Geek & Spoiler Warning! If you don't like Harry Potter, then you might as well skip this post (yes, I know it's supposed to be a vintage blog) If you do like HP and haven't read the book yet, then you should skip reading for now too, because I will be talking about things that happen in the book.
Deathly Hallows - up early Saturday morning to drive to SIC gift/book/shop Dalrymples, which I fancy being the perfect store to buy a Harry Potter book, because it sounds like it could be a shop in Diagon Alley. Anyway, I sit down to read, even read a few hours laying in the sun (working on a tan this year) And after being interupted by sleep, the need to eat and go to the bathroom and 4 hours at the part time job on Sunday, I finshed up the book Sunday night. Overall, I liked the book very much and thought it was as good as the others. OOTP is probably my fav in the series. I thought it was suspenseful, surprising and sad.
What I liked - we all knew who RAB was, but I liked the story about what really happened to him in the cave, and read that part over again several times. That was sad (Sirius was so wrong about him) and I even felt bad for Kreacher. During the end battle when Kreacher was yelling to fight for master Regulus was kind of corny, but hit me as very sentimental too.
I liked learning about Dumbledore's family, and wondering about their secret throughout the book, and I was happy with the outcome of the family's secret, and glad to formally meet Aberforth (but what exactly did he do with that goat that got him in such trouble?)
Snape, I knew it! (so did everyone else) but I was so glad to hear the whole story and see those moments in his life. His death was kind of a let down though. I thought he would die, but it wasn't a very big deal in the book, no fight to the death, just a quick surprise attack. But do you really think you could put aside the horrible way that some treated you the whole time you knew him, and knowing that he hated your father and his actions caused the death of your parents - could you forgive all that and name your kid after that person? (We'll get to the rest of the cornyness of the epilogue later) I liked that he wanted to see Harry's green eyes before he died to remind him of Lily (Is that what JK meant when she said Harry's eye color was important? I don't see any other green eyed importance in the book)
I was glad to see Percy come back to the Weasley family in the end, but I thought he'd be the one to die, not Fred. I guess that puts and end to any dreams of JK writing The Adventures of Fred & George in the future.
Neville the leader of the underground movement at Hogwarts - I loved that, I wanted him to turn out to be heroic. I liked that Harry trusted him to kill Nagini. But I wish he had been the one to kill Bellatrix. Maybe that's too obvious of a thing to do, but it would be the right thing.
Wormtail - glad he's dead, and glad that he kind-of died by his own hand. There should have been more suffering though. But I guess it would be pretty horrific to be killed by your own silver hand.
Why'd she do that?
Remus and Tonks deaths were just body references. We didn't get to actually hear how they died in battle, I guess it was Dolohov who killed them? Their deaths weren't sad at all the way it was written (and to me, Remus had the saddest life of all the HP charactors) Teddy's birth was more sad than their deaths (because I read spoilers and knew Remus would die) so that was very bittersweet. Dobby's funeral was sadder than their deaths. So Harry is the godfather, but he's 17, who will raise the baby, Tonk's mom?
It was kind of cool to see Molly kick some ass, but her going after Bellatrix yelling 'Bitch' was kind of corny, and Neville should have been the one to kill Bellatrix anyway
The whole talk with Dumbledore and Harry in the 'station' was a bit dull and seemed kind of too long, I guess I was anxious to get to the real battle. The whole thing with wands and stealing them or killing their owner and the true ownerships was a bit confusing.
Voldemort's death was good. But he really just killed himself with the spell backfiring onto himself (didn't he learn not to do that the first time he tried to kill Harry?) I guess that was the safe ending because technically you could say that Harry has never killed anyone.
OK, the epiloque. I'm reading that alot of people have mixed feelings about it or don't like it at all. Yeah, it was kind of corny especially 'Albus Severus' and where did the names Rose & Hugo come from? But what's Harry doing for a living now, living off his parents gold? That's what I want to know. I'd rather read what all the characters are doing in their lives in the past 19 years, not just the trio. What about Hagrid and hid gal pal and Gwarp? How many other grandchildren do Molly & Arthur have and what are the other Weasley's doing, especially George? And Neville, Luna, etc. I'd rather have read a paragraph on each of them instead of the trio sending their own children off to Hogwarts.
***Updated - JK did give some info in her Today Show interview - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/ - why didn't she put that stuff in the book?
I'm re-reading the book now, so I'll pick up on things that I breezed over the first time. But did I miss something? Did it turn out with an extra Horcrux? Was Nagini a Horcrux or not because she would make 7 - diary, ring, locket, urn, diadem, Harry and Nagini. I thought their were 6 Horcruxeseses and the 7th piece of the soul was still in Voldemort?
All in all I did love it! OK, back to the vintage.
2 comments:
I just finished my 2nd reading and I am even happier with the book then I was on my 1st reading.
I will admit that the only thing I did not like in the book was the use of "Sev" in the Prince's Story. That annoying nickname is now canon.
Ugh.
To me the deaths, even Snape's are all about the randomness of violence and how even after you have devoted your life to something you just might get screwed in the end and die alone and unloved, but I'm pretty cynical that way.
He was always gonna die. Would I have preferred a more glorious one for Snape?
Well sure.
But he was a man who never grew up, who could not get past his horrible childhood nor his 1st love or his childhood rivals.
I like that JK makes it clear in her interview that he was "immensly brave" but not really a hero. I also like it fits in with the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" theme that runs though out the books.
BUT she does throw us a bone in that we do not have a funeral or a headmaster’s portrait on the wall.
No one will ever make me believe Snape was not prepared for Nagini ...well at least until she says "he is dead" or puts a date of death in her encyclopedia.
While I wish Neville had killed Bella (and really he could have never beat her and in the end he was a hero by killing that damn snake) I thought Molly was made of awesome in that scene.
One of the main themes of the books was what love, a mother's love, could accomplish.
It turned Narcissa into a traitor (and how much I love the fact that in the end the only thing the Malfoys really cared about was Draco), made Molly a warrior and saved Harry's life.
On a forum someone was upset that Molly "who has not done anything for the Order" all of a sudden turned out to be this bad ass and that she did not deserve the glory of killing Bella.
I disagree that what Molly was doing was not useful to the order.
She provided a warm place in a cold world for order members, a place to meet, a place to find sustenance and companionship and proved once again that there is no such thing as "just a housewife".
I could go on and on...I feel drained and happy to see that Harry goes on to live a life of joy with the family he always wanted.
I think I have to make this into a post on my blog.
Rereading it, I think Kreacher's Tale & The Prince's Tale are my favorite chapters amongst other, but those two stand out.
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