6 more minutes. My wife and daughter are in line at the toy shop, and rather bored out of their minds waiting for midnight. My wife read book 1 today, my daughter finished book 6, we watched OotP tonight and then played Scene It: The Harry Potter version, so we are as refreshed as possible. I should be able to read for three or four hours before getting too tired to continue... 4 more minutes...
I finished it a little over an hour ago, granted I haven't slept and have had way too much coffee, but I am pretty happy with the way things turned out.
Damn, that was fast... I'm only on page 540, had to go do a spot of house-sitting for friends, which left me cursing for the hour round trip that I should have ordered it on CD. Go Dobby!
What an ending! Jo managed to stretch out all of the major questions until the last fifty pages or so. Wow. Simply a perfect book. [result]Not enough ONHWF for my tastes, though. . The epilogue could have been another hundred pages long and I doubt few would have minded.[/result]
Last couple of books lost steam for me, so I didn't run out and pick this one up right away. Glad to hear that most have liked it.
Oh, it's a fitting conclusion to the series, though the epilogue sucked. I think for future generations I will rip out the epilogue (we bought three and will donate two to the library, esp since we knew we'd be done before the library opens up on Monday). Neville got his great shining moment and Ginny was conspicuously absent from her heroic moment. And to everyone who predicted that Harry was a Horcrux, I salute you. I really didn't see that coming.
Finished it about 2 hours ago. It was everything I'd hoped for, though I agree the epilogue was a letdown.
The epilogue wrapped some things up, but it was a bit frilly at the same time. SPOILER WARNING... Though the thread is clearly marked... Yes! Several things I had predicted turned out to happen: 1. Of course, Snape VINDICATED!!! I KNEW that Dumbledore had ordered him to kill him... But I was surprised at the exact reason WHY. Never made the connection with the hand. 2. Malfoy REDEEMED! I saw that there was still a chance for him, thought he might redeem himself, and I was right! Yea! That was very nice. One surprise: 1. Harry died! HOLY HECK I didn't see that coming!! Of course, seeing as he didn't COMPLETELY die, it turned out okay. So people were right whether they predicted Harry's demise or not! Overall, an extremely enjoyable book. Probably would have been even more enjoyable had I gotten some sleep and let it last a few days... But I had a great time staying up until midnight and joining the craziness. Did we have anybody here who was actually surprised the way the Snape story turned out? I was a little let down that Dumbledore's "grip" over Snape was merely Snape's love for Lily, but that was kind of sweet at the same time.
Finished a couple hours ago...really enjoyed it. I was surprised that the deaths weren't to more major characters. I predicted that Lupin would die. It was quite an epic ending, we'll see if they can do it justice in the movie. I have to agree that the epilogue was rather disappointing.
Holy shit... sorry for the language but that is my reaction to the book. It is crazy! The biggest emotional roller coaster ever... SPOILER WARNING I too thought Lupin was going to die. He was the last parent like figure of Harry's, well second to last, can't forget Hagrid. Go Neville! Chop that snake up! I LOVED Molly's line, 'NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!' (pg 736, it should be easy to fine ) For the movie, that will get the biggest cheer I guarantee it. I have no idea how the hell they can make this movie .. not long! Theres .. everything has to be in it nearly! Everything is connected! I can't see them cutting much out, crazy book I tell you. I was very happy to have come up with a theory about Olivander two days before it came out. Something like, Voldemort got him and wanted him to make him a new wand to avoid Priori Incantantum(sp?). It was close... I was like, whoa... I believe the US Regular edition cover, is the scene a matter of seconds before Voldemort dies, I did not picture the background like that. The posters of the girls in bikinis in Sirius' room, that is just hilarious. DOBBY!!!! Such a blood-bath... I agree with the Epilogue, it wasn't as.. full of things as I hopped, but a sweet and happy ending. I see why scar is not the last word, it would have been awkward with it at the end.
Phew. Just finished. Unbelievable ending. I was pretty astonished when things really didn't start picking up until around 350 pages into the book! But man...hell of an ending, that. I thought of this: Did anyone predict that Dobby would make a return in this book, let alone such an important one, let alone DIE!??? I sure didn't. That was actually one of the best little twists in the book I thought. As to the epilogue, I think in the short term fans will find it far too short and sappy, but I really think it's in keeping with a tradition of fairy tales. Rowling wanted to give audiences some closure (throwing a freaking bone to those Ron-Hermione freaks I suppose), but she also wanted the ending to remain mysterious, wrapped up in the lovely imaginations of childhood. For me, an adult, I was disappointed, but I'm sure kids won't really care.
The beginning is the most intense beginning to the books, ever... wow I was so happy when Ron and Hermione finally kissed, its about damn time... they've been hinted for it since book one. I want more though... it didn't feel like a good enough closing.. Now we see why Kreacher has to be in movie 5 Has anyone realized there were over 60 deaths? Maybe even close to 70, can't remember how many people Voldemort has killed while hunting for the Hallows and such, but at least.. 67. 10 main characters and 50 others at Hogwarts, and then Voldemort's murderers.
I think what I loved most though was how Rowling kept throwing us down the wrong path, tantalizing us with false leads...that end up all coming together at the end in the most unlikely ways. The Deathy Hollows, the Horcrux search, Snape (man, you gotta love how she wrapped up the Snape subplot! Holy crap! That was QUALITY), etc., all came together brilliantly. And as someone else mentioned, you gotta love how Harry both died and didn't die. Unbelievable (although not surprising given Harry's blatantly obvious Campbellian hero cycle).
I have no idea how she did it but the last... 50 pages were incredible, the whole book was, but it was the end! When we began to know everything. We were supposed to learn more about what Harry's parents did for a life, and I don't recall someone who has never done magic before doing it, am I just forgetting that because everything else was so intense?
I thought it was great. I also liked the epilogue; I have no problems with its sentimentality. Awesome to see Snape redeemed. He may have been a pompous, wretched, toad-poisoning, unhygienic little goof, but it was very rewarding all the same to see him redeemed. What I hadn't seen coming about him was that the doe was his patronus. The whole Grindelwald/Dumbledore connection was excellently planted near the beginning and strung out through the book. There's something very...not satisfying, I guess, but I don't have a better word right now...there's something very satisfying about knowing that Dumbledore, like most everyone else, used to be a stupid teenager. Great to see Neville and Molly get big moments, and to see Bellatrix get axed instead of imprisoned. Also great to see that Hagrid didn't die. Once the spiders had him I thought he was done for. Dobby dying was sad, but Kreacher getting himself turned around was great. I thought Percy was due for the drop, but redemption works fine for me. Lupin dying didn't surprise me. Tonks dying did. When they're first revealed to be dead, lying on the floor near Fred (poor Fred), I had a moment where I sounded like a five-year-old, thinking, "But wait, they're just sleeping, right? They're going to get up soon, right?" I, like christopher d, think the epilogue could've gone on longer without any complaints from me. But there's also something to its short and sweet nature that shows only a couple of the families involved. So there's still plenty of characters to wonder what happened to them. Nice to see Neville become Herbology professor. I tell you what, his character arc throughout the books has to be one of the most satisfying in the series.
At some point yesterday afternoon, I started to wonder how the hell they are going to turn this in to a movie. Normally there is a lot to trim in these books, but aside from they Harry, Ron, and Hermionee walkabout, there isn't a whole lot.
The Onion's AV Club did a live blogging of sorts, having three critics read the book and writing after certain parts. I liked it, some of their reactions were mirroring my own.
The epilogue (and especially the last line) is easily the worst 10 or so pages Rowling has written in this series. Its atrocious. I can't say I "loved" the book, though like all HP books it was a ludicrously fast read, but the epilogue was so awful it affected my opinion of the entire book. And badly. The setup with Harry dying might have worked had there not been another 60 pages left in the book. There's no way Rowling would have finished 10% of the book with another character's point of view, so I never thought Harry was going to die.
re : epilogue. I doubt if she would have done it this way if the series didn't become such a cash cow for everyone concerned. It was almost like, well, I better put something in there. On one hand, you want to know something of what happened to the main characters. On the other hand, you want to leave lots and lots of wiggle room for more books in that Universe even if technically it's not Harry Potter 8 : The World Tour, whether she writes it or not. (I'm thinking here of how the Star Wars Universe blew back up when Zahn came out with the Thrawn Trilogy). The lack of any finality (and yes, I agree with nicephoras, it was pretty awful) in the epilogue save for the broadest of outlines allows for this. About the only part I liked in that whole epilogue is when Harry named his son Albus Severus - thought that was a neat touch.
Why? I thought the last HP movie was fantastic, for example, and while I hated Sirius's death I thought the fifth book was great as well. Its not my fault the epilogue was shit.
That actually annoyed me. Severus wasn't a good person. He was just one who really loved Lily Potter and by extension wanted to save her son (whom he didn't even like). If Voldemort had spared Lily, Snape would have continued as a Death Eater. I figured all along the reason Snape killed Dumbledore was to save Draco's soul (duh), but that doesn't make him a good or brave person. Just an obsessed person who was wronged by a really bad one. One can respect his desire to help Harry through what must have been some trying times, but admire him? To name one's son after the man who effectively condemned his mother to death by spying for Voldemort? I'd have passed on that one. How exactly is he different from, say, Narcissa, who only wanted to save Draco and thus lied about Harry being dead? Does that make her a good person?
Of course... It's rather like listening to W.A. Mozart's Requiem, and hearing the distinct drop in quality from where Mozart's student took over finishing it up at the Maestro's death. She's said in interviews that that was one of the first bits of the entire series that she wrote -- so she's had 10 years to hone her style, which has improved dramatically -- and it definitely shows in the epilogue. As for the rest, please don't take it personally, it's just that I've found some of your posts to have a touch of the cynic about them.