Deathly Hallows
Deathly Hallows was rather disappointing. I never read the leaked version, but I saw spoilers and thought that it was fake. Oh well....
There were parts that I liked, but the whole book could have been put together much better. The whole sequence of Harry, Hermione and Ron living in the wild was boring.
Having Snape's past shown was a good idea, but he just seemed so lame. "Always"??? This is not canon Snape. Now, a Snape/Lilly background is fine, but Snape needs to be in character. And why was his patronus a doe? We've never been told that Lilly's patronus or animagus was a doe. I suppose Lilly had to be represented as a doe because James was a stag and this is a great way of showing that she's important in her own right, not just as James' wife (like Ginny and Harry, in fact).
I don't see why JKR didn't use the veil, the locked door or something in the Dept. of Mysteries. They're already established in the story and it seemed as though we were being set up to learn more about them, but they completely dissappear. Instead, the Deathly Hallows come out of nowhere are a "key part' of the book and then end up being rather insignificant. Harry could have kept using his cloak as usual without it being a Deathly Hallow and the stone didn't really affect the plot. That leaves only one Deathly Hallow that was necessary in the plot. Even the way Harry became its rightful owner was questionable. He only had to disarm its owner of another wand? Well, I can accept that, but then Harry's wand took in some of Voldemort's powers and Harry's blood protection is stronger than ever? It really is convenient that all the interactions between Harry and Voldemort were "realms of magic hitherto unknown and untested."
Albus Severus...no. Just no.
I was disappointed with Harry's interaction with Dumbledore. After all that he learned, I would have thought there would be a bit more than Harry being immediately okay with it.
I did like:
Narcissa's actions at the end
the parts with Kreacher and Dobby
chapter one
the bad side of Dumbledore shown
at least one chapter centered on Snape, but where was he for the rest of the book?
Neville leading the revolt