really did enjoy the book a lot, but I do think that JKR forgot that her audience was primarily children, I was glad (of course) that she didn't kill off our core three major characters,
It is a great series IMO, and will last hundreds of years.