HP: Deathly Hallows - finished
Jul. 21st, 2007 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
600 pages, about 5 hours frantic reading for me. :)
I thought it was a good ending to the series. (ie. "Wow...")
On the whole, I enjoyed the story, the storytelling, the way she tied things up. Okay, so maybe the epilogue was a bit much. (Personal opinion.)
JKR's come a long way in ten years as a writer, and obviously that brief stint without an editor during her writing of Order Of The Phoenix has been duly rectified.
If anyone wants to discuss spoilers when they've finished, go for it. I'm all up for being spammitied and hijacked on the discussion front!
ETA: Harry Potter And The Book Disguises: no spoilers, just a bunch of book jackets for those who might be ashamed of being caught reading the HP books in public...
I thought it was a good ending to the series. (ie. "Wow...")
On the whole, I enjoyed the story, the storytelling, the way she tied things up. Okay, so maybe the epilogue was a bit much. (Personal opinion.)
JKR's come a long way in ten years as a writer, and obviously that brief stint without an editor during her writing of Order Of The Phoenix has been duly rectified.
If anyone wants to discuss spoilers when they've finished, go for it. I'm all up for being spammitied and hijacked on the discussion front!
ETA: Harry Potter And The Book Disguises: no spoilers, just a bunch of book jackets for those who might be ashamed of being caught reading the HP books in public...
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Date: 2007-07-21 07:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-21 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-21 08:30 am (UTC)Overall I feel like she just tied up everything far too much, in a way, which I never say. Plus, one of the deaths I take issue with because of who said death directly affects.
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Date: 2007-07-21 10:09 am (UTC)I liked that she tied it up so much. But then, I'm not as invested in ships or pairings; I really like the story in the HP books and JKR pretty much delivered as far as she was able IMO.
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Date: 2007-07-21 12:20 pm (UTC)But after reading it, I have to say I enjoyed it. (But I agree with
Anyway, just a comment that perhaps all hope is not yet lost.
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Date: 2007-07-21 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-21 07:51 pm (UTC)I also thought the epilogue was a bit much (honestly, the names of the children couldn't be more cliche, except for the third who I thought was adorable) but she's had that written for years, so if that's the way she wanted to end it.
I'll probably post my own squee fest over at my eljay later this weekend, once I've got some proper sleep! All night reads certainly take a lot out of someone.
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Date: 2007-07-21 10:23 pm (UTC)Yes, a little bit too much. And the names she gave the kids? *shudders*
It was like fanfic!
PersonaIly, I thought that the epilogue was her way of saying "No sequels! Nothing happens for nineteen years, so I'm not going to write Harry in another adventure, so ner!"
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Date: 2007-07-21 11:44 pm (UTC)Which is, obviously, completely her choice, and I really can't blame her! However, I do hope that some day she'll revisit the Wizarding World, even if it's with completely different characters.
The epilogue was VERY fanfic, especially the names of the kids, but... ya know what? It was happy. Happy happy happy. And Harry needed that, and damn it by the time I got to the end so did I!
That 19 years will be a fanfic writer's ultimate playground.
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Date: 2007-07-22 01:13 am (UTC)Awww...
That 19 years will be a fanfic writer's ultimate playground.
...as long as you ship Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione, anyway. :)
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Date: 2007-07-22 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 06:19 am (UTC)*coughs*
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Date: 2007-07-22 06:34 am (UTC)*points to icon* HEE!
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Date: 2007-07-22 06:39 am (UTC)Luna so completely rocked my socks. "I'd want some time alone, if it was me."
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Date: 2007-07-22 12:53 am (UTC)That was exactly it! I thought I had walked into every "Second Generation" fic I had ever read when I opened the epilogue, which really disappointed me. But a big chunk of Harry Potter fans don't read fan fic, so maybe it'll seem less stuffed full of cheese than it would to us. The last few pages of it we all right though - I liked Albus Severus (unfortunate naming skills, those Potters) and the ending was fitting. The last word wasn't "scar" though, so I'm sure that's going to put somebody into a fit.
I'm staying away from all the major HP sites because the wank will really kill my enthusiasm for the book. It'll be entertaining, for sure, but really disappointing - especially if there's any wank like there was last year with the whole H/Hr, R/Hr, G/H ship wars. That's why I only shipped an established relationship while in that fandom - waaaay less wank to deal with.
At least, IMO, the epilogue gave the impression that Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny didn't see each other all that much. And I loved the fact that Teddy Lupin pratically lived at the Potters house.
What'd you think about all the deaths in this book? I think it's should be renamed Harry Potter and the Ginormus Bloodbath that Killed Someone's Favorite Character at Some Point in Time.
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Date: 2007-07-22 01:12 am (UTC)I was hanging out for a bit more of an open end so I could hook up Harry and Luna. ;) But that's okay. Luna rocked the casbah - she was adorable. *still loves*
Neville came good - really good. He was utterly and totally awesome, IMO.
The deaths...well, I was never expecting everyone to get through. Snape - definitely not. All the Weasleys? Not likely. Mad-Eye? Very unlikely.
As I described to a friend: "Voldemort kills Harry." And she was all "YAY!" (she just wants it to be over)
And then I told her that Harry kills Voldemort. And she was all "WHAT?! NO! HE CAN'T DO A BECKETT!"
*laughs*
Probably the deaths that got me were Remus and Tonks. I wasn't exactly expecting that, although it seals the circle for the Marauders.
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Date: 2007-07-22 01:39 am (UTC)Those are the ones that got me too. They had just had a kid, for Pete's sake! :( And then Dobby. Poor Dobby, I never liked him much, but I didn't expect him to die. Cried like a little girl when that happened, I'll admit it. Also cried like a little girl when Fred died. In fact, I cried mye eyes out every half hour or so - Ron and Harry's make-up scene and the Manly Hug of Best Friends, Lily's letter, the graveyard scene, Dobby's death scene, Kreacher's story, Percy coming back...the last three chapters or so were just an emotional mess for me.
Luna and Neville were really good, I agree. And Neville's a Herbology professor, hehe! DH certainly made up for the lack of time they had in HBP. In fact, all the minor character appearances were really good - Dean, Lupin, Kreacher, the rest of the DA. (was it just me or did I sense some Dean/Luna near the end?) I ended up loving Kreacher to bits by the end of the book. All he needed was some love, poor kid.
Also, Mrs. Weasley's wins at life for, "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" and for kicking Bellatrix's ass.
I was actually a bit confused by Harry's resurrection scene, probably because my brain screaming "SLEEP FOOL!" at that point in time. Did he come back because he had mastered the Deathly Hallows or because Voldemort still anchored part of his soul to the living world? Or was it a combination of them both?
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Date: 2007-07-22 01:51 am (UTC)Harry Potter, weekend typo lord.
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Date: 2007-07-22 02:58 am (UTC)I was actually a bit confused by Harry's resurrection scene
Okay, as I understand it, Voldie AK'd Harry with the Elder Wand - which can't be used against Harry...
Wait. The second time he AKs Harry, the spell rebounds on Voldie.
Hmm...
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Date: 2007-07-22 03:42 am (UTC)Was it just me and my sleep adled mind or did the Voldemort's death scene seem a bit...anticlimatic? All that monologuing.
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Date: 2007-07-22 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 11:27 am (UTC)People give their kids names of meaning, D+L are middle named after their uncle/grandfather/great-grandfathers on either side of the family, not first-named cus I didn't want kids named James and George :/
Peter is middle named after his god-father (his fathers best friend) his brother (2nd son) is named after his father (as is the family tradition)
And my mum never had a son but she did name our hamster after her friend who died ;)
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Date: 2007-07-22 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-23 01:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 08:04 pm (UTC)Indeed, the internet is for insane amounts of silliness. ;)