OK, this is the non-spoiler part. This part, above the jump. So no spoilers here, promise.

Melissa and I bought our copies of Harry Potter at the world's tiniest bookshop on the Isle of Mull. Truthfully, we hadn't expected to be able to buy them until we made our way out of the Hebrides, but lo and behold opposite the Isle of Iona there is a tiny bookshop. Said bookshop had Harry Potter-they had, in fact, opened at midnight the night before to sell it, and we got stamped verification of the book number we bought (I got book #55 from Fingal Arts and Crafts, Fionnphort. I think that's kinda' cool.)

Melissa started reading immediately but due to the fact that I am a grown-up who gets carsick I had to wait until the evenings. That night Melissa and I read our books and Jeff watched Star Wars movies on DVD. Angus declared us very boring indeed.

Melissa and I agreed from the start-we would not discuss the book until we'd both finished, neither of us would indicate where we were in the book or what was going on, and neither of us would discuss details until done. Angus had other ideas-bored off his rocker with us he'd grill us about the book, despite being one of the "I Can't Stand Harry Potter Club". So Melissa and I got sneaky.

We made shit up.

"What's just happened?" Angus would ask Melissa in the rearview mirror.

"Hermione's turned into a giant!" she said excitedly (relax-this is not a spoiler. This is the stuff we made up to throw Angus.)

"I haven't gotten to that part yet!" I'd reply.

"What part are you at?"

"Harry is teaching Ron and Hagrid Mermish!" I'd lie.

"Mermish? What the hell is that?" Angus would ask.

"Mermaid language," I'd explain.

"Oooh, very complicated," Melissa would intone.

"Isn't the book getting far-fetched now?" Angus would ask, confused.

We did this a lot. Throughout our lies, the following happened: Hermione died, Dumbledore died ("Didn't he die in the last one?" Angus asked. "No, Daddy, he died, was resurrected, then died again," Melissa explained), Hogwarts burnt to the ground, and Ron became a merman (or merperson. Whichever.) It was a fun game.

But then came the point where we both finished the book, and Melissa took it apart piece by piece (actually past the point of interesting in some ways but when you're 15, in a car, and in love with Harry Potter, I think there is no such thing as too much Harry Potter discussion). Which we can do here, below the jump-I have yet to see a site where people are discussing the book, so we can do it here if you'd like as I've read it and Angus (who also reads my blog and comments) could care less about the book.

So warning-don't click on the link "Want more?" if you do not want to know about the book. This also applies to the comments-comments will open up the extended entry. So I am warning you-below are spoilers. Click at your own risk*.

Seriously.

Don't click on the below if you haven't finished the book, as I go into some detail.

*This level of warning means I am free and clear, I have indemnity (at least in the state of Maryland).
So one more warning, yeah? Ahead are spoilers. If you read, you'll be exposed like a virgin on prom night. Last chance-SPOILERS STARTING NOW.
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OK, so the last Harry Potter? I didn't like it much.

It's not like I expected to absolutely love the book-it was the end (the end, my only friend, the end). Ends are hard. It's not easy to wrap up something that's been a part of the mainstream for so long. I do understand that. But I felt the book had little focus in parts-it was great that Rowling portrayed Harry and Hermione bunking around various forests trying to figure out what to do, I like that it wasn't easy to find the Horcruxes, but I think the writing was a bit lost there. And the horcruxes themselves gave me issue-Fiendfyre? What the hell? Wasn't that convenient, to suddenly use some wild and wicked spell I have no recollection of ever reading about in a single previous Potter book? And I think I read some parts of it a few times and I still didn't get how things happened-how did Neville wind up with Godric's sword in the end? Last I saw of it, a goblin was making off with it.

I didn't think it was actually the darkest book, as had been touted. I personally think The Half-Blood Prince was the darkest book. The Hallows was certainly the most bloodthirsty book, but not the darkest. I think my favorite Potter book remains The Order of the Phoenix-it moved well, was interesting, was very long and very engaging (still haven't seen the film yet, but plan to.)

I would've like to see some of what happened in Hogwarts while Harry and Hermione were hunting things. I know the story is about Harry Potter, but Hogwarts is, to me, one of the great draws of the books. Hogwarts is special, great, one of those places where amazing things happen. To show it's darkness and unhappiness would have been very relevant and gripping, I think.

I didn't mind that Snape died (I actually thought he would, and I don't mean this in a "congratulatory pat on the back" kind of way, I just couldn't see him making it out of this alive.) I do have to admit I was wrong about how seriously evil he was-while he was evil, he was also motivated by love. So maybe he's not black and white (as a commenter said here once.)

I didn't mind too much that Fred died, although it didn't seem very necessary to me and in general these days stories where one twin dies and the other lives are stories that I avoid. I was surprised at Tonk and Lupin's deaths, but like that the next cycle can begin with Teddy (although Melissa pointed out that in the end, Teddy shouldn't have been on the Hogwarts Express going to school, as he would've been 19. Good point, chica.)

The book was overall entertaining (although I found parts of it to be slower than the other books) and I'm glad I read it. My biggest beef is this: The epilogue. That "19 Years Later" bit. Apparently Rowling had that piece written for eons, she had the storyline in place. But I felt it was way, way too tidy, too neat. Harry Potter's life had been messy and difficult, like life is. To neatly say "He and Ginny married" and "Ron and Hermione married" and "everyone lived-more or less-happily ever after" was too much for me. End it with Harry promising to put the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's tomb. Give him a future that none of us can see, so that he can have it to himself. I'm sure Rowling wrote the epilogue so that it could be put to rest, no further books needed, but it was too perfect. Kids will grow up thinking that those we love when we're 15, 16, 17, will be the ones we live happily ever after with. And sure-some do. The lucky ones do. But real life and Harry Potter life is messy and difficult. Let us come to our own conclusions.

And naming a kid Albus Severus...honestly! I get it that it was to honor two lost soldiers, but seriously-the name sounds like a gladiator. "Now in the amphitheatre-Albus Severus and Gluteus Maximus battling it out! Get your popcorn here!" Albus Severus was sure to get the constant playground bitchslap if I ever heard of a name to get it.

Am I way off base here? What did you think? Be honest. I think I'm getting cynical in my old age.

-H.

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 09:55 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
Post contains 1341 words, total size 7 kb.

1 I read the book the day it came out. Not being one to wait in lines, I have Amazon deliver it to my door. I must disagree with you here. I think it was a brilliant piece of writing. To plot out seven books that tightly and still have each one stand alone is simply amazing. I didn't think that they were wandering about aimlessly. Every step brought them closer to finding the horcruxes. Dumbledore couldn't be more specific because Harry was a horcrux himself. Harry had to find out for himself, and reach the decision on his own. The fiendfyre was just the sort of spell that Crabbe & Goyle would have thrown out even though they had no idea of what the danger was. And even if that hadn't destroyed the horcrux, they still had the basilisk fangs. So it wasn't really necessary. Neville pulled the sword out of the Sorting Hat, just like Harry did when he battled the basilisk in The Chamber of Secrets, as "only a true Gryffindor" could. The epilogue was necessary if JK Rowling wanted to avoid being hounded for more books in the series, though I think that there's more to be known--I also would have liked to know more about what happened at Hogwarts, but that's a different story. The actual epilogue was mush longer, and she's hinted that the complete version will probably be published someday. Also, the book doesn;t say "they lived happily ever after", simply that they were still together. As my wife and will be celebrating our 20th anniversary I don't find the fact that Ron & Hermione or Ginny & Harry are still together even noteworthy. Damn...I could say so much more, but I have to get to work!

Posted by: ~Easy at August 01, 2007 12:21 PM (X+de8)

2 As my wife and will be celebrating our 20th anniversary I don't find the fact that Ron & Hermione or Ginny & Harry are still together even noteworthy. See-I AM jaded! Oh, and congratulations! And fair point about being able to string out a story over 7 (very long) novels. That took creativity. I don't doubt she's a great and engaging writer, I just somehow felt a bit...lackluster...about this book.

Posted by: Helen at August 01, 2007 12:24 PM (C6Kbb)

3 I had to explain to my mother about Neville and the sword, too. Basically, it appears that the Sorting Hat magic trumps whatever the goblins have got. Too bad for them. As for Teddy, it doesn't say he's actually going... maybe he's just saying goodbye to his younger girlfriend.

Posted by: B. Durbin at August 01, 2007 12:26 PM (tie24)

4 I seem to be one of the few people who liked the epilogue. I like knowing what happened years after, and the names of their children, etc. Have you read the articles where Rowling goes into more detail about the "19 years after"? http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070730/D8QN3GB00.html There was another one, but I can't find the link for it right now. Oh, Teddy wasn't going to the train station to go to Hogwarts, he was just seeing off Victoire, Bill & Fleur's daughter and his girlfriend. I was disappointed by how casually she killed off so many of the good guys. I generally liked the book, but like you said, not my favorite.

Posted by: Angela at August 01, 2007 12:28 PM (zx2WT)

5 After the 2nd or 3rd book many Christians asked Rowling what a Christian (she's Anglican I believe) was doing writing books on sorcery. She commented, (not an exact quote) "People are going to be VERY surprised at the ending." At the time I assumed she was going to have Harry be a Christ-like figure (sacrifice himself to save everyone else and then resurrect). Apparently it didn't happen that way. I'm curious if she did anything to appease her Christian critics. I'm not saying she should have, I was just curious if (as she said) Christians were "surprised" by the ending. Helen, it won't hurt my feelings to have this comment removed if you don't like the subject; I'd rather have it removed than to offend. I'm not trying to start a "Christian" dialogue and won't jump in with a "Gospel message". I really was just curious if she had any Christian overtones or undertones (as she seemed to indicate she would) and don't have anyone else to discuss this with.

Posted by: Solomon at August 01, 2007 12:54 PM (x+GoF)

6 Erm... that's exactly what she did, Solomon. Harry died and came back, and ensured the protection of all through his sacrifice. Sure it was noble and all, but I had the irrits with that a bit, and it felt a bit predictable. Though one little bit that made me grin - it wasn't actually 'good' that let HP come back; it was 'evil' (the big bad - lord voldiepants, as one reviewer referred to him) not really knowing what it was doing. I have to agree, Helen, I thought this book was fine and enjoyable and all of that, it just wasn't so very thrilling. I get it's hard to write 7 books and wrap em up and all, but my sympathy for JK Rowling's position sadly doesn't make the book any better (not that I'm saying it's bad at all! Just not fabulousness distilled into book form!). And a few things I thought could have been better dealt with: - the sudden forgivableness of the Unforgivable Curses annoyed me, not so much because good people should never be bad, but because when they are, it shouldn't mean nothing! The series has been all about fuzzy lines between good and evil and choices betwen them and stuff, so this seemed really odd. - the wandering around in the woods seemed to assume that in order to communicate the length of time spent doing it and the demoralising tedium of it, the writing had to be long-winded and demoralisingly tedious. Good writers can communicate time passing without it feeling laborious like that. (Not that JK ain't good, but this was a problem for me). - while I was glad the house-elves came out to join the fight, I was kinda bemused that they suddenly seemed to have lost their very strong magical powers. I mean, fighting with kitchen knives? I loved the whole house-elves have great magic but are *still* oppressed line, and though that Hermione's campaign might have been used to actually take that somewhere. A bit more directly. - similarly, I had kinda hoped that the stuff they'd learnt at school might have played a bigger role; a bit like the fiendfyre coming out of nowhere, I kinda thought that maybe, you know, they might have a stronger puzzle to work out, like in the earlier books. Like you missing hogwarts, I missed those links back to their school-days. - exposition wasn't good: really, relying on books, newspapers and—worst of all, in the case of Snape—the pensieve is just a bit clumsy. Especially given that so much of the plot was driven by that info. - I was a bit disappointed in the way Snape died. I expected him to die after Harry had found out he wasn't evil, so to have it the other way around felt a bit too easy. Hey, I know Harry's had a rough trot, but it felt like the easy way out to say 'oh, how sad, it turns out the guy I've hated my entire life was actually good. Huh. Lucky I don't have to deal with the complexity of redemption.' I could go on but I won't having already blah-blahed for longer than I ought to have. :-) But I found this totally great and amusing: http://diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com/2007/07/potterdammerung-mega-spoilers.html

Posted by: WildlyParenthetical at August 01, 2007 01:58 PM (rG4u9)

7 Yes, Teddy was 19 - and was just there seeing his girlfriend off. But I did expect Harry, as Teddy's Godfather, to have raised him - as Harry had hoped for from Sirius. And yes, the sorting hat gives the worthy person what they need most - ergo - the sword at that point. What was being said with the baby when Dumbledore and Harry were talking though? Is it just that voldemort can't be comforted? I didn't get that bit.

Posted by: Tracy at August 01, 2007 02:03 PM (zv3bS)

8 Wildly Parenthetical-re: knife-wielding house-elves and Snape's death-YES. Very much agree. Tracy-I didn't get the baby part, either. It also kinda' freaked me out. "Don't touch the baby! You can't help it!". My squick factor was high there.

Posted by: Helen at August 01, 2007 02:14 PM (C6Kbb)

9 Okay. I didn't get the baby part either, but my friend's mom explained that the baby was the part of Harry that Voldemort had superimposed himself on, and that he had to let that baby die so that he could live and be good Harry. What I didn't get was how Draco was really the Elder Wand's owner, when he didn't actually kill Dumbledore, and he didn't have the wand when Harry overtook him. That was a bit dodgy to me. I did like that Neville pulled out the sword (as a true Gryffindor), since in some of the earlier books he questioned why the sorting hat put him in that house. As for the epilogue, way too neat and tidy. And I'm sorry, but why are all the kids named for people in HARRY'S life? Where is Fred or ... Fredrika? HUH? Doesn't Ginny get a say?!? My biggest beef? JKR came out and claimed TWO main characters were going to die in this book. My death count was at 9 (including Hedwig), and I'd count at least 5 of those as pretty substantial characters. This made me extremely grumpy, and often made me loudly yell "are you KIDDING ME WOMAN?" Also, I really loved how it was all battle battle battle, oh by the way Tonks & Lupin are dead, good guys win.

Posted by: amy t. at August 01, 2007 03:22 PM (3dOTd)

10 WildlyParenthetical, You're not just yanking my chain like Helen and Melissa were doing to Angus are you? My daughters (12 & 10) never took an interest in HP even though our next door neighbor (14) did. It's just as well. It's hard enough getting the black & white, good & evil thing across to them sometimes. I'd hate to have to deal in shades of grey before they're ready.

Posted by: Solomon at August 01, 2007 03:31 PM (x+GoF)

11 Ooh, I really liked it. I don't know that it's my favorite or anything (I intend to go back and reread them all in case I missed anything). I did spend most of the last book though trying to figure out how Snape could possibly redeem himself since I refused to believe he was evil. I have mixed feelings about the epilogue, but overall I understand why she felt she had to have it. I also would love to have seen more about Hogwarts and its goings on while Harry wasn't there. And maybe more about a young Dumbledore or something. Maybe.

Posted by: Erin at August 01, 2007 04:17 PM (VkeXi)

12 I must confess, I was super impatient for the book, so I found the leaked copy online and began reading what turned out to be the actual book on Wednesday before it was released. I loved the book, but then again I am a SUCKER for a happy ending. I loved that H/R/H fought with each other and Ron left for a while. I loved that they were stumped by the horcruxes. I loved that Neville turned out to be the big hero. Mostly. I really loved how she made Dumbledore human, with wants and temptations and regrets. That was masterful. The thing with Draco and the Elder Wand - Draco disarmed Dumbledore in HBP, even though he did't kill him, he was the one who separated the Elder wand from Dumbledore's hand. And re: Harry not naming a kid Fred, according to JKR in the interview she did last week for the Today show, one of the details she had to cut from the published version of the epilogue was that George had married and had several kids, the oldest of whom was a boy named Fred. So Harry's kids already had a cousin Fred. JKR said she had to cut a lot of those details, and it made her unhappy to do so, so she is thinking of publishing a Harry Potter Encyclopedia, containing all the details she was forced to leave out. I actually liked that she never explicitly said (in the book, although she clarified it in the same interview) that the baby thing was the piece of Voldy's soul. For tying up loose ends, there are a LOT of the missing details available on the web, courtesy of 2 interviews JKR did over the last week. There was the NBC/ Today/ USA Today interview and she also did a lengthy webchat with Bloomsbury(her UK publisher) and the Leaky Cauldron site. I don't have the URLs of either handy, but a quick google search should turn up the interview, and the webchat transcript is accessible from the Harry Potter link at bloomsbury.co.uk . Sorry for the long winded spiel.....

Posted by: caltechgirl at August 01, 2007 04:24 PM (qPLLC)

13 Will you marry me?

Posted by: statia at August 01, 2007 06:31 PM (lHsKN)

14 Yes, I agree with a lot of your ideas about HP. Fred didn't need to die -- there was no real purpose in that. And Albus Severus is a bit much -- but I found the other kids names quite cute! Lily and James after Harry's parents -- too cute!! I did not think that this book was as well written as many of the others. I think JK was tired and in many ways just wanted to get to the end. The story started out well but the ending seemed rushed and like all of the necessary details weren't there. I was really thrown off by the Elder Wand and Draco but after doing some research on the internet that makes a bit more sense. It is sad to see it end... I'm going to see the 5th movie in IMAX on Saturday. I hope it is less disappointing than the this book.

Posted by: Jamie at August 01, 2007 07:35 PM (cto+Q)

15 I love you, H, but I totally disagree. I loved this book. I loved the cheesey ending, I loved that everything came out ok in the end. Oh, and she does say that Teddy was there "seeing Victoire off" to school, so she's in school but he's done. I have expounded on my blog and it would take up your whole bandwidth because I'm a certified Harry Potter nerd. You are very right about one thing: The first thing Albus Severus should do when he gets his wand is totally curse his parents for naming him that.

Posted by: Mallory at August 01, 2007 07:41 PM (sjc/Q)

16 I liked some parts and disliked some parts. It was very slow-moving at times and some of it was terribly obvious and not surprising at all. But other parts were very good, I even got teary at some points, like Dobby's death. Of course that being said, I rushed through the end because I feared more spoilers than I had already gotten so I feel like I missed some parts. I'll probably go back and read it again in a few months. For now, I am Harry Potter-ed out.

Posted by: donna at August 01, 2007 11:19 PM (Kco5r)

17 I agree with you on most of it. And I'm betting on Gluteus Maximus to win!

Posted by: kenju at August 01, 2007 11:25 PM (DBvE5)

18 I closed my eyes and paged down through the comments so that I wouldn't read any spoilers, which I've been avoiding like the plague while my Potter reading has been delayed (I'm reading it now, though). However, if I were tempted to lie about Harry Potter's final go 'round, I'd have started making up pornographic crap such as: "Oh, so Hermione, Ron and Harry have a foursome in the girls' bathroom with that ghost chick. I didn't see that one coming." "So THAT is why Hermione has been getting such good grades. Slut." Ehh, I'm pretty sick. But I have seriously considered creating a parody along those lines, although someone has beaten me to the punch a bit by writing "Barry Trotter". Truthfully, it's a weak, weak, weak parody and doesn't contain enough R-rated scenes.

Posted by: physics geek at August 02, 2007 02:39 PM (MT22W)

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