My take on DH.

[Charles Walker Jr]

No: HPFGUIDX 172547

I was trying to read everyone's posts befor I did mine, but there
ain't no way that's going to happen. I may repeat or step all over
what others have said, but these are my opinions, and I just want to
air them so, here goes:

I loved it, and hated it all at the same time. This was not the book
I'd been expecting. It is so much more and less than I wanted to see.
I would say that it is definitely JKR writing what she wanted to, and
the devil with what we'd say about it, it's *her* story.

I wanted the opening scenes with the Dursleys to be so much different.
I wanted Harry to get his revenge on them, and I don't mean making
them go off with "some of his lot." I wanted Harry, Ron, and Hermione
to sit them down and educate them on why their treatment of Harry was
wrong, preferably in a way that involved some bumps and bruises for
Vernon Dursley.

As I have said in another post, the one death I can never forgive her
for is Hedwig. Uncool. Very uncool.

While I don't like it, JKR did prove that Dumbledore is a conniving
son-of-a-bludger. I knew there was a lot that he wasn't letting on,
but I had no idea of the scope of his lies. Yes, he was on the side of
good, but zark.

Harrycrux. Yuck. I rejected this theory time and again, only to have
it smacked back into my face by the author herself.

Other Horcruxes: This is where JKR shines in this book. To have
horcruxes destroyed by different people is great. My wife pointed out
that each of the horcruxes in DH was destroyed by a person who LV had
negatively affected. Locket: Ron, who lost a brother and had family
members mutilated and posessed. Cup: Hermione, the muggleborn who LV's
regime was trying to exterminate. Diadem: Crabbe, a representative of
all those kids of DE's who had family life leading them toward the
dark side. Nagini: Neville, who suffered the loss of his parents minds
to LV's cause.

Kreacher: YES!!! I was so stoked that the little toerag could turn
over a new leaf. I want so much for Kreacher to be Harry & Ginny's elf
for the remainder of his days, because it would be exactly what
Kreacher wants too at this point.

Dobby: If I didn't already wear all black all the time, I would be
doing so now for Dobby. This is the one character death that truly
made me cry. It was salient and meaningful, but nonetheless painful.

Moldybutt's Ministry: Yuck again. I know I wasn't supposed to like it,
but from Rufus Scrimgeour's lockstep anti-DE to totally lost in about
a month. Can you say contrived? I knew that you could. 

The humor: This is something that very few writers can really do
effectively, the comic relief in dark times. Ron saying "Really gives
a feeling for the whole scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn't it?"
was just the balm my frazzled nerves needed.

The epilogue: Almost perfect. (And yes, I can hear the Ginny haters
warming up their blowtorches.) It did need more, I felt. I wanted some
info on "His Holeyness" and Luna. Those two additions, and I would
have been satisfied with the epilogue.

There's about twelve billion other things that I'm sure will get
discussed, but I don't have the time or energy to type them all.

Charles, who thinks that JKR left herself room to write another seven
book series on the rebuilding of the WW, centering on Kingsley,
Arthur, and Percy.