Book 22. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (SPOILERS)
Book 22. Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows
Author: J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 759
Release date: 2007
This review will be different from the rest in the fact that I will be holding nothing back and it will be an extended review with many spoilers. This is because of how important this series is to me as a person and how so many people do not agree on how it was finished. I personally think she had a dautning task in finishing this series in a way everyone would like. That is impossible to do with this type of long going series. With that being said...
What worked: The same things that always worked. Her writing has gotten so much better with each book. She does an amazing job of surprising you with something at the end of each book. This one was no different when you find out that Snape's Patronus was a doe and that he had tried to protect Harry all of those years out of love of his mother. It was an astonishing moment and one I will never forget. Snape has always been one of the most interesting characters in the book and after he killed Dumbledore in HBP, you hated him all over again. To find out that he was still trying to protect Harry and that Dumbledore was dying was amazing.
The story is about the characters. How Harry, Ron, and Hermione handle life. Finding the Horcruxes, which are fucking cool by the way. Their relationship has always been what the story was about. Then when you add how Harry feels about Ginny to the mix, it become very interesting to read. Ron and Hermione finally kissing was an amazing thing to read, especially how it happened so quickly.
I had read this book twice before and there were still moments I got a bit emotional. Here is a few of them:
Harry and Dudley shaking hands and Dudley not understanding why Harry was leaving.
McGonagall getting eveyrone ready to fight Voldemore even though she knows they cannot defeat him.
Percy coming back.
Ron and Hermione's kiss.
Neville standing up to Voldemort and killing Nagini.
Kreacher fighting and leading the house elves into the battle.
Lupin and Tonks both dying.
Harry and Voldemorts dual and how amazing it was done.
Lastly, seeing Harry name his child Albus Serverus, naming his child after both Dumbledore and Snape.
What did not work. The way that Harry kind of gave up and believed Rita Skeeter's story about Dumbledore bothered me. Only because of how quickly he believed her, even though all she ever did was lie. Also, them running around from tent to tent in hiding, slowed the book down a bit.
Favorite quotes: Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed from his mouth and his his ears and eyes, and Harry knew knew what it was, but did not know what to do-- A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hands by Hermione. Harry lifted the silvery subtance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grips on Harry's robes slackened.
"Look...at...me..." he whispered.
The green eyes found the black, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.
Rating. 9.5 out of 10. Not everyone would agree with me on this, and that is what I love the most about reading. It is ok that people don't agree on everything and the resulting discussion can be life changing at times. There have been few books in my life that have touched me as much as the HP series has. Starting out as a children's story, they grew in stature and content to eventually be something that was very adult and still childlike at the same time. That is amazing and what it has done to the youth of our world and getting them to read again is nothing short of amazing. But the fact that adults love this series just as much is also incredible. So to all of those that do not like the way the book ended, that is ok. You have the right to your own opinion, and that is what makes this such an awesome series.