The Harry Potter Post
I've been finished with the book for over a week, but just haven't had time to post thoughts. Hopefully everyone isn't totally sick of the topic by now. :)
MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!!
Let me start with the deaths and get that out of the way.
I guess when she started off killing Hedwig so early on, I should have known that there would be worse things to come. But damn, she did a lot of killing. I'm not sure what they would have done with Hedwig while they were out hunting horcruxes, but killing her was pretty harsh.
I didn't have a lot of big feelings for Moody, though the thing with his eye in the door made me mad like it was supposed to. I was probably more upset about Dobby, who had really started to grow on me. I think that after so much death early on, I had started to feel safe in the fates of the other characters I liked. The triple punch of losing Fred, Lupin, and Tonks in short order in the battle at Hogwarts really threw me for a loop. I thought after George's ear and the constant fears for Ginny that she was done tormenting the Weasley's. And then Fred... oh Fred, how horrible to lose you! Killing off Lupin and Tonks right after it seemed like they were going to be a happy family at last was almost like something I'd expect from Joss.
Then there's Snape; both a significant death and a whole new subject himself. I didn't like Snape. Finding out that he wasn't really as bad as he seemed didn't change that, but it was enough that I felt bad that he died, especially that way. By the end, I didn't hate him and I did feel sorry for his lot in life.
I actually really liked the way she took Snape, Dumbledore, Harry's Dad, Lupin, Ron, and to some extent, even the Malfoy's and made them all more human than they had ever seemed in books past. No longer icons of good or evil, just people who had all made varying degrees of bad decisions in their lives and were affected by it in different ways. In the end, only Harry and Voldemort stood out as the real hero and villain. Unquestionable forces of right and wrong. Everyone but Voldemort showed some redeeming quality. Everyone but Harry showed some incredibly poor judgment.
It did seem like after the first endless quest, they found and disposed of the rest of the horcruxes in fairly short order. Of course, if they hadn't I suppose the book would have been 3000 pages and I'd still be reading it. I did have a few moments where I thought maybe Harry really would die. The whole part with him walking into the woods with his family surrounding him to sacrifice himself was pretty much the most heart breaking thing ever. Did anyone feel like there was a bit of a religious overtone with that? Of course I'm glad he didn't really die. I'm not sure that the whole convoluted reason why he didn't made much sense, but she had to get out of that corner she painted herself into somehow, and I can't say I can think of any better way to do it.
I thought the epilogue was unnecessary, but maybe as a "children's book" the super happy ending was warranted after all the death and destruction.
Overall, it was as entertaining and engrossing as I'd hoped and wrapped up as many loose ends as anyone could reasonably expect. I'm sorry to see a great series of books come to an end, though crossing one off of the long list of those I follow is something of a relief. If done right, this last installment could make one kick-ass movie!
Oh! One more favorite moment: Molly Weasley taking out Bellatrix. That was just... neat.
MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!!
Let me start with the deaths and get that out of the way.
I guess when she started off killing Hedwig so early on, I should have known that there would be worse things to come. But damn, she did a lot of killing. I'm not sure what they would have done with Hedwig while they were out hunting horcruxes, but killing her was pretty harsh.
I didn't have a lot of big feelings for Moody, though the thing with his eye in the door made me mad like it was supposed to. I was probably more upset about Dobby, who had really started to grow on me. I think that after so much death early on, I had started to feel safe in the fates of the other characters I liked. The triple punch of losing Fred, Lupin, and Tonks in short order in the battle at Hogwarts really threw me for a loop. I thought after George's ear and the constant fears for Ginny that she was done tormenting the Weasley's. And then Fred... oh Fred, how horrible to lose you! Killing off Lupin and Tonks right after it seemed like they were going to be a happy family at last was almost like something I'd expect from Joss.
Then there's Snape; both a significant death and a whole new subject himself. I didn't like Snape. Finding out that he wasn't really as bad as he seemed didn't change that, but it was enough that I felt bad that he died, especially that way. By the end, I didn't hate him and I did feel sorry for his lot in life.
I actually really liked the way she took Snape, Dumbledore, Harry's Dad, Lupin, Ron, and to some extent, even the Malfoy's and made them all more human than they had ever seemed in books past. No longer icons of good or evil, just people who had all made varying degrees of bad decisions in their lives and were affected by it in different ways. In the end, only Harry and Voldemort stood out as the real hero and villain. Unquestionable forces of right and wrong. Everyone but Voldemort showed some redeeming quality. Everyone but Harry showed some incredibly poor judgment.
It did seem like after the first endless quest, they found and disposed of the rest of the horcruxes in fairly short order. Of course, if they hadn't I suppose the book would have been 3000 pages and I'd still be reading it. I did have a few moments where I thought maybe Harry really would die. The whole part with him walking into the woods with his family surrounding him to sacrifice himself was pretty much the most heart breaking thing ever. Did anyone feel like there was a bit of a religious overtone with that? Of course I'm glad he didn't really die. I'm not sure that the whole convoluted reason why he didn't made much sense, but she had to get out of that corner she painted herself into somehow, and I can't say I can think of any better way to do it.
I thought the epilogue was unnecessary, but maybe as a "children's book" the super happy ending was warranted after all the death and destruction.
Overall, it was as entertaining and engrossing as I'd hoped and wrapped up as many loose ends as anyone could reasonably expect. I'm sorry to see a great series of books come to an end, though crossing one off of the long list of those I follow is something of a relief. If done right, this last installment could make one kick-ass movie!
Oh! One more favorite moment: Molly Weasley taking out Bellatrix. That was just... neat.