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My thoughts on the last Harry Potter book

Just could not resist putting in my 2c about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so here it is. There are plot revelations ahead, so be warned!!

I completed the book in about 8.5 hrs, unfortunately not in one sitting. I started the book at about 11.30 p.m on saturday , ok, I went out on saturday and did not sit around waiting for it to arrive from Amazon.com!!. I was a wee bit disappointed that Amazon did not deliver it on the 21st at 12.01 a.m midnight , but oh well . And I could go on only until  2.30 a.m or so. Dividing my time between various other activities and the book, I finally finished it by 7.30 Sunday evening. Not bad, I thought , considering I didn't give it my undivided attention, but couldn't beat my previous record of 7 hrs (in one sitting) for the Half-blood Prince.

So, IMO, the new book is not J.K Rowling's best of the series. It is predictable in many ways and she gives everyone(almost everyone, that is) what they wanted. The expectations for the book were very high, and they are justified for the most part. That said, it is a great read just like the rest of the series. The author has set such a high bar for herself, that it is difficult to accept anything short of sheer brilliance from her.

About the book itself :

1. The loose ends are neatly tied up and explained thoroughly, even though the reasoning gets a bit convoluted at times.

2. Snape does turn out to be a friend and the fact that Harry Potter named his son partly after him, shows how much his sacrifice meant to him; he accords him almost the same status as Dumbledore and that is something!!

3. No one is perfect, not even Dumbledore.

4. Dobby's death was painful, more than anyone else's for me, he was such a sweet, wonderful elf. But I suppose it is also fitting that he makes the ultimate sacrifice for his ex-master.

5. The epilogue was not necessary at all. It was foregone conclusion who would end with whom, and if it was written just to list out the names of Harry Potter's kids and by extrapolation, what those people meant to Harry (which we already know), perhaps it could have been done differently.

6. Ron and Hermione characters are very well etched out and they have REALLY important roles to play.

7. How did the Gryffindor sword end up in Neville's hands after the gnome had stolen it? The story does say that the sword will end up in the hands of a true Gryffindor, but after the gnome steals it and disappers from the vault, there is no mention of either until just before the end.

8. Too bad that Luna Lovegood didn't have a more important role to play. She was a very interesting character indeed.

9. The shout from Mrs Weasley, "You B****", to Bellatrix Lestrange was entirely avoidable. This reminded me of  Hollywood/Bollywood movies where the mother is rushing in to save her children from the villains, screaming expletives. Sigh ...

10. Plenty of philosophical lessons to be learnt, for those so inclined. The fact that Harry chooses to go after the Horcruxes and not the Deathly Hallows shows why Harry is the "star" here ,he decides it is more important to destroy evil than to try to conquer death . Even though Harry is not the most skilful wizard, his convictions and moral choices make him one of the greatest.

There's plenty more, but in the end I just have to say this : Joanne Kathleen Rowling is a brilliant story teller and hats off to her for keeping the entire world absorbed in the story of a scrawny boy-wizard and his friends for over a decade . I truly enjoyed it.

Posted at 03:15PM Jul 23, 2007 by Jyothi Srinath in Personal  |  Comments[3]