Wasn't Anyone Else Disappointed?

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 133074

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richard Jones" 
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:
> Maybe it's just postpartum depression after all the wait, but I 
> thought HBP was disappointing.  It lacked the imagination of the 
> earlier books.  For example, the first half could have had much 
more 
> humor — at one point when Ron was and took it out on a first year, 
I 
> expected a set up for a nice zinger and all we got was lame 
> comment "It's not polite to point!"  Or part of the fun is that the 
> witches and wizards have funny names, but in this book we more 
often 
> just got "Bob" and "Jimmy" than any interesting names.
> 

I think the "heaviness" of the first part of the book apropriately 
reflected the seriousness of the Wizarding War. These are dark days 
for the Wizarding world---disappearances, deaths, anxiety and fear. 
Serious times. 


> Part of my disappointment concerned Hermione.  She had been my 
> favorite character in the first five books.  In the previous books, 
I 
> was always glad when Hermione spoke, but in HBP by page 200 I just 
> wanted her to leave — she was always either boring or shrill.  And 
> she showed a nasty streak I never would have expected (turning 
those 
> birds on Ron, going out with Cormac just to annoy Ron) — I guess 
hell 
> hath no fury like a teenage witch in love.

I thought Hermione was the most "real" in this book. In the other 
books I found her character to be superficial, emotionless and 
annoying. While she did continue her annoying habit of showing 
everyone how well she can memorize textbooks, she was also as close 
to a teenaged girl as possible.  


> My least favorite topic — shipping — showed the problem.  I 
expected 
> some fun twists in this area, but all we got was the obvious — H/G 
> and Hr/R.  It wasn't a perfectly straight line, but still there 
were 
> no surprises, only the boringly obvious (obvious at least to the 
> superficial reading of the issue that someone who, like me, isn't a 
> shipper gave the issue in the first five books).  Maybe she was 
just 
> clearly the decks for something interesting in Book7.
> 

I'm one of those unimaginative folks who 2 years ago in this group 
sided with the people who "saw" the clues that Rowling put out about 
a Ron-Hermione pairing and a Harry-Ginny pairing. Lots of interesting 
discussions concerning Rowling's intent, but I'm glad what happened 
in HBP happened.

Frankly, I hope she kills Harry off in Book 7, but again, I can only 
hope.

> The middle of the book was well, dull compared to the other books.  
> Of course, things picked up at the end, but all I can say is that a 
> thought forced itself into my mind while reading the middle of HBP 
> that never ever occurred to me while reading any of the other five 
> books — "when will this be over?" 
> 
> All this does not bode well for what we can expect in Book 7.  I, 
of 
> course, still look forward to Book 7, but not with the excitement I 
> had anticipated before reading HBP.  I'll reread it next month and 
> maybe my opinion will change.
> 
> Richard Jones

The bits about Voldemort's history were interesting to me. Rowling 
handled more like a psychological profile, which I think is what 
Harry needs to kill Voldemort. And yes, I do think Harry will kill 
Voldemort in Book 7. 

I guess I liked the book because I stayed far, far, far away from HP 
fanfic and I stayed far away from this group (not that I don't like 
reading what you all have to contribute but I found GoF and OoP to be 
disappointing and I think it was because the discussions here built 
my expectations more than necessary.)  

Once Book 7 comes out, I'll probably take a trip into the fanfic 
vaults, but I want to remain as "virginal" as possible until then.

Milz