So, what did you think?

I saw most of it coming, but I thought that she handled it far better than I had expected her to. The stuff with Snape was handled especially well, and the last few chapters were very strong. The middle of the book seemed to drag quite a lot, but I guess that was necessary to allow the end to build more convincingly and with a greater sense of pace.

I heard that she had ghost-writers help her get it right, but that might just be jealous industry gossip, but for the first time there was a sentence in there that I thought was superbly crafted. It seems odd that one would appear after seven books...

What did you think?

I'd have to say I loved the humanization of both Dumbledore and Snape- it was, for me, just about the best part of the book.

I was shocked by the death of Fred and VERY shocked by Tonk's death (saw Lupin's coming a mile away >.> )

The only thing I rather disliked was the epilogue (though, to be fair, I don't like most epilogues).

And Voldemort's death was so completely in Harry's style it made me grin

I predicted a lot of the surprises well in advance. I thought she did a pretty good job with tying up loose ends and finishing complicated things of in a way which didn't make it too much for the children it is, after all, aimed at Not my favourite of the seven though. Will elaborate when not tired and ill.

Also: ANGEANGEANGEANGEANGE!!! *glomps*

I liked, and I agree that it did drag in the middle a bit. I think she sort of cheated with Harry still living and being a horcrux. But that's alright. However, I wanted to stab her for killing Lupin and Tonks. I don't know if that was supposed to be a parallel to how Harry's parents died, but it seemed so cruel to me. And it got a little weird with the resurrection stone and whatnot, but overall I liked it.

I really enjoyed all of the book except the epiloguey bit. Nineteen years later and everyone's still with their high school sweetheart seemed the most unbelievable part of the whole series.

A lot of people died that I didn't expect to and while I wanted some of those characters to live, I've got to respect J K Rowling's mortality rate in what is ostensibly a children's book.

Something tells me that if Rowling gets greedy she might do a Teddy Lupin spin off.

Doubtful, but possible.

I liked the book but I have a feeling that the movie version of it is going to be terrible. This book (like all the other books have been) was written for somebody who is about Harry's age in the books. It is not meant for young children, or even young teens (although I suspect that the majority of us here were mature enough and smart enough to understand it all when we were young, we tend to be a bit more intellectual here than the average). The movies, however, are going to attempt to be PG, or at most, PG-13, while I feel that to do true justice to the book it would need to be rated R.

Personally I can't wait to see how they blow someone's ear off in a children's movie!

I wanted Harry to end up with Luna. She was probably my favourite character through the last few books and, like Nov, I found the idea that everyone stayed with the same people for the rest of their lives to be a bit too saccharine. It would have been nice if Ginny had ended up with some obscure Slytherin boy from the second book, or someone who wasn't a main character.

I can't help but read some of Rowling's life into her books. She started writing them as a single mother, and there is a running theme of 'why would a parent ever leave their child?', the strength of a mother's love, and the way that upbringing shapes later life. It's a series that seems to continually to find father figures then remove them, as if men aren't really important. Harry's father was the one who fought Voldemort to save his family, but it was the mother's death that saved Harry - so why wasn't the father's death enough to save both Harry and Lily?

I thought that too. I also thought she couldn't have made it more bleedin' obvious Harry was going to be a horcrux. The FIRST thought I had when we found out about Voldy and his horcruxes was "Harry's scar".

I liked Luna too She's been one of the few characters in the films so far that I've felt they got spot on, too.

Yep, Harry was definitely slow to catch on about him being a horcrux!

Did anyone else get about halfway through the book and start to think 'oh crap, she's decided to bung the Da Vinci Code in here too' with all the hallows nonsense? She pulled it back, but that stuff, and all the wand ownership thing, really didn't scan very well with the rest of the plot. I guess she had to work out some way to explain how Voldemort's curse would backfire on him, but surely there could have been an easier way (and one that makes a bit more sense)?

Yeah, it did get weird there, Mata. A little too much.



Oh, I entirely agree. I don't know why, but Ginny bugs me a lot. And I am very fond of Luna as well. That would've been better.

ZOMG SNAPE KILLS TEH DUMBLEDORES

I liked how the Malfoys sort of got disillusioned with Voldemort and how they gradually weren't exactly redeemed per se but became a bit nicer.

I was quite disappointed with the book overall, although I have to agree the later chapters were better, especially Snape's Pensive stuff. I've never liked Rowling's style of writing, but I felt it was even worse in this one. Much of the book was too dragging, and quite contrived, and the less said about the epilogue the better. Saying that, there were some highlights, such as Kreacher's Tale, the aforementioned stuff with Snape, and the final battle.

I dislike the fact she's left Harry alive, as that can only lead to (official or not) further stories and I would have preferred a clean cut off to the series. I would however like to see a book about Grindlewald, he seems like he could be a very good character.

Overall, I enjoyed the book quite thoroughly. My only issue with the writing itself was the entirety of chapter 3. I thought that the scene where Harry left the Durselys could have been much more than it was. After that, however, I thought the book was a fine read and that she wrapped everything up pretty succinctly. There were a few times that I was surprised at her almost Tolkein-like knowledge of her own universe.

But do you know what I would have liked to have seen? A chapter or two devoted to Hogwarts and the goings on there. I like Neville and Cho and Hagrid and McGonnagall and Flitwick and Peeves and Nearly Headless Nick and Luna and Ginny. To have a "Neville's Tale" chapter or something of the like would not have been too hard. Rowling did it for Kreacher, Dumbledore, and Snape, but all the Hogwarts resistance got was "Oh, by the way... they beat the shit out of me."

As for the epilogue... I didn't dislike it so much as I was disappointed. Did Harry join the Ministry? Did he become an Auror? It's all well and good that he had kids, but what did he do? It seemed if she was going to write it, she might as well have gone for the gusto and given us about forty or fifty pages. Maybe even flashed forward to the death of Harry to ensure that no one could use the Elder Wand or whatnot.

Just a thought that occurred to me today - is it possible Luna is popular with the people on this forum because she is, inherently, nice, open minded and weird, and the people on this forum are generally, inherently, nice, open minded and weird?

(And in my case prone to overuse of commas.)

Could, be. Yes, I do identify with Luna more so than most of the characters in the novels.

The thing that saved the epilogue for me by itself was Harry saying that Snape was the bravest man he had ever known. That choked me up a bit, which was inconvenient since I was listening to the audio book and at work at the time!

Really? It seemed to me that this one was written more with the idea it will be made into a movie in mind. There were a lot of redundant parts which could be glazed over quiet easily and that final battle is a CG extravaganza waiting to happen!

Also, a link from another forum. For those wanting to know more than the epilogue told. Clicky.

I was pleasantly surprised with the book. I love her style because it's so... I'm not sure how to phrase it, but it's the archetypal example of highschool story writing. I love the story of Snape, although I cannot stop thinking about it! I just hate how annoyingly unjust it is when bad things happen to nice people, especially middle aged men. The epilogue wasn't fun at all. I think it was probably necessary to finish the story off, but like PsychWardMike, I would have preferred to know more about his life and profession.

On a side note: I wonder if Rowling watches the films of Harry Potter. I find when you watch a film of a book, all your imagination of the characters is lost and the characters in the film become the characters you imagine when you read the book. If she did watch the films, does she now imagine her Harry and all the other characters to be the ones in the film?

It was a good book, the best in some aspects, and yes, the humanization of snape and dum-le-dork were the greatest parts, showing maturity by Rowling, and somehow negating that copycat fame she got with gollum-dobby, shelob-aragog and so on.

But yes, tonks death.. just .. argh.

And fred had to go so the George can stand on his own. He was always the undersided twin, c´mon.

The only complaint: Harry got too smart too fast by the book´s end. ¬¬'

Before I actually started reading the book, I was talking with my friend Stephanie and pretty much guessed that Neville and Snape would end up doing some important stuff, so when I actually read it in the book, I wasn't too surprised. I had to re-read the part about Lupin and Tonks being dead though, because I thought they were literally just sleeping in the Great Hall.

Overall the book was okay, but now I want there to be more books following up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione's jobs at the ministry and all the trouble that they're kids are gonna (probably) get into at Hogwarts.

Heh, did anyone else really think that there was a chance they'd get a letter to go to Hogwarts when they turned eleven?

You mean you didn't? We're all magical on this forum!

Most of the plot was predictable, purely because it ended how stories are supposed to. This means that she did a good job of fulfilling expectations. It's the other bits (like the Hallows themselves) that don't really fit with the rest of the books.

Radaga (nice to see you on here again, BTW), Rowling hasn't really negated the copycat reputation, she's just shifted it over onto copying The Da Vinci Code. I mean, all that nonsense about markings on grave stones and such like. Dan Brown copied The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, then Rowling copied Brown. Ho hum.

I have a source that tells me that this book had ghost writers brought in because it wasn't good enough. It's a reliable source, but is nonetheless gossip so should not be taken as gospel; however, it would explain why suddenly after six books Rowling became capable of doing half-decent plot construction and of writing a few really good sentences. William Gibson blows me away with his prose usually about once per page, if not a lot more often. Rowling had never done that, but there were moments in this one where she seemed to suddenly be a lot more talented. It seems a bit fishy to me.

Izzy, I started reading them when I was about like...ten. I was quite angry when my letter didn't arrive.

I loved the book though and the ending was amazing (although like all of you....I was dissapointed with the epilouge) and actually made me read about five chapters in a day because it was just that good.

Anyway, I loved it...and I own up to getting a bit torn up at parts.

ok i still dont understand ONE THING:
WHY THE HELL DOESNT JAMES POTTER HAVE ANY FAMILY ???
shouldnt james have had parents... or at least cousins or SOMEBODY who would love Harry? that just never added up to me

Never left, actually, just lurked a bit.

Anyway, yes, now that you mention, it´s a whole new world of copycatying that unfolds.

And the ghost writer bit does sound somehow feasible.

IZZY: you haven´t got your letter? oh, my, somehow I must have forgotten it inside my drawer. I will send an owl ASAP.

Thank god. Now all I have to do is track down some Jedi Knight and get him to train me and all childhood dreams will be fulfilled!

IZZY: yep, this should cover all. now to find an owl able to fly across the Atlantic... :*

That will be interesting to see.

I just can't beleive it's over.

I've just now literally put down the book. And I'll admit to it right at the beginning. I cried like a bitch with a skint knee for the last eight chapters or so. I'd been avoiding the internet like the plague until I finished it, but I didn't do so well, thanks to Facebook. I knew about Dobby, Fred, and Neville's triumph before reading. Still got me, though.

I'll agree with most everyone. I really don't like the ending. War's over, Voldemort's dead, and then bam, 19 years later. A lot can happen in 19 years. I mean, just look at the 7 that he was in school. I want to know who else survived and whatnot. I guess I've always been a sucker for exposition. Does anyone else think that all these loose ends are ways for her to write more? Or is this the end fullstop?

Edit: Nevermind. Just opened the article. Carry on.

Ron Weasley: The Ginger Avenger. That's the spin-off I want.

I was thinking a CSI spin-off? CSI: Ministry of Magic.

He hit him over the head, then attempted to feed the body to flobber worms. Fortunately the wand recorded the previous spell that it had cast and so he was caught!

Hm. Detective fiction becomes more tricky to write when your protagonists can do magic - Rowling was never very good at using consistent rule sets, which is what you really need to do if you're writing in the detective genre.