I finished reading HPATDH/HP7 last night (July 29, 2007). I read the book over four nights (not consecutive, with the rally last night - I read almost half of the book - when I couldn't put down the book no matter how droopy my eyelids had become. I just had to find out what happened to Harry!)
My thoughts, without hopefully being a spoilsport:
- I liked how J. K. Rowling wrapped up the Harry Potter epic/saga. It's an ending you will heave a sigh of relief over. The last chapter, actually an epilogue, is a nice touch.
- I hated the deaths of some of the characters. I was surprised to be touched by the death of one of the elves. Maybe because of how Harry treated it/him in death?
- I could relate to the dynamics among Harry, Hermione and Ron, specially when Harry seemed to lose his leadership role toward the middle of the book, and Hermione and Ron expressed their doubts leading to Ron leaving and Hermione struggling to stay in the group.
- J. K. Rowling obviously wanted to tie up all loose ends - some are welcome while some feel like really contrived. In the process, one must indeed have read the previous editions, to connect the dots, so to speak. The plot and subplots may appear to be convoluted/confusing at first but things clear up later on.
- Everyone being accounted for at Hogwarts toward the end seemed very, very contrived. Just about everyone must have a cameo at least (Trelawney hurling crystal balls, etc.)
- The action scenes are really dynamic; the movie version would be edge-of-your-seat excitement if the movie director would be up to it.
- I somehow feel Lord Voldemort was quite a letdown in this final edition - anticlimatic would perhaps be the better term. After all the build up as to his seeming invincibility that you can't even say his name out loud....
- The revelations about Snape and the last Horcrux are very plausible; the Dumbledore back story, likewise.
- The other back stories (the Lovegoods, Petunia and Lily Evans, etc.) add a lot of value. The love angles (Hermione and Ron, Tonks and Lupin, and even Snape and ...) are good stuff. Intriguing was the youthful bond between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
- The come-uppance of the bad characters (the Malfoys, etc.) are well-deserved while a few others are vaguely redeemed (Dudley, for one).
- Other characters considered minor earlier, come into their own (Neville Longbottom, etc.) here.
- This must be the edition that has a lot of spells, old and new.
- The manipulations (such as of the press) by the Ministry of Magic as taken over by the Death Eaters, and of how the Muggles were being treated due to their lack of wizardry in their blood, reminded me of how dictatorships also behave (think Ferdinand Marcos) to force its will on the people.
- The tale of the Deathly Hallows was very intriguing and interesting. And though it's in the title, it figures belatedly in the book.
