Revolutionary Rants

*** SPOILERS ***

Do not read if you do not want to know the plot of the final ‘Harry Potter’ book!!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - a review

I keep promising a review of this, and it is now a week or so since I read it, so I have had time to digest it and decide what I think…

After all the hype and excitement leading up to this book, it finally arrived on my doorstep at 8:00am last Saturday, pausing only for a birthday party and sleep I had in finished by Sunday afternoon. When I finished I felt both happy and sad; glad it was over and I knew what happened and sad because there were no more adventures to come. Half-Blood Prince remains my favourite of the series, but I was not, on the whole, disappointed by DH. The ending let me down somewhat and parts of it dragged (rather like Order of the Phoenix in places, as if Rowling was just trying to make it last a few pages longer) but overall it was an exciting - if very far-featched - outing for Harry and co.

I felt the book really missed the Hogwarts setting, with the trio (or at times, duo) on the run for most of the book doing very little. We had the usual moral shaping of characters, with Ron’s loyalty being broken and Hermione having to learn to forgive his argumentative and impetuous nature. In forgiving him, she forgives herself - of the same problems - and the two can overcome their differences. One of the laugh-out-loud funny moments comes when Ron and Hermione finally get together, as only they could, during the final battle when Ron embraces Hermione’s politics.

There is a lot about forgiveness and trust in this book, with Harry coming to trust Kreature the house elf and lose trust (only to regain it later) in Lupin, Dumbledore and Ron; three characters he had previously had blind faith in. He also learns the truth about Snape, who he had always just a blindly hated.

Although Harry has escaped many near-death situations, the “action” scenes in this book seemed somehow even more unlikely. Perhaps because all the others involved the school, with the powerful teachers near at hand, and these had only the trio. They escape Nagini, Death Eaters, Voldermort himself, the Malfoy/Bellatrix household, evil werewolf dudes, Gringott’s and other bizarre situations with apparent ease. I found the escape, on dragon, from Gingott’s especially unlikely. Yes, I know it’s a story, but even so!

The ending did annoy me quite a lot. Rowling is always talking about how “anyone can die, as in life” but then she lets Harry come back to life, Christ-like, after a prolonged visit with yet another dead character (Dumbledore)… There is a suggestion that the dead are still available to us, living in another life rather than actually gone. Very few “major characters” die (as we were informed would prior to the books release), in fact only one Weasley (Fred), Lupin, Tonks, Moody and the ever irritating Dobby pass away. I was most upset at the loss of Hedwig and Snape, if I am honest. Lupin had the feeling of living on borrowed time since Askaban, really… The best bit wa, my favourite, Neville proving he is the hero I always said he was!!!

She gave the characters fairy-tale endings, living happily ever after with their childhood sweet-hearts. I mean, how many people do you know who are with the people they fancied at 14? Nice though it is to imagine them all living in a blissful wizarding world, paired off with similar people to those they were with a Hogwarts, it is not realistic.

Still, it is good to know what happens and kind of gooey to know they all survived and went on to live happy lives. And Neville lived. What more could you ask for, really?