Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Review

If there ever was a reason to learn how to do expandable posts, this is IT. I finished the final Harry Potter book yesterday. General opinion: WOW.

Click below for detail. LOTS OF SPOILERS! Be warned.

Holy body count Batman! JKR certainly didn't pull any punches did she? I rarely get teary-eyed at books but there were at least two points where I had to put the book down for while or I would completely lose it.

Things I loved:
It opens on Voldemort. A lot of people have complained about it being a slow start but honestly, this didn't drag for me like some parts of HBP did. I thought showing him casually killing the Muggle Studies Prof had the effect intended (shock).

Dudley not being a total prat to Harry.

7 Harry Potters! (One for each book?)

HEDWIG! MOODY! Two down before page 80.

Even though the overall tone was dark, this book had the most LOL lines for me. I don't know what that says about my sense of humor.

Dumbledore left them stuff! Weird nonsensical stuff.

The Ministry falling & the whole sub-plot with the round-ups. The image of the witch & wizard on the throne of naked human bodies was my first (shudder) moment.

The house-elf sub plot paying off with Kreacher & (sniff) Dobby. "Here Lies A Free Elf" I had to put the book down for a while then.

The Trio getting really sick of one another while on the run.

Nagini coming out of thew old lady. YUCK!

Ron running away & coming back --> Ron destroying that first Horcrux. Very effecting scene. I glad they dealt with Ron's perspective here. He really did need to permanently deal with his feelings on insecurity and here he did it under great duress.

Ron & Hermione - I can take or leave this relationship but I did really like how it was presented in this book. Their banter was very endearing and their first kiss (in the middle of a battle) was hilarious.

Luna's Dad, yah! Luna's Dad sells them out...not so yah. But the image of Luna's bedroom with paintings of all of them? How sweet is that?

I really liked "The tale of the Three Brothers" aside from plot & exposition, I thought it a nice little parable about how you can't cheat Death in the long run.

Malfoy Manor: I liked that the Malfoys were on the outs & insanely desperate to get a break. And Hermione's torture scene...yikes.

Harry's decision to go after the Horcruxes instead of the Hallows. At the time, yeah big growing up moment but I also think this is the first moment we see Harry as being worthy to bring together & weild the three Deathly Hallows (as he can take or leave them unlike others *cough*Dumbledore*cough*)

Gringotts & the escape - probably the most disposable of the action! sequences I think. It was really good (until you read the rest of the book).

Dumbledore's brother rocks! And I liked that Dumbledore had some pretty serious character flaws, things that had been effecting events for a very long time.

Neville's blase recounting of the events at Hogwart's that year make me long for the fanfiction of these events. It was a great scene and showed how much Neville's really grown in the last three books.

The whole Battle of Hogwarts sequence: OH MY GOD! AWESOME. All the profs chipping in, all the students staying to fight, all the adults showing up to help, all of the dead: Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey, Remus, Tonks and (omg!sniff) Fred. And those are just the ones I remember.

Snape (sniff). You were a bastard but you were always Lily's (and therefore Dumbledore's) bastard. When he conjured a Patronus for Dumbledore and said "Always", well, that was my second teary-eyed moment. And I'm not a big Snape-fan.

NEVILE KILLED NAGINI FOR THE WIN!!!!

Molly Weasley took out Bellatrix Lestrange like yesterday's laundry.

Ok, Voldemort killing Harry but totally not, then Harry showing up again. I can't keep it straight. All I know, Harry rocked. He made Voldemort look like a total pansy by the end.

The Malfoys surviving. They never helped because it was right. Rather, they were riding the whirlwind and at any moment they chose what would buy them safety for that moment. For Narcissa & Draco, that is very consistent with how they've been portrayed. Lucius, well, Azkaban changes a person, doesn't it? I liked they were kinda lost but together at the end. And that 19 years later Draco was still kinda a prat.

The epilogue was OK. I liked that she gave up more characters to play with (and certain fans are certainly running with that one) but I dunno, it was a pretty abrupt shift in tone from the rest of the book.

Overall, 9 of 10. Possibly my favorite of the series, I need to think on it a bit more. And, I can't wait for the movie of this. There's so much potential for awesomeness on the screen.