Obligatory HBP Post
Well, I got my copy around 2 this afternoon and read it in a little over three hours, with a short break for more soda.
Of course, since it's very expected, Yay! Charlie! He wasn't in the book at all so he can still be my Charlie. Though we do now know he is muscular and the twins are scared of him *grin*
What I liked:
* The backstory of Riddle. LOVED it! The pensieve scenes, learning about Tom, the Horcrux (though that name makes me giggle like a 12 year old), etc.
* Narcissa, Snape, Bellatrix. True, Cissy had me cringing and thinking of bad fic nicknames, but I liked the interaction and the showing of her real devotion to her husband and son
* Draco actually got something to do. It was nice seeing him with something that let his character develop a bit.
* Blaise! He's canon hot. True, he's not how my mental image had been, but, hey, adaptable. And there was Blaise and Hermione interaction during the suppers with Slughorn so that's fun.
* Harry. He's matured (maybe a bit fast but, hey, it's fiction) and was thinking and I liked how he developed.
* RAB so must be Regulus! The slight snark in that note, the reference to him at least once or twice during the previous part of the book. Must be Regulus, which makes me squee in anticipation of book 7
* The Trio. I am a huge trio shipper, whether it's just friendship or more. I love their interaction and the end with Ron and Hermione vowing to go with Harry made me grin like a dork
* Snape. I don't know, but I am not in the "Snape is evil" camp at all. I knew the spoiler goin in so I might have been paying more attention to slight things, but I got hints that DD knew about the vow and it was probably arranged between he and Snape. I may be wrong, but that's how I took things.
* Neville and Luna. So adorable. I really enjoyed them both for the slight bit we got to see of them
* Bill. The werewolves. The history of Remus. Not a huge Fleur fan at all but I like her at the hospital. (even if my B/Hr shipper is seeing her breaking it off before the wedding and....) Remus/Tonks was okay but, again, she sort of told us and didn't actually show us much of anything so it's a "oh, okay"
* Twins/Hermione! OMG...so many bunnies now. LOL...She's starting to respect their intelligence and they're doing well with the shop. Just made my inner shipper squee.
What I didn't like so much:
* Harry/Ginny was okay, but I don't know. The entire thing played like a really mediocre fanfic at times, as did the entire Ron/Lavendar and Ron/Hermione bit. I really thought most of that was not overly developed and I didn't really believe it, even it was expected. And Ginny still read a bit "too perfect and wonderful" to be totally likeable for me. I'm all for strong women (one reason I've usually admired Hermione) but a flaw or two is nice, too.
* Hermione through bits of it. I know it can't be OOC if it's written by JKR and is canon, but, several times I got totally OOC Hermione. I mean, if I'd written a fic where Hermione cheated and put a spell on someone just so Ron would make the quidditch team? I'd have "OMG! OOC!" comments like woah! I still love Hermione and the Ron/Hermione was cute, (It makes me smile a goofy smile, which is always nice, even if I have issues with it ever actually lasting since they have so very little in common other than UST and Harry) but it's like JKR sort of had to dumb her down or make her typical girly girl just for them to interact in a romantic way and that sort of annoyed me. I know Hermione is a girl and a teenager etc. but, I don't know...there were just several times I was like "That's Hermione? WTF?" and felt like soon she'd be going to get a makeover to attract Ron's attention from Lav, which was just an excuse to make her jealous AFTER she'd asked him to go to Slughorn's party with her etc. I don't know. Parts of Hermione's characterization left a bad taste in my mouth, I guess. I think it was mostly the cheating with Quidditch thing. The rest of it could be girly girl behavior that is typical of most 17 year olds, I guess. But her cheating because, what? Did she think Ron couldn't make the team on his own merit? If she is infatuated/loves him, why wouldn't she have confidence that he could do it without her cheating to help? I dunno. Again, on a second read, she may feel normal. It was just a few minor moments but, yeah, bad taste for those few. *shrug* Mostly her reactions around Ron which could be "I've got a crush" behavior but she just didn't feel right to me several times. Still love her!
* Too little Neville and Luna. They were adorable and deserved more of a part. All the silly romance that was sort of thrown in without explanation/development could have been cut down and we could have had more of them.
* Poor treatment of my Zacharias! Silly Gryffindors. If it was a Slytherin treating a Hufflepuff like that, you know they'd be all aghast. Hmph! OH, and the reference to Hepzibah Smith (was that her first name? My memory so sucks) and Zacharias being a Smith has me wondering if that's just coincidence or what.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I'm sure there is more I liked and didn't like as I read but those are the things that mostly stood out. I loved the training, friendship, Harry's obsession with Draco (and I know the D/H shippers on my F-list are squeeing at the moment! LOL), Draco using Hermione's coin trick for his nefarious plans, the history of Riddle (who so fascinates me), the appearance of Narcissa and Bellatrix, Snape's history, and Harry, himself, but the romance subplots felt rather poorly done and tossed in and rather cliche and not in a well done way. Just my opinion, of course. I wish we'd heard more about the actual War, but I liked the little bits tossed in with reference to reading the Daily Prophet etc. And yay Neville for having a new wand. And boo for no more ice cream in Diagon Alley.
So, yeah, I'd give it 8 out of 10, maybe...possibly 7 because of the "wait, is this FF.Net or HBP I'm reading?" moments. But, hey, my OTPs survived (Charlie/Hermione, Lucius/Narcissa, Draco/Blaise, Twins/Hermione, Harry/Ron/Hermione) so I'm quite happy on that fandom writing level. And, again, this is just my opinion and probably not shared by hardly anyone else so no "OMG you didn't give it a 10? Best book evah!" comments cause, hey, I enjoyed it but it wasn't perfect. Nothing usually is. And, overall, I think it was a great prelude to the final chapter. *nods*
Of course, since it's very expected, Yay! Charlie! He wasn't in the book at all so he can still be my Charlie. Though we do now know he is muscular and the twins are scared of him *grin*
What I liked:
* The backstory of Riddle. LOVED it! The pensieve scenes, learning about Tom, the Horcrux (though that name makes me giggle like a 12 year old), etc.
* Narcissa, Snape, Bellatrix. True, Cissy had me cringing and thinking of bad fic nicknames, but I liked the interaction and the showing of her real devotion to her husband and son
* Draco actually got something to do. It was nice seeing him with something that let his character develop a bit.
* Blaise! He's canon hot. True, he's not how my mental image had been, but, hey, adaptable. And there was Blaise and Hermione interaction during the suppers with Slughorn so that's fun.
* Harry. He's matured (maybe a bit fast but, hey, it's fiction) and was thinking and I liked how he developed.
* RAB so must be Regulus! The slight snark in that note, the reference to him at least once or twice during the previous part of the book. Must be Regulus, which makes me squee in anticipation of book 7
* The Trio. I am a huge trio shipper, whether it's just friendship or more. I love their interaction and the end with Ron and Hermione vowing to go with Harry made me grin like a dork
* Snape. I don't know, but I am not in the "Snape is evil" camp at all. I knew the spoiler goin in so I might have been paying more attention to slight things, but I got hints that DD knew about the vow and it was probably arranged between he and Snape. I may be wrong, but that's how I took things.
* Neville and Luna. So adorable. I really enjoyed them both for the slight bit we got to see of them
* Bill. The werewolves. The history of Remus. Not a huge Fleur fan at all but I like her at the hospital. (even if my B/Hr shipper is seeing her breaking it off before the wedding and....) Remus/Tonks was okay but, again, she sort of told us and didn't actually show us much of anything so it's a "oh, okay"
* Twins/Hermione! OMG...so many bunnies now. LOL...She's starting to respect their intelligence and they're doing well with the shop. Just made my inner shipper squee.
What I didn't like so much:
* Harry/Ginny was okay, but I don't know. The entire thing played like a really mediocre fanfic at times, as did the entire Ron/Lavendar and Ron/Hermione bit. I really thought most of that was not overly developed and I didn't really believe it, even it was expected. And Ginny still read a bit "too perfect and wonderful" to be totally likeable for me. I'm all for strong women (one reason I've usually admired Hermione) but a flaw or two is nice, too.
* Hermione through bits of it. I know it can't be OOC if it's written by JKR and is canon, but, several times I got totally OOC Hermione. I mean, if I'd written a fic where Hermione cheated and put a spell on someone just so Ron would make the quidditch team? I'd have "OMG! OOC!" comments like woah! I still love Hermione and the Ron/Hermione was cute, (It makes me smile a goofy smile, which is always nice, even if I have issues with it ever actually lasting since they have so very little in common other than UST and Harry) but it's like JKR sort of had to dumb her down or make her typical girly girl just for them to interact in a romantic way and that sort of annoyed me. I know Hermione is a girl and a teenager etc. but, I don't know...there were just several times I was like "That's Hermione? WTF?" and felt like soon she'd be going to get a makeover to attract Ron's attention from Lav, which was just an excuse to make her jealous AFTER she'd asked him to go to Slughorn's party with her etc. I don't know. Parts of Hermione's characterization left a bad taste in my mouth, I guess. I think it was mostly the cheating with Quidditch thing. The rest of it could be girly girl behavior that is typical of most 17 year olds, I guess. But her cheating because, what? Did she think Ron couldn't make the team on his own merit? If she is infatuated/loves him, why wouldn't she have confidence that he could do it without her cheating to help? I dunno. Again, on a second read, she may feel normal. It was just a few minor moments but, yeah, bad taste for those few. *shrug* Mostly her reactions around Ron which could be "I've got a crush" behavior but she just didn't feel right to me several times. Still love her!
* Too little Neville and Luna. They were adorable and deserved more of a part. All the silly romance that was sort of thrown in without explanation/development could have been cut down and we could have had more of them.
* Poor treatment of my Zacharias! Silly Gryffindors. If it was a Slytherin treating a Hufflepuff like that, you know they'd be all aghast. Hmph! OH, and the reference to Hepzibah Smith (was that her first name? My memory so sucks) and Zacharias being a Smith has me wondering if that's just coincidence or what.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I'm sure there is more I liked and didn't like as I read but those are the things that mostly stood out. I loved the training, friendship, Harry's obsession with Draco (and I know the D/H shippers on my F-list are squeeing at the moment! LOL), Draco using Hermione's coin trick for his nefarious plans, the history of Riddle (who so fascinates me), the appearance of Narcissa and Bellatrix, Snape's history, and Harry, himself, but the romance subplots felt rather poorly done and tossed in and rather cliche and not in a well done way. Just my opinion, of course. I wish we'd heard more about the actual War, but I liked the little bits tossed in with reference to reading the Daily Prophet etc. And yay Neville for having a new wand. And boo for no more ice cream in Diagon Alley.
So, yeah, I'd give it 8 out of 10, maybe...possibly 7 because of the "wait, is this FF.Net or HBP I'm reading?" moments. But, hey, my OTPs survived (Charlie/Hermione, Lucius/Narcissa, Draco/Blaise, Twins/Hermione, Harry/Ron/Hermione) so I'm quite happy on that fandom writing level. And, again, this is just my opinion and probably not shared by hardly anyone else so no "OMG you didn't give it a 10? Best book evah!" comments cause, hey, I enjoyed it but it wasn't perfect. Nothing usually is. And, overall, I think it was a great prelude to the final chapter. *nods*