Wrapped in a Golden Light

[owens_mom]

I can't believe it has been less than a week since I got the book.

I really really loved it, I did. I had quibbles, to be sure, and we all know the flaws, things that didn't work, but to me there was much beauty and sadness and while some things may not have happened as I thought they would play out, I wasn't disappointed by them.

I think I have a

Comments

[owens_mom]

It's silly, but it does sort of hurt feelings to see it, and her, being bashed.

I know, I try and tell myself not to take it too seriously, and then I do anyway. :)

[scrtkpr]

Good point! You're right, I've seen the same criticisms from those who loved it and those who hated it. For the most part, I mean. There are a few issues--revelations about Dumbledore's character, the way the deaths were handled, the epilogue...that my f-list did seem fairly divided on.

[scrtkpr]

Yes, some people did. They weren't in the majority, but I've seen a few, "Aww, that was sweet. What a nice ending. I'm glad they're happy" types of posts.

I'm all for the EWE approach, though. Unless we're writing AS/S. Hahaha!

[norton_gale]

I really liked the book and was thrilled to read it, especially the last few pre-epilogue chapters which I think are up there with JKR's best work, but I chose to focus on criticism in my review as I thought that was a more interesting angle. Plus, I'm a born complainer. :)

[owens_mom]

Yeah, I mean, I have certainly done my share of WTFery with my friends over the book, I'm not saying I didn't have a bad thing to say about it, but as I kept reading comments -- esp. the kind about actual writing, theme, lack of tying things up neatly, etc -- I was like wow, am I just easily pleased?

And certainly, certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion and feelings, but when I'd read stuff like "Snape would never ever harbor so much feeling for Lily after all that time, we have all had first crushes but to last that long and be that significant? No way, never gonna happen, totally stupid/inconceivable/massively retarded/ruined the entire book." I'm like, really? Time to slink off to read it again because apparently I'm the only one that liked it... LOL

[norton_gale]

I enjoyed the Snape/Lily thing - I thought it made a lot of sense, and I just loved "Look...at...me..." :)

People in fandom have high expectations and we all think we could do a better job than JKR, LOL. When I read the first 6 books, I wasn't in the fandom. Now reading the 7th book as a slasher/fanfic writer, I was mostly thinking," Damn, not nearly enough Draco!" though JKR did give us more Draco than we got of a lot of other characters, and even put him in the epilogue. Oh yeah, and he was the true master of the Elder Wand and Harry's heart. So, I'm totally rambling here, but I found it somewhat satisfying on a shippy level yet not as much as HBP. Besides the H/D subtext, though, there was a lot to appreciate about this book, and I do look forward to future reads.

[owens_mom]

Ah, that would make it a lot different, I would think. I wish we could make a fandom wide poll as to when people started reading the books vs. how long into the fic. I didn't get really into it until after HBP, though I'd read a few here and there after OOTP.

[scrtkpr]

I thought wow, did I totally miss these huge overarching problems? Am I too simple a reader? Am I easily impressed? Does not finding these flaws doom me to be a crappy writer?

I kind of felt like that too! lol Because I did notice some of the same thing others were criticizing, but I really enjoyed the book, and I tended to just shrug those parts off rather than become irritated by them.

Really, I mainly felt lame for reading the book like a shameless H/D shipper, paying more attention to mentions of Draco's wand than to pacing or plausibility. Haha.

If you're interested in another reaction post where problems were noted but there was much enthusiasm and love for the book, read here (you'll love it for the song quotes!):

http://furiosity.livejournal.com/403388.html

[scrtkpr]

thing=things

And this is also a fun read (furiosity picking apart yet delighting in chapters 1-12):

http://furiosity.livejournal.com/404388.html

[owens_mom]

I think I skipped hers because I thought they'd be too mean *bag*

[owens_mom]

Whee! Plasticine!

Thanks, It did make me feel better as well. :D (I wish my period would come so I could pull my head out of my ass)

[annafugazzi]

Count me in as another person who was thrilled with the book and is a bit bummed out seeing it panned. I agree with most of the criticisms - but then I look at my ten-year-old, who's thrilled to be reading it, and I get all happy again.

I even liked the Epilogue. In a "that's that" kind of way. I will of course pretend it doesn't exist and of course roll my eyes at the ff.ness of it, but I thought it was cute. And I know that as a kid I would've been thrilled to read it. Lookit! Harry and Ginny did get married! And they had three kids! And Ron and Hermione lived HEA! And Draco's going bald! Wheee!

I'm with you. It was a great book. Not exactly Shakespeare, but whatever. Then again, in his time, Shakespeare was not exactly Shakespeare either ;)

[owens_mom]

Yay! I mean, its not supposed to be Shakespeare. I thought as I read it that my god she has crammed even more stuff into the story and its so fast and wild and confusing and not easy for them and... *gulps for air* I really could barely put it down.