Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling

harry potter and the deathly hallows
jk rowling
c. 2007
784 pages






Ok, I will be for real real and not for play play and admit that not only do I absolutely love Harry Potter, but I was so totally at Barnes and Nobles at midnight getting my book. I still have my little paper bracelet on my wrist saying I preordered my book, though I suppose that's kind of gross. I did not in any way want to put that book down until I finished it. Sunday afternoon I was done, and crying. In a small attempt to save a little of my dignity, I want all to know that I did NOT dress up for the event.

There's so much that I could say on the subject of the last Harry Potter book. First let me say that I hope no one who has not finished it is reading this as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. For the Harry Potter books in general, I absolutely love how much attention to detail there is. There's no way any of these books could be ones where you just skim over some of the descriptions and rely on the conversation to move the story along. Otherwise you miss things. Important things. Things that don't show until a few books later. For example the flippant way Sirius Black was introduced in the very first chapter of the very first book: Hagrid mentioning he had borrowed his flying motorcycle. Sirius did not become an actual character until two books later.

For this book in particular, I am torn in two ways. I feel that it what was told in the story was imperative. There was no way around it. However, I did miss the familiarity of the school year and the simple concerns of adolescents paralleling the overwhelming fear of a much bigger evil.

I have heard many people complain that there was no full turn around for the Malfoys, that there was no real act of redemtion. Yes, Narcissa pronounced Harry dead when she knew he wasn't, but that was in no way an act of repentance for the evil she and her family had been involved in, it was an act of concern for nothing other than the well-being of her son. I think many people felt the Malfoy's should have realized their wrong doings and joined the fight against Voldemort, but I definitely did not see that. They chose the dark side. They believe in what he stood for. A redemtion would make no sense.

There was one small moment that I felt was wrong when I read it, and that was the death of Fred Weasley. I read what was written on the page and thought to myself, "no, she means Percy." It should have been Percy. He had just returned to his family after almost three years of neglect. Yes, part of me wanting it to be Percy and not Fred probably stems from Fred being my favorite characted. I wept. I have never cried while reading a Harry Potter book (or really any book), but when Fred died I couldn't hold it in. And so there may be some bias in my opinion, but the beautiful irony would have been there, Percy's return to his family only to die beside them, fighting what he had for so long refused to believe.

One last problem I had with the book was that I wish we could have seen more of the coping and rebuilding. Though that I suppose would have been anti climactic.

I loved this book. I thought it was an incredibly end to an incredible journey.

5/5