Tuesday night, around seven-thirty PM, with a sigh,

[snugglekitty]

and a feeling that on the whole, things could have turned out much worse, I finished Harry Potter, Book 7.

Wednesday morning, I had an enjoyable time with desiringsubject ranting about the things we didn't like about the ending of the book.

And now, I will share some of those thoughts with you.



So, the first thing is, I feel I must give great gobs of credit to Ms. Rowling for the following:

The book doesn't suck. I mean, really, it doesn't - I'm not just being snarky. And that's a real achievement. It's hard to end a series well, especially one with as much critical acclaim as she's gotten. I find it hard to believe that she has any editors left who are willing and able to be honest and critical - thus, the fact that the last book doesn't suck is mostly a testament to her own effort and writing skill. I'd give it three and a half stars.

Now, moving on.

1) "OMG, FRED! THEY KILLED FRED! YOU BASTARDS!" Everybody's all broken up about it (other than me - I mean the characters). Except then, nobody bothers to name their kid after Fred, even when naming your kids after the dead people seems to be all the rage.
2) Albus Severus? Nobody's gonna make fun of THAT name. Oh no. Actually, you don't have to make fun of it, it makes fun of itself.
3) The explanation of how and why Voldy and Harry were connected? Really didn't do it for me. At all.
4) Actually, that whole "You're kind of dead, but not really, so you get closure and all your questions answered," thing was really annoying.
5) The epilogue was way too treacle-y (and I am the princess of treacle-y endings!). I would have traded all of that for a view of Harry and Ginny's post-battle reunion. Does she yell at him? Does he apologize for being a dweeb? I sure hope so.
6) As desiringsubject points out, we have no idea about the adult lives of the main characters. What do they do for a living? Where do they live? How do they deal with their celebrity status?
7) Did Hermione change her name to Weasley? Somehow I don't see that happening. Are they the Weasley-Grangers?
8) Who the heck was raising Teddy Lupin? Why wouldn't it be, say, HIS GODFATHER?
9) I really wanted the missing diadem to be the one that Fleur wore to her wedding. It would have been more interesting that way.
10) We're camping, we're camping, we're getting on each other's nerves because we're carrying a cursed object on our skin, we're getting on your nerves too. Grrr.
11) Why on EARTH would you not put the extremely valuable and desirable sword of Gryffindor in the Bag of Holding if you knew you were about to be discovered?
12) The goblin sneakily forces you to keep your end of your deal, and you call him evil. Dudes, what did you expect? You were the ones who entered into it on false pretenses!
13) How did the sword wind up in the Sorting Hat again? If the goblins were so intent on property rights, wouldn't they do something to keep it from getting Summoned by wizards?
14) Wouldn't Snape also get a portrait in the Headmaster's office? Does that sort of thing happen automatically? How long does it take?

Some things I did like:
- Harry's saving of Malfoy saving his life later
- Remus and Tonks dying together (ish) - I mean, I like both characters, I'm sad they died, but it really just seemed appropriate and in character.
- The way that most of the characters are revealed to be shades of grey, not just black or white, in the last book. Ie, Dumbledore wasn't perfect!
- The book was long, but didn't seem long.
- Once again, it didn't suck.



By the way, I need a new Hermione icon. Has anyone seen good screen caps of her reading from any of the more recent movies?

Comments

[katkt.livejournal.com]

14) Wouldn't Snape also get a portrait in the Headmaster's office? Does that sort of thing happen automatically? How long does it take?

I recently re-read book 6 and noticed that Dumbledore's portrait appeared (with Dumbledore asleep) the same night he was killed, before it was public knowledge. But there could easily be some minimum duration or some action the headmaster has to take pre-mortem to make it happen that Snape didn't take.

I didn't like the epilogue either, so I mostly ignored it - at least this time through. And the "Pardon me while I, the author, explain the stuff to you I couldn't think of any other way to work in in a reasonable number of pages even though I dithered on with that annoying section where they annoy eachother for EVER" chapter? Yeah, I didn't like that either.

My initial impression is that it's the best written of the 7 (for the obvious reason that she's been spending the last 10 years planning it). The consistency things (11,13, that sort of stuff) don't bother me -- there are just so many in HP, you have to suspend disbelief or everything unravels. That's a flaw, but somehow (in some way I can't figure out) she manages to overcome it.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I was really overwhelmingly annoyed that we heard nothing at all about the adults' lives post-Voldemort and only about their kids. It makes me wonder if she's leaving herself room to make a new series if she wants to, about the second generation's adventures at Hogwarts. Did Harry become an Auror after all? Did he decide he wanted a quieter life? It looks as if none of the main four -- not even Hermione -- is a professor at Hogwarts, which is a bit sad. I thought maybe Harry would become the first Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that they could actually keep.

In general, though, I enjoyed the book. I've been going back through the earlier books and being impressed at how much of Book 7 was foreshadowed in books 2 - 6.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Yes. I can't imagine Hermione being a stay-at-home mom, or, in fact, anything other than a Hogwarts professor or librarian.

I also wondered if Harry became an Auror. And what on earth did Ron do with his life, besides marrying Hermione? Very dissatisfied with the lack of treatment of the heroes as adults.

I agree, though, in general I liked the book.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I am assuming that Tonks' mom raised Teddy Lupin. Which I think is appropriate, considering she lost absolutely everyone else in her life.

I've heard several people say they wanted to see an actual conversation between Harry and Ginny and who felt cheated that they didn't get that. So you're not alone there.

I wondered about no one naming a kid Fred, either. I mean, did Ginny get no say in their children's names? And where did Ron and Hermione get those names from? Although we didn't see a Future George--it's entirely possible he has six kids and named them all Fred.

Regarding Albus Severus: it seems to me that tons and tons of people have weird-ass names in the wizarding world. Nymphadora, Bellatrix, Mundungus, etc., although Harry's generation seems to have slightly more normal names. But I'm betting Harry's son wasn't the first of Dumbledore's namesakes.

I think the sword and the Sorting Hat both had some powerful magic in them. In Chamber of Secrets Harry pulled the sword out of the hat when he was down in the basement and it was up in Dumbledore's office; I don't see a reason why Neville couldn't do the same even if the sword was in a Gringotts vault or something. It's a magic hat, and a magic sword.

I understand the complaints a lot of people had about the epilogue, but honestly, I didn't care about having more details about their adult lives. Whether Harry decided to become an auror and keep fighting evil or if he decided to take over Fortescue's ice cream shop or something and live a quiet life, I don't think it matters. I think the purpose of the epilogue was to show that life went on, and people were happy, and Harry appreciated what Snape had done. The last line kind of summed it up. Leaving it open to the degree that she did was okay by me, and the reader fills in the blanks. I think it worked.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I actually assume that Harry DID raise Teddy -- that's why he was "our Teddy". It's just that he was 19 at the time of the epilogue, and so not with the whole family.

What gets ME is that how there is no divorce, all marriages are happy, and everyone gets married right out of high school. WTF?