Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows seems to have a little something for every fan who's ever opened the pages of a Harry Potter novel. Favorite characters, major and minor, get to show off their grit and resolve in new ways and some established characters just surprise us. It was at times clever (Herbology students defending the castle with plants), at times poignent (the "war memorial" and Ron's feelings for Hermione), sometimes amusing, almost always a page-turner. That said, Miss Rowling seemed to be trying to pack far too much into the series conclusion. Few are likely to be disappointed that their favorite character or characters are shortchanged, but the sheer volume of things going on rather detracts from, for instant, Neville's moments of heroic defiance (it just gets lost in the chaos going on at the moment). For my money, the book felt somehow "cluttered" with all the character development (which I'm usually a great fan of -- but even a good thing can be overdone). Some of the resolutions and outs seem contrived, a first from Miss Rowlings. Also, some of the deaths seemed not just pointless and gratuitious, but failed to advance the plot in any concrete way. Even the aftermath of VERY these important losses is never dealt with in anything approaching detail. The impact on the main characters especially is hardly mentioned at all.

As my brother-in-law put it, reading it sometimes feels more like you're perusing a script for the upcoming "Deathly Hallows" movie. A good book, but hardly Rowlings' best to date. I enjoyed it, true, but I had expected better. Perhaps there was just too many expectations for the story to live up to and it couldn't meet the hype. But it DOES warp up the story well, brings a sense of closure to our favorite main characters (such as survive, that is), and leaves plenty of room for sequels. Not one I'd pay full cover-price for but, picked up used on Amazon or half.com, it's worth having and a good way to spend a weekend stuck indoors.