Harry Potter laid to rest
Finally! I’m done with it. YAY! And what a struggle it was…
Nah, I’m just kidding of course. I loved it. I finished the book in a mere 2 days – and it only took me that long because I didn’t have all that much time to read on the first one. As soon as I got into the story I was really reluctant to put it down again. Seems like Mrs. Rowling really deserves the big bucks she gets paid. I have to admit that the book is entertaining, I certainly liked it a lot better than #5 and #6. That may have been at least in part due to the fact that it is the last part of the story and things were finally coming to a definitive end, we had a nice big battle, most of the remaining mysteries were revealed and all of the loose ends were tied up.
The way they were tied up is another matter. I mean, honestly: Albus Severus? Jeez, how corny is that?
One thing that struck me over and over was the feeling that this book was clearly written with a movie in mind. I don’t mean that as a criticism, and you could probably just ascribe it to Rowling’s skilled description of stuff or whatever, but I often caught myself visualizing a scene on the big screen or thinking to myself “now this was just put in here to look good in the cinema”. It worked, though. I have no doubt that the last HP movie will be just as successful as the other ones were. (I myself haven’t watched any one all the way through so far. Especially once Quidditch is played I fall asleep immediately.)
All in all I am pretty happy with how the story panned out in the end, although I can’t say was really surprised by anything. Well, except for Harry dying and coming back (mostly it was the coming back part that had me grumbling, because you see I really had hoped he would bite the bullet in the end, but apparently that was a bit too much to hope for). It was certainly good to see Snape get vindicated, even though making him into a sad little man who was carrying a torch for a woman who didn’t love him back wasn’t doing him any favours in my eyes. ^.^ But even so the way he died just made me angry.
Rowling has a huge problem doing believable death-scenes. As if Sirius falling through that damn veil hadn’t been bad enough (what the hell does that even mean?), now she kills off Snape without even giving him the opportunity to defend himself. WTF? I mean, come on, all the time he was built up to be this badass wizard, ruthless and capable of anything and bla bla bla. And then? Just poof. And not only does she let him die drooling some strange substance, which in itself is quite disgusting (Yeah, I know what it was, thank you. It’s still disgusting.), but then afterwards she destroys his whole credibility with this “I did it all for love of Lily Potter”-crap. Really, the least the guy would have deserved was to let him put up a decent fight.
And don’t even let me get started on Hedwig! I get that Rowling probably killed her off for the same reason Joss killed Wash in “Serenity”, but then as now I don’t think it was necessary to prove a point or set up an atmosphere of doom. (And I still plan to have some words with Joss on the matter of Wash if I ever get hold of him.) And again, it was one of the worst written death scenes I have ever read. Come on, Hedwig was an important character in the series, just for the love of little kittens acknowledge that fact and don’t just get rid of her in one paltry half-sentence! Not to speak of blowing her up a minute later…
Same goes for Lupin and Tonks. We don’t even get to know how they die. And, really, I get it that some people had to die, what with it being a great battle an’ all. And I’m ok with Fred. Lupin would have been fine,too. Or Tonks. But both of them? That seems like a bit of overkill to me. And the only one I was really hoping would die (because I can’t stand him), namely Hagrid the annoying git, is allowed to stay alive. Damn. The world really is unfair, even the fictional ones.
Well, but all in all I had a good time with the book and it certainly was a worthy conclusion to a great series. Still I am glad I got to read it (and assuage my curiosity) without having to shell out money for it. 
I read the book last year a week after the hype started. I’d say, with so many characters dead, it was indeed overkill. But still can’t wait for the movie — I’ve read somewhere that it’s going to be split into two parts.
I agree, I could see the movie scenes but it will be a good movie!
Yeah, well, as I said I am not much of a fan of the movies, so I won’t be holding my breath. I’m sure I’ll catch it on tv sometime.
I like your new header. Please don’t tell me it’s been up there for weeks and I’ve missed it. I really need to pop in from the Google Reader instead of just staying there, I miss too much.
Once the movies started coming out I gave up on the books. I found myself getting bored with them as the characters aged. I know, that’s when they’re supposed to become more interesting. I think it was all the myriad other characters and situations that had to be followed that began bogging me down. Good for you that you got through all of them.
I’m visiting today to also tell you there is something waiting for you over at my site. Come on over when you have a chance.
But I agree, the RSS reader takes away a lot of the individuality of the blogs we read. I try to pop in to my regular haunts more often.
I know what you mean about HP getting less exciting with every book. I really loved the first 2 or 3 books, but from then on it was just another series. There were way too many characters and sidestories introduced and my main problem was that the whole story was taking itself way too seriously. I can’t stand that. It’s just a story after all. I guess in a couple of years I might even re-read them, but for me the spark went out of it a long while ago. The last book was really quite good, though. Just not extraordinary anymore, like the first one was back in the days…
Wrote about this a while back. Jo Rowling is a first class psychologist–she killed off enough characters for pathos, but managed to do it in ways that gave consolation–Tonks and Lupin have a kid, there’s one Weasley twin left, etc. She also managed to do it pretty unemotionally–the scene with Snape should’ve been a LOT more dramatic!
And yes, I see movie script all over this one–can’t you hear the John Williams music as the train pulls out of the station and the camera rises up in the last scene?
BTW–I HATED number 6. I am currently listening to the books on tape–Jim Dale does a great job with them–but I am planning on jumping right over #6. The “romance” scenes alone make me want to gag…
Very nice blog. And GREAT Thursday 13 headers!!!