HP 7... my thoughts (SPOILER ALERT!)
Ok so overall I enjoyed the book. However.. my thoughts::
The title: Why the HELL did you call it the Deathly Hallows when in the end, Harry just hid the Wand and lost the Stone? It should have been something like Harry Potter and the Final Horcrux.. maybe the "Deathly Hallows" sounds more frightening and therefore leads everyone to believe Harry will die in the end..
Are you serious? This is where the children's book part of it all comes out, when Harry doesn't fucking die. Boo. He should have died and Ron, Hermione and Ginny and Neville should have defeated Voldemort. I understand the whole Elder Wand vs Harry and the spell backfiring again thing but still. It just seemed like she used the Heavenly King's Cross and Harry's return as an out so she wouldn't have to deal with the angry parents if she killed Harry.
I did like how they showed a different side of Dumbledore. Everyone else in the book had been shown in two lights, both good and bad. But as much as everyone loves Dumbledore and admired him, it was nice to see he was still human, and had made mistakes in life, but was still an overall good person.
I loved the way she portrayed Snape as bad until the very end. It seemed although there was very little mentioned about him throughout the majority of the book except that he had become Headmaster of Hogwarts and then BAM! you see into his memories and see the relationship he had with Lily and.. oh, it was wonderful. She did a great job of leading you to believe one way and then a total 180 with great explainations of everything and Dumbledore's master plan and everything. Very well thought out and explained. At that time I was actually sad to see him die. And I'm really glad that in the end Harry overcame his immense dislike for Snape and it showed that he had finally grown up a bit. (Is it terrible of me to speak this way of Harry? No, because I felt like he was just so immature sometimes. There were times in the books where I just really didn't like him. Granted, he's a teenage boy who survived the Killing Curse and orphaned.. so he was justified in some of the ways he acted at times..)
Anyway--
I liked what Dumbledore left everyone in his will. And as frustrating as it was, how smart would it have been for him to leave detailed instructions? Information is so valuable in the wizarding world as in life so it seems it was smarter for him to leave Harry with clues, as he did every other time and especially in death when the information and objects could have fallen into the wrong hands and been used for evil.
Ministry of Magic::
I was soooo nervous during this whole scene. Especially with Umbridge being included. It was sad and a little reminisent of Nazi Germany with the questioning of wizards and the amount of Muggle in their blood. "the greater good" kind of sounds like something Hitler was going for. Hmmm.. and then Harry and them break the Muggle-borns out.. can you say concentration camp escape?
Potterwatch! Hell yes! Finally, Lee Jordan can speak freely without McGonnagal hushing him. It was a nice laugh after the 200 page lull in the middle of the book.
The name Voldemort being jinxed to find Harry Potter and anyone who did not respect He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and them knowing Harry's inability to not let the name slip was a good way to lead the Death Eaters to Harry. I liked that part :-)
Belltrix torturing Hermione. Fantastic. She always seemed to get out of harms way, and Ron always seemed to get the short end of the stick.
Moral of the story:: Never trust a goblin.
I loved how when Harry arrived at Hogwarts the DA was assembled and waiting for his instruction. Although that's not what he wanted. It was a nice way to show another human flaw, we assume that this is what someone wants us to do and you have only Harry standing there trying to say, Hang on a minute we can't fight until I find this and there's about 20 people standing around, C'mon let's go, we're supposed to fight, why aren't we fighting... I know we've all been in a situation like that where everyone got the message wrong and there's a bunch of people standing around saying the same thing and finally you just have to yell STOP!!
The scene in the Room of Requirement was a little fuzzy, maybe I was tired when I read it. But I was happy to see Harry save Draco and that Crabbe's inability to handle a complicated spell came back to burn his bum.. and a bit more than that :-\
When Harry finally got to the Forest and figured out how to open the Snitch, and his mother, father, Sirius and Lupin are at his side giving him word of encouragement, was I seriously the only one who loved this scene? It was so wonderful.
Choosing Narcissia to check to see if Harry was dead was perfect. It was nice to see the Malfoy's finally regroup as a family and obviously see that following Voldemort all this time was a mistake.
"Harry realises that Draco Malfoy was the true master of the Elder Wand, for it was Draco who had disarmed Dumbledore and thus beaten him in battle, while Snape was acting according to a wandless Dumbledore's wishes when he killed him. Harry subsequently disarmed Draco, and thus, mastery of the Elder Wand has passed to Harry, not to Voldemort. " Oooooh it makes a lot more sense now. Thanks Wikipedia!
"Harry uses the immense power of the Elder Wand to repair his own wand, and elects to return the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's grave instead of keeping it for himself. If he dies a natural death and is not disarmed in battle, the ownership of the Elder Wand will die with him, and it will become an ordinary wand. He also confirms to Dumbledore's portrait that, despite proving himself the only worthy possessor of all the Deathly Hallows, he will not seek out the Stone in the forest. He decides, though, to keep the Invisibility Cloak; in the children's story, the cloak was the wisest choice."
This is what you get for reading the book too fast. This makes a lot more sense now. But I still don't think the Deathly Hallows was the best choice for a title. Oh, Marketing.
Epilogue: Can't decide what I really think. I was so happy to see Harry and Ginny married with 3 kids (Lily *Nimphandora, James *Sirius and Albus Severus) *denotes assumed, unconfirmed middle names And Ron and Hermione together but it all seemed a little too fairy-tale. And Ted with what we all assume is Bill and Fleur's child, Victorie. It does sound a bit French, eh?
But it seems as though it was a little to simple. I mean for the first 17 years of his life Harry has had nothing but crazy, bullshit go on.. but after the death of Voldy, he gets 19 of bliss and gets the girl? Karma, I guess. I don't know seemed a bit too simple. And everyone is mad that they don't know what everyone, except Neville, the prof (good for him!) is doing with their life. It seems like the Epilogue was an afterthought and written rather quickly.
Deaths::
Hedwig-- seriously? Kill the one thing that has been there for Harry nmw? So sad. But I understand, it seems she wouldn't fit very well in the rest of the book and he couldn't have used her while in hiding.
Dobby-- wtf? Kind of hard to believe the terms of this one, and I bawled like a baby. It was almost as sad as Dumbledore's death. Dobby was so sweet and always giving and .. innocent. *sigh*
I think that's all for now. I might re-read and add some more but what are YOUR thoughts or problems with HP 7?