Deathly Hallows: My Review (SPOILERS!)

[Phyllis]

No: HPFGUIDX 172221

Ding-dong we now can post 
Which new book? The Deathly `Los! 
Ding-dong the posting now may start 
Wake up you sleepyhead 
Rub your eyes, get out of bed 
Wake up it's time you all had read 
Jo's done what she meant to do 
We rue – we rue – we rue 
You too, let's open up and rate and make the posts fly 
Ding Dong, the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low 
Let them know the posting now may start! 

::end of filked spoiler space::

Overall, I loved the seventh book - I loved how fast-moving it was, 
how Rowling didn't waste time (and create boredom) by explaining the 
previous 6 books or re-describing the settings and the characters - 
you really had to have read the rest of the series for Book 7 to 
make sense.  I also loved having one-seventh of the dedication 
devoted to the fans :) 

However ... I thought Harry being protected by Lily's sacrifice 
because it lives on in Voldemort's blood would mean that, when Harry 
finally killed the Horcrux-less Voldemort, Harry would die as well. 
Dumbledore tells Harry (in "King's Cross"): "He tethered you to life 
while he lives," so shouldn't that mean that Harry dies when 
Voldemort dies?  Perhaps I was just overly prepared for Harry to 
die :)
 
I've never been a big "Harry as a Horcrux" fan - I've always thought 
that Harry couldn't be as pure as he is if he had a bit of Voldemort 
inside him.  Doesn't Dumbledore tell him in Book 6 that Voldemort 
underestimates the power of a soul that is complete and pure?  And 
how could Harry look into the Mirror of Erised and see nothing but 
himself getting the Stone to protect it from Voldemort if a piece of 
Voldemort was inside him?  We've seen how powerful these pieces of 
Voldemort can be, but perhaps it's different if the Horcrux isn't 
made intentionally?  Harry really wasn't an actual Horcrux, was he?  
A bit of Voldy's unstable soul went into him, but I don't think that 
makes him a Horcrux.  In Slughorn's memory, when Riddle asks 
Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, Slughorn tells Riddle "there is a 
spell - don't ask me, I don't know!"  So presumably there's more to 
making a Horcrux that simply having your soul break off and go into 
another object/person/thing after you commit murder.  Despite this, 
I thought the self-sacrifice this required of Harry was wonderful.  

I was having a bit of trouble with the "rightful owner" of the wand 
concept – I could see how it worked for Draco, since he 
actually "took" the elder wand from Dumbledore with a disarming 
charm, but I was struggling with how it worked for Harry, since he 
didn't actually take the elder wand from Draco – he took Draco's own 
hawthorn wand.  It seems as if it would have worked better if Draco 
had actually taken possession of Dumbledore's wand and fled with it 
the night Dumbledore died, and then when Voldemort needed a 
different wand, Draco could have given him the elder wand.  But I 
suppose then we would have lost the whole thread about Voldemort 
searching for the wand, and Harry choosing Horcruxes over Hallows, 
and the excuse for Voldemort to kill Snape (the latter being an 
excellent way of showing how truly merciless Voldemort was).
 
Finishing Voldemort by a backfired AK was great - before the 
release, I was wondering how Harry was supposed to finish Voldemort 
off, because I couldn't see how Rowling would let him cast an AK 
when she's made it clear that murder is the act of supreme evil. But 
then we see Harry casting the other two Unforgiveable Curses, so I 
thought that might be getting us ready for an AK at the end. But I'm 
really glad she didn't have him cast an AK.

I loved Molly finishing Bellatrix (especially Molly calling 
Bellatrix a "bitch" – are these really books for children?!?), but 
thought it would have been more fitting for Neville to have killed 
her since she was the one who tortured his parents into insanity. 
But Rowling doesn't seem to want to have any of the kids do an AK.

If Harry wasn't to be a goner, I thought we'd lose someone really 
important (like Ron or Hagrid). But perhaps Rowling thinks killing 
Dumbledore and Snape was enough.  And losing Lupin and Tonks, when 
they had just found happiness with one another and had just had a 
baby, was tough (presumably Bellatrix killed them to "prune" her 
family tree?), although it would have been more powerful if we could 
have seen the deaths happen.

I fully expected to be vindicated in my conviction that Snape has 
always been evil, particularly given how he did nothing to spare the 
Muggle studies teacher from death, told Voldemort about Harry's 
correct departure date, took part in the chase to kill Harry after 
he left Privet Drive and Sectumsempra-d George's ear off (loved the 
ear jokes!).  If it was not covered in spiders, I would take my hat 
off to all LOLLIPOPS believers (of which I was never one).
 
I felt the loss of both Hedwig and Dobby much more than Mad-Eye or 
some of the other deaths. I think it's because of how much Harry 
cared for them. These deaths were also really unexpected – there has 
been all of this speculation about who will die, but I don't think 
anyone predicted the non-humans.

I thought the unknown Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Horcrux would be from 
Gryffindor, and that they would find it in Godric's Hollow.  But I 
suppose having the unknown Horcrux be one of Ravenclaw's makes 
sense, since Gryffindor's sword needed to be used to destroy them, 
and therefore they needed one item from all four founders to 
completely destroy Voldemort's protection.  As soon as they 
discovered the Horcrux was a diadem, I felt sure it was the one 
Harry had used to mark where he had hidden the HBP's Potions book.
 
So Harry and Voldemort were actually related after all!  The book 
doesn't explicitly state this, but it must be, if both the Potters 
and the Gaunts are descendants of the Peverells.  That surprised me, 
given how much emphasis was placed on Harry being a true Gryffindor 
and not being Slytherin's heir in Book 2.  But I suppose Rowling 
would chalk that up to all of the pure-blood families being related 
at some point in their family trees (and continuing into the 
present - take Ted Tonks Jr. seeing off cousin Victoire on the 
Hogwarts Express, whom he apparently is dating).  
 
I loved how Neville killed Nagini with Gryffindor's sword, although 
I thought Harry was going to need to use Parseltongue to finish off 
the snake.  If the only Horcrux Harry wound up destroying was the 
diary, why couldn't he have more help in tracking down and 
destroying them? 

I thought we'd go back to the MOM and find out what all of those 
rooms meant.  What was the point of dragging out the ending of OotP 
otherwise? 

Like everyone else, I thought RAB was Sirius' brother, and that 
Kreacher had spared the locket from the bin, but while most thought 
the locket was still at Grimmauld Place, I had guessed that the 
locket had been stolen from Grimmauld Place by Mundungus, so I was 
glad to have been right on that small point (especially when I was 
so wrong on so many other guesses!). Having Kreacher be the one to 
have drunk the potion and have been left on the island to die was 
completely unexpected.  I thought that was brilliant.
 
I didn't think it worked to have Ron open the Chamber of Secrets to 
get out the basilisk fangs - either you know Parseltongue or you 
don't - how could he fake it?  If that were the case, presumably 
Dumbledore could have made his way into the Chamber in Book 2.

I could have done without the "19 years later" epilogue, especially 
since the flow kept breaking when I had to pause to puzzle out who 
was related to whom. I think Rowling probably felt a need to include 
the epilogue to avoid being pestered for a sequel to explain who 
everyone winds up with.  But I thought the book would have ended 
better without it.

I reached the end of the US edition of DH and realized that I still 
had no idea what the US cover art meant.  It could be the final 
Harry-Voldy confrontation, but in the picture, Harry is still 
wearing the locket Horcrux (which had already been destroyed by 
then), and he doesn't have a wand in his right hand. Moreover, while 
the sky is kinda red-gold (it's more a sickly shade of orange to me, 
actually), the rest of the backdrop doesn't look anything like the 
Great Hall - it's more Roman Colosseum. And what's up with the 
curtains on either side and the jagged pieces of wood underfoot? 

There are still thousands of remaining unanswered questions - why 
were we able to find out Neville's profession, but not Ron, Harry's, 
Hermione's or Ginny's?  After all of the focus on careers in OotP, I 
thought we'd be told.  Presumably none of them are teachers at 
Hogwarts (as they would have been able to give their love to Neville 
in person), but that's about all I can discern from the epilogue.  I 
suppose Harry could be an Auror, although he appears not to want to 
have any more to do with killing off dark wizards after finishing 
Voldy (who could blame him?).  I don't think he is an 
internationally famous Quidditch player, as presumably everyone 
would have been rushing up to him on the platform for an autograph, 
but then, shouldn't they have been rushing up to him for an 
autograph solely due to the fact that he finished Voldy?  Or is that 
old news 19 years later?  But the kids do stare at him from the 
train windows ...

And lots of hints that things JKR said would be significant never 
came up or were answered - what James and Lily did for a living was 
supposed to be important; how James got all of the money he passed 
on to Harry was also supposed to be important; some of the teachers 
were married, but she couldn't tell us which ones because it would 
give too much away. Etc.

The acknowledgements on JKR's website are great - but why didn't she 
include them in the 7th book so they could last for all eternity 
(and be accessible to those without a computer)?

Cheers,
Phyllis