Spoiler FREE Review
The best book she's written, and the best story I've ever heard, exccpt maybe Tolkien. This is incredible. It had me floored. Every turn I was right and wrong at the some time. It was terrifying, exhilarating and more than a little poignant. I will miss the long waits, the constant guessing and theorizing, the hype, the uproar... But I'm really
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Because it is all connected to itself and the continuity is incredible.
Because this particular book (and before this particular book, I would have agreed with you, Justine, that Harry only goes so far) was brilliant in that everyone was both wrong and right about what would happen at the same time.
Because it parallels our world so wonderfully and yet accidentally, without really taking any kind of political stance.
Because I've grown up with it, and I have a particular soft-spot for it, in other words yes, I'm biased.
Because it, unlike so many other wonderful series, does not leave me hanging on, wishing there were more. It has real closure, clear, obvious closure. There is not room for a prequel, there is no place for a sequel. There is room for fanfiction, but there is always room for fanfiction.
Because Jo Rowling is one of the most centered and gracious famous people I've ever come across.
Because it surprised me, it exceeded my expectations just as it fulfilled them.
And because it gave me a vast world I can almost truly believe in, something which I have only ever encountered before in Tolkien's writing.
I know that as time wears on, and I read more of Dickens and Henry James, Austen and Fitzgerald, the Bronte sisters and Shakespeare, and Diana Wynn Jones, and all of those other brilliant writers... Harry Potter will fade. Not in my esteem for it, but in my memory of it, in my sense of excitement and thrill at turning the pages. But as it sits, it has had such an influence on my life and the lives of our generation and our parents that it goes much farther than one might think...
Most likely my children will read it and like it but have other favorite books and they will not really comprehend how Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore have affected me, because they will never have to wait for the next book to know what happens next. They will never get to sit up online talking to someone on the other side of the country who they've never met about why they think Harry is or isn't a Horcrux. Because everyone will know... They won't have to justify themselves, search the books for clues, scour them for evidence of a new theory, hoping to be the next person to come up with some brilliant answer to the world's questions. Someone will tell them, "this is how it happens." And that's that.
Really, when I call it the best story I've ever heard I refer to the story. Not to the writing, but to the story itself, (thus why I've HEARD, not READ) and how it ends. It is the ending that impresses me, that made me jump up in down inside and scream a little, and cry and then hope against hope that it would turn out differently than it seemed to be going... and it did but not in any way that I expected and yet exactly what I'd expected all along.
So, that's maybe 1/1000th why it means so much to me. There's much more (memories, tradition, growing up) that just winds it around my heart. They cannot be explained, nor do they justify any claim of "better" or "best." But you asked why I love it so much, not why I think it is the best story, and I have said as much as I could. Does that suffice?
meow,
>^~^<
emily
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