Re: Hogwarts absencescaraceteraAugust 2 2007, 03:49:56 UTC
I just sort of felt like it didn't need to spend as much time as it did getting to the point. I'm not up in arms about the thing, but this book, like the previous 2 or 3 books, seemed a bit bloated. The camping-across-England stuff went on more than necessary, and I actually felt like it might have benefited from replacing some of that with a "meanwhile, at Hogwarts..." type thing. This one didn't have as much of her recent propensity for introducing pointless side-plots, which is good, and at least she didn't do TOO much making up of new stuff. I mean, obviously the Deathly Hallows of the title are sort of new - nobody's ever heard of them before this book, even if the actual items aren't new - and that seemed kind of unnecessary as well. I mean, Harry & co had plenty on their plates already with Horcruxes without needing to introduce a new set of magical objects to look for.
Also, the wizard-Hitler stuff was weird. I mean the parallels are obvious, right down to "now attention-seeking teenagers draw his symbol on their notebooks for shock value!" and stuff, but it was never really addressed, which makes me wonder if the books are supposed to take place in an alternate reality or in ours, because I mean... nobody can have been ignorant of the actual Holocaust, right? So it can't be in our current reality (just with wizards) or someone would have said something.
This sounds like I'm finding fault with everything - I'm not, I think it was ok and some of it, particularly Neville's character arc, was actually quite good, but you asked about my complaints.
And to answer your question in the earlier comment, I actually read the first 3 while I still lived at home (pre-2000), and I've read the rest either right after or shortly after they came out. I'm not a big Potter fangirl or anything, but I have read them all and my objections are largely that while these books are ok, there are others in the same general genre that deserve this kind of adulation more. Not that these ones suck and nobody should read them, just that I don't get why everyone's SO nuts about them.
Also, the wizard-Hitler stuff was weird. I mean the parallels are obvious, right down to "now attention-seeking teenagers draw his symbol on their notebooks for shock value!" and stuff, but it was never really addressed, which makes me wonder if the books are supposed to take place in an alternate reality or in ours, because I mean... nobody can have been ignorant of the actual Holocaust, right? So it can't be in our current reality (just with wizards) or someone would have said something.
This sounds like I'm finding fault with everything - I'm not, I think it was ok and some of it, particularly Neville's character arc, was actually quite good, but you asked about my complaints.
And to answer your question in the earlier comment, I actually read the first 3 while I still lived at home (pre-2000), and I've read the rest either right after or shortly after they came out. I'm not a big Potter fangirl or anything, but I have read them all and my objections are largely that while these books are ok, there are others in the same general genre that deserve this kind of adulation more. Not that these ones suck and nobody should read them, just that I don't get why everyone's SO nuts about them.
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