I'm going to write a blog entry about my reactions and thoughts on Harry Potter 7, having now read it completely and digested it all. There are things I
liked and disliked, open ends still dangling apart and flaws that leaped from the pages at me that I am still wondering about. I'll begin with the
negative - and don't get me wrong, I loved this book - but it was not perfect. The past six were, in my opinion,
perfect. This one had parts planned for quite some time, however, that dated back to the days before Rowling was as
good of an author as she is today, and those in my opinion lowered the quality of the plot. Mainly things like setting. Read on and you will see what I
mean... if you haven't read the book, turn away now.
....
last chance.
...
Dislikes
- The epilogue sucked. There is no way of conveying how disappointed I was by it, really - as described so eloquently by some members of the forum "Leaky Lounge" - "it was like bad fanfiction", "so sweet it almost sent me into a diabetic coma".... the list trails on. Fans did not like the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, unfortunately. At least, the ones who expressed opinion on it . I'll start with the obvious loose ends here - Teddy Lupin is on the Platform why? He should be nearing 20 years old at the time of this and has no good reason to be on Platform 9 3/4. And who is Victoire? What is her importance? What on earth possessed Hermione to allow one of her children to be named Hugo? Why did Ron take a driving test if he can apparate? Why are none of the characters acting like themselves, with the slight exception of Ron?
I was hoping the epilogue would be more like a narrator listing off what became of everyone after the events of book 7. "Luna and Dean Thomas married and had two kids. Luna eventually found a real Crumple-Horned Snorkack and made millions of galleons from the discovery. McGonagall retired from teaching shortly after the last battle. Arthur and Molly took up basket weaving in their spare time and travelled the world. Hagrid continued to teach Grawp etiquette and the two toured the country raising awareness about the threatened status of the giant race. Harry raised Ted Lupin (who showed no signs of being related in any way to a werewolf except for sever irritability on full moons) with the aid of Ron and Hermione, and a few years after book 7 married Ginny." Being that Rowling is much more creative than I am, she could have obviously crapped out something three times more brilliant than that and slapped in onto the end and in doing so pleased thousands of fans. But instead... we get to read about "Albus Severus Potter" (who I kept picturing as a miniature Dumbledore, which was disturbing in many ways) who was scared about going to Hogwarts, and a confusing scene where the reader is not sure whether Harry and his friends are on the Express or if there is no Express anymore, something about carriages I think was thrown in there.
- OK OK, enough ranting about the epilogue. I was also surprised by the setting of the battle between Harry and big V, and how cheesy and cliched it was. Everyone is standing around in a well lit room watching them try to psyche each other out. Sigh. The battle should have been placed somewhere mysterious, for example - in a secret place that Voldemort took Harry took by side-along apparition or something like that, where they were alone to duke it out. There should have been a few witnesses, who would be fighting (bellatrix and the three girls would have done well, along with another DE for Ron to fight) and the battle would be a tad more exciting than one single killing curse and a disarming jinx.
....
Obviously I had a lot of expectations for this battle but I was also expecting to be pleasantly shocked with something even better than my prediction - but instead the mystery about Voldemort that makes him scary is taken away by this scene inside Hogwarts (was it the Entrance Hall, or the Great Hall?) and he is defeated by a backfiring curse.
Now, in lord of the rings, I believe it is a character that is not as important as Aragorn or Legolas that ends up killing Sauron, isn't it? Some girl? That was a nice twist. Ginny Weasley stepping from the shadows and performing her most powerful Bat-Bogey Hex yet that distracted Voldemort long enough for Harry to deliver the final stab with Godric Gryffindor's sword would have been perfect. Or he could have performed a patronus so strong that it zapped the evil inside Voldemort, which in turn killed him (since he was all evil) - patronuses ward off evil, and are commonly used against dementors - but wouldn't it have been neat it there was a second use for them that no one had thought of?
- Why did she make it so that Voldemort could fly? and Snape too? Without a broom or anything? Very strange.
Likes
- I probably seem very bitter about this book, but I am not bitter about most of it. The flight from Privet Drive to the Burrow was utterly GENIUS. I loved that scene. The seven potters was great too, because seven is a magical number. I loved the suspense of not knowing who had died and who was still alive. I HATED that Hedwig died, but I understand why and think it was a clever move. She was one of my favorites.
- I loved the wedding. I liked Kingsley's patronus warning, and that entire scene, and how Hermione saved Ron and Harry's butts by whisking them to safety. That was all very well thought out and perfect.
- The Taboo idea was great too. Just great.
- Raise your hand if you could not put your book down when the doe patronus led them to the frozen pond! I couldn't either. The whole Snape under cover thing was a great way to finish him off. I enjoyed the scenes in the Pensieve from him, although I wonder how to managed to bundle all of them together so quickly when he was forking them over.
Loose Ends...
- Where did the Dursleys go after the end?
- Was Hogwarts rebuilt?
- Why was the veil introduced and made to seem so important.... and then never brought back? I liked the idea of throwing the Horcruxes through the veil as a means of destroying them, and was half expecting that to happen. But instead, Hermione and Ron take a quick jaunt to the Chamber of Secrets for basilisk teeth. Oh, okay. The Chamber of Secrets. Of course. Because the venom wouldn't have dried up after five years of the giant snake being dead? aaand... the entrance opened at the sound of random hissing, not true Parseltongue? Add this scene to my list of dislikes. There were many better ways to destroy the horcruxes than THAT.
- What did Dudley see when the dementors attacked him?
- Why was Bathilda Bagshot discovered as dead shortly after Harry and Hermione were almost strangled by the snake inside of her, when no one noticed she had kicked it for months before they showed up?
- And... what happened to Umbridge? I thought we were going to see more bad things happen to her. She was stunned by Harry, but... that was the extent of her pain.
So... those are my thoughts on the book. Anyone is free to add their own. There are more but I can't think of them at the moment... so I will end here.
....
last chance.
...
Dislikes
- The epilogue sucked. There is no way of conveying how disappointed I was by it, really - as described so eloquently by some members of the forum "Leaky Lounge" - "it was like bad fanfiction", "so sweet it almost sent me into a diabetic coma".... the list trails on. Fans did not like the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, unfortunately. At least, the ones who expressed opinion on it . I'll start with the obvious loose ends here - Teddy Lupin is on the Platform why? He should be nearing 20 years old at the time of this and has no good reason to be on Platform 9 3/4. And who is Victoire? What is her importance? What on earth possessed Hermione to allow one of her children to be named Hugo? Why did Ron take a driving test if he can apparate? Why are none of the characters acting like themselves, with the slight exception of Ron?
I was hoping the epilogue would be more like a narrator listing off what became of everyone after the events of book 7. "Luna and Dean Thomas married and had two kids. Luna eventually found a real Crumple-Horned Snorkack and made millions of galleons from the discovery. McGonagall retired from teaching shortly after the last battle. Arthur and Molly took up basket weaving in their spare time and travelled the world. Hagrid continued to teach Grawp etiquette and the two toured the country raising awareness about the threatened status of the giant race. Harry raised Ted Lupin (who showed no signs of being related in any way to a werewolf except for sever irritability on full moons) with the aid of Ron and Hermione, and a few years after book 7 married Ginny." Being that Rowling is much more creative than I am, she could have obviously crapped out something three times more brilliant than that and slapped in onto the end and in doing so pleased thousands of fans. But instead... we get to read about "Albus Severus Potter" (who I kept picturing as a miniature Dumbledore, which was disturbing in many ways) who was scared about going to Hogwarts, and a confusing scene where the reader is not sure whether Harry and his friends are on the Express or if there is no Express anymore, something about carriages I think was thrown in there.
- OK OK, enough ranting about the epilogue. I was also surprised by the setting of the battle between Harry and big V, and how cheesy and cliched it was. Everyone is standing around in a well lit room watching them try to psyche each other out. Sigh. The battle should have been placed somewhere mysterious, for example - in a secret place that Voldemort took Harry took by side-along apparition or something like that, where they were alone to duke it out. There should have been a few witnesses, who would be fighting (bellatrix and the three girls would have done well, along with another DE for Ron to fight) and the battle would be a tad more exciting than one single killing curse and a disarming jinx.
....
Obviously I had a lot of expectations for this battle but I was also expecting to be pleasantly shocked with something even better than my prediction - but instead the mystery about Voldemort that makes him scary is taken away by this scene inside Hogwarts (was it the Entrance Hall, or the Great Hall?) and he is defeated by a backfiring curse.
Now, in lord of the rings, I believe it is a character that is not as important as Aragorn or Legolas that ends up killing Sauron, isn't it? Some girl? That was a nice twist. Ginny Weasley stepping from the shadows and performing her most powerful Bat-Bogey Hex yet that distracted Voldemort long enough for Harry to deliver the final stab with Godric Gryffindor's sword would have been perfect. Or he could have performed a patronus so strong that it zapped the evil inside Voldemort, which in turn killed him (since he was all evil) - patronuses ward off evil, and are commonly used against dementors - but wouldn't it have been neat it there was a second use for them that no one had thought of?
- Why did she make it so that Voldemort could fly? and Snape too? Without a broom or anything? Very strange.
Likes
- I probably seem very bitter about this book, but I am not bitter about most of it. The flight from Privet Drive to the Burrow was utterly GENIUS. I loved that scene. The seven potters was great too, because seven is a magical number. I loved the suspense of not knowing who had died and who was still alive. I HATED that Hedwig died, but I understand why and think it was a clever move. She was one of my favorites.
- I loved the wedding. I liked Kingsley's patronus warning, and that entire scene, and how Hermione saved Ron and Harry's butts by whisking them to safety. That was all very well thought out and perfect.
- The Taboo idea was great too. Just great.
- Raise your hand if you could not put your book down when the doe patronus led them to the frozen pond! I couldn't either. The whole Snape under cover thing was a great way to finish him off. I enjoyed the scenes in the Pensieve from him, although I wonder how to managed to bundle all of them together so quickly when he was forking them over.
Loose Ends...
- Where did the Dursleys go after the end?
- Was Hogwarts rebuilt?
- Why was the veil introduced and made to seem so important.... and then never brought back? I liked the idea of throwing the Horcruxes through the veil as a means of destroying them, and was half expecting that to happen. But instead, Hermione and Ron take a quick jaunt to the Chamber of Secrets for basilisk teeth. Oh, okay. The Chamber of Secrets. Of course. Because the venom wouldn't have dried up after five years of the giant snake being dead? aaand... the entrance opened at the sound of random hissing, not true Parseltongue? Add this scene to my list of dislikes. There were many better ways to destroy the horcruxes than THAT.
- What did Dudley see when the dementors attacked him?
- Why was Bathilda Bagshot discovered as dead shortly after Harry and Hermione were almost strangled by the snake inside of her, when no one noticed she had kicked it for months before they showed up?
- And... what happened to Umbridge? I thought we were going to see more bad things happen to her. She was stunned by Harry, but... that was the extent of her pain.
So... those are my thoughts on the book. Anyone is free to add their own. There are more but I can't think of them at the moment... so I will end here.
