That spoilery outpouring...
On the whole, I liked the first half of the book, although it sometimes felt a bit slow, and disliked much of the second half.
Things I liked:
*The desperation pervading the first half, where the Death Eaters always seem to out-think the Trio
*Breaking away from the school timetable worked well
*Hermione's pragmatic approach to protecting her parents
*Kreacher, mostly, though the end was a bit saccharine
*Dumbledore's backstory, especially the Skeeter version, and super-especially the fact that Skeeter's version wasn't as far out as all that
*Luna & her father
*Trelawney
*Molly!
*Draco & Narcissa
*Oh, and the whole goblin possessions thing. Beautifully dwarvish.
Things I hated:
*All the infodumping towards the end
*The whole over-complex idea of the Hallows
*Snape's unrequited love for Lily, despite the fact I'd predicted it (although the way he expressed it during her lifetime felt right)
*Lupin's death, ditto (and after all the Lupin character assassination...)
*Tonks' death, despite the fact it surprised me
*The manner of Snape's death
*The lack of anti-Voldemort Slytherins
*St Potter
*The epilogue
On the whole (again), significantly less bad than I had feared. More coherent thoughts, perhaps, when I'm more awake...
Things I liked:
*The desperation pervading the first half, where the Death Eaters always seem to out-think the Trio
*Breaking away from the school timetable worked well
*Hermione's pragmatic approach to protecting her parents
*Kreacher, mostly, though the end was a bit saccharine
*Dumbledore's backstory, especially the Skeeter version, and super-especially the fact that Skeeter's version wasn't as far out as all that
*Luna & her father
*Trelawney
*Molly!
*Draco & Narcissa
*Oh, and the whole goblin possessions thing. Beautifully dwarvish.
Things I hated:
*All the infodumping towards the end
*The whole over-complex idea of the Hallows
*Snape's unrequited love for Lily, despite the fact I'd predicted it (although the way he expressed it during her lifetime felt right)
*Lupin's death, ditto (and after all the Lupin character assassination...)
*Tonks' death, despite the fact it surprised me
*The manner of Snape's death
*The lack of anti-Voldemort Slytherins
*St Potter
*The epilogue
On the whole (again), significantly less bad than I had feared. More coherent thoughts, perhaps, when I'm more awake...