Harry Potter #7

I finally finished reading Deathly Hollows at 2:30am Tuesday morning. I had no plans to stay up that late, but the final hundred or so pages offered nothing even remotely resembling a stopping place, and it's only fitting that I lost sleep at least one night for this book.. as any other time I would have stayed up Friday night/Saturday morning instead and had it finished by Saturday night.

Deathly Hollows is, by far, the best book of the series. It is also not a children's book, whatever the series may have been earlier on. But this one more than any other was worth every minute stolen to hide away and read instead of whatever else I might have done with my time. The others were good, but I was a less critical reader when I initially went through them, and re-reading the first six books in the past two months I discovered parts that didn't live up to my new standards, that dragged or seemed off or missing something, that didn't entirely live up under my criticism, so that I was afraid I would be disappointed with Deathly Hollows. I didn't want to lose the enchantment the books originally had for me.

There were some places where I stopped and said "hey, that was clumsy writing, why didn't the editor fix that?" And there were places and scenes where I do think she led us to expect more than we got. A few, but this is a 700+ page book we're talking about, and despite this and my newly critical style of reading I absolutely loved the book. Rowling plays with and throws away stereotypes, showing plenty of good qualities in some of the bad guys, plenty of bad qualities in the heroes, managing to show how a larger range of characters than I'd ever be willing to deal with all change and grow and react, what their faults and strengths are, building beautifully from the previous books. She told a good story, with twists that completely surprised me, though others I was able to guess from the clues here and there throughout the earlier portions of the book.. and the series. Before this winds up sounding like too much of a love song, I do have criticisms as well, but as they're all more specific and involve spoilers.. oh, what the heck, I'll stop my "non-spoiler" portion here. Everything else below, so if you really don't care what you end up finding out about the book, then highlight to read....

Item one (and my major complaint): Pettigrew's silver hand. It's actions either didn't fit or weren't explained enough. At the very least, Pettigrew should have had a scene in the book where the power showed up earlier, before dealing with Harry, to show the hand's ability to.. I assume.. no, I'm not assuming, I have no idea what it was supposed to do. Help Pettigrew kill? What was included in the power to make it turn on him? Did it just act for his will to hurt/kill people, like it had a life of it's own, it's own desire to kill, and when Pettigrew stopped directing it the hand took action on it's own on the closest person? But he must have been close to plenty of other people and not tried to kill them. Did the hand hate mercy? It seemed.. anti-climatic.. for Pettigrew's debt to Harry to be so randomly paid by the silver hand, without any clue to the readers beyond the knowledge that it's... silver. That was annoying and didn't entirely make sense.

Item two: I want a better redemption for Percy, darn it! He can't just walk back in there and not DO anything! Actually, I thought he should have repented at the last minute, turning around to die to save someone in his family, but I'm sure there would have been other possible ways of showing a decent redemption than.. "oh, oops, I've been a prat, I'm here now, don't hate me, huh?" Then again.. I suppose real life often isn't so dramatic and perfectly arranged, and given that she's done such a good job of making this real in every other way, perhaps it's really much more normal for family members to come back from an argument, no matter what sort, express remorse and say a few things and go on like normal than for one of them to die at the end of every big argument. Still, I wonder if he's the one who got the reprieve..

Item three: I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO GEORGE. And I would have liked to hear from McGonagall again, just once. I'm even a bit curious about the Dursleys.. okay, I don't care about Vernon at all, but maybe Petunia and Dudley.

Item four: I was hoping Draco would get a chance to redeem himself. I wanted to see him make a choice. Well, no, more specifically I wanted to see him make the choice Dumbledore would have had him make a book ago, which he could have once more when he accepted Harry's mercy. But then again, I want a spectacular redemption for everyone who isn't already clearly evil. And he works well as a scared little blustery boy.

Item five: Snape. I was right! (Cue dashed hopes for big revelation scene where everyone suddenly realizes..). It was different, but I'm pleased.

Item six: The walking into death scene was absolutely amazing. Rowling managed to hit upon exactly how hard, and how easy, it can be to believe you're walking into your own death. His feelings and the whole setup were perfect. Also, I don't see how Harry could possibly have been more heroic. After all, he's defeated Voldemort plenty of times already, that one's expected and nothing new.. this was new. This was brilliant, and very well written.

Item seven: Why'd Ron have to go crazy for a while? It really isn't bad for the story, it's just that I hoped they would have a truly unbreakable friendship and loyalty to each other, minor bickering allowed but no running off and abandoning anyone. If nothing else, it would prove someone else out there believes this is possible.

Item eight: Except that Harry's feeling toward Kreacher seem to change unnaturally quickly (nothing beyond the first kind sentance seems to be a struggle), Kreacher was cool. Talk about there being more to a character than initially meets the eye... I liked this turn of events.

Item nine: Lupin and Tonks... so not fair. Not that I didn't guess, when Harry became godfather, especially after comparing himself to Sirius, but then I dismissed the thought because it would be too similar. Silly me.

Item ten: All my guesses at deaths, with the exception of Snape, turned out to be wrong. So did my guess on the "Harry is a Horcrux" debate.

Item eleven: Couldn't she have found a slightly better way for them to figure out R.A.B. then "Oh, look at this sign we never noticed before, hanging right on this door of our house!" I'd accept it if it had been mentioned before.. had it? I just reread the series and if so, still don't remember.. but unmentioned, it seemed far too much like, oh, by the way, this is here because I can't write a better search scene for them. I don't mind any other part of that series of events. Just the actual sign.

Item twelve (and final thought for now): Luna rocks. Also, I really liked Neville's part in this. It's nice to see how he's grown up and what a special wizard he's become.