Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[oyceter]

LJ! You are back! Never leave me again!

Huh. So it's done.

Speaking as a moderate fan of the Harry Potter books, I enjoyed it, am sad that it's over, but still don't think HP is the best thing I have ever read.

I felt the pacing of the book was definitely off; I spent half of the book wondering when Harry, Ron, and Hermione would just get on with it and get to the next Horcrux already. I also rolled my eyes a lot at Harry's emo pain. In terms of characterization, it makes sense to have Harry wanting to go off chasing every loose end and constantly doubting Dumbledore and feeling betrayed by him. But in terms of reader experience, it was really boring. I kept wanting to shake Harry and say, "You do this every single book! Listen to Hermione, for once! Also, please stop doubting Dumbledore what with the every-single-book thing!"

I also have had problems with the women in the series that are still in this book: all the main actors are men (Voldemort, Dumbledore, Snape, Harry), and nearly all the women are objects of romantic affection and/or mothers. The exceptions to this are McGonagall, who unfortunately doesn't get much to do in this book even though she is awesome; Luna, whom I like; Bellatrix, who is evil; Ariana, who basically functions as a love interest in that she is dead and motivates other men; and a few other female professors whom we don't see much of (Trelawney, Sprout, Pomfrey). While I love Hermione, she has spent most of the series being not-listened-to by Harry and Ron, which makes me want to shake the two of them. I'm also disturbed by the portrayal of motherhood in the series. Narcissa, Lily, and Mrs. Weasley are all shown to be willing to sacrifice anything to keep their children safe, which I don't think the fathers do (see: Mr. Weasley's support of Ron's ghoul plan).

Also, even though we're told that many of the women are powerful witches, we rarely get to see them in action. Instead, we get scene after scene of Harry worrying about Ginny and etc.

I sound very negative, which is not the case. I do like these books, but I enjoy them on a fairly shallow level.

That said, I really liked how Rowling kept going back to the first book: another escape on Sirius' motorbike, returning to the origins of the Invisibility Cloak, more on Harry's parents, the Deluminator and etc. I also liked how all the mythology from the previous books tied together.

I'm glad that Rowling somewhat addressed the speciesism (?) in the wizarding community, though to be honest, she didn't do it enough for me. There's no real indication that the entire social order needs to be changed: though the goblin has justification in stealing the sword, he's still portrayed as vicious and cruel; the message seems to be more "be nice to house-elves" instead of "don't use other species as indentured labor"; and we don't get a very good look at wizarding society post-Voldemort. I suspect Rowling thinks that having the characters talking about how bad speciesism is equates the need to change the social order, but all their actions seem to uphold the existing order.

Same goes for the Slytherins -- yes, they are redeemed in the end, somewhat, but Rowling doesn't go as far as I would like, what with the mass defection of the Slytherin House and all. I just don't believe that no one in Slytherin would have wanted to steal away to the Room of Requirement.

I also have huge problems with the epilogue. I am glad to see everyone happy, but I've read too many romance epilogues with everyone married off with children. It would have been nice to have one non-married person there, or one married pair without kids.

Oh right. I was going to say good things too! Neville, Luna and Ginny leading the DA from within Hogwarts was awesome! Particularly Neville cutting off Nagini's head. Go Neville!

I loved the high stakes, starting from Hedwig and ending with Fred and Remus and Tonks. Mad-Eye's eye on Umbridge's door was a particularly creepy touch.

Snape! Wah! I am sad he is dead, as he was one of my favorite characters, but it's not like I wasn't expecting it. Also, while his secret memories almost proved to be a little too sentimental, we still have six books worth of Snape being a complete prick, which is how I like it. Doubtless there will be much Snape redemption fic, but what I find most fascinating about him is his pettiness and his meanness coupled with the ability to be heroic, and that the pettiness and the heroism coexist.

My favorite bit was Harry's acceptance that Dumbledore was sending him off to die. I knew it was coming, but it was still touching, particularly when the ghosts of the Maurauders and Lily came up to him, with him all the way.

In the end, I enjoyed this, as is demonstrated by the fact that I got it yesterday and finished some time around 4 in the morning. And I'll miss the world now that there are only the movies to look forward to.

Comments

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was shrieking at my book 'but why did the Sorting Hat say unite with Slytherin? Since apparently the only good Slytherin is a dead Slytherin, and the rest of them are about as much use to the side of light as a chocolate hammer!' But I have a soft spot a mile wide for the Slytherins because of being a Narrative Subverter, so I may have been overly outraged.

The paired-up epilogue was pretty blah, but Neville is apparently a professor? And the professors seem to be celibate, so yay for someone who didn't marry their childhood sweetheart (of course, maybe the lesson is that if you don't have a childhood sweetheart, you just have to be celibate forevah).

[chomiji]

Actually, speaking as a mother, I really liked all the mother-stuff in this, especially Molly Weasley stomping all over Bellatrix. I guess you could say that I'm writing under the influence of maternal horomones, but that lioness/she-bear instinct to defend the cubs is real and can't be underestimated. I agree that the fathers didn't seem to have much of the paternal equivalent, and that's an issue.

Yes, it's a lightweight book, but I don't think the author ever intended it to be more, regardless of what legions of silly critics who haven't read any other decent childrens' fantasy may think. I agree that the whole species-ist issue remains disturbing and is never properly addressed, and I was sorely disappointed that the goblin didn't mean to keep his bargain - it's as though Rowling was trying to justify Harry's own scummy intentions regarding the sword.

Neville vs. Nagini was awesome. I liked that he not only got to save the day - he got to do it with style.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I like to think that all the Slytherins who went off to the room of requirement weren't sitting at the Slytherin table.

I was annoyed by the complete lack of change re: speciesism(??) in the wizarding world. And none of the muggleborns actually doing anything for themselves, specifically in the Ministry scene where Harry and co. have to tell them all to get out of the country.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Question: What did Snape mean by "Look at me"? "See me for who I am", or "Show me Lily's eyes one last time as I die", or both?

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Nice review. You brought up pretty much everything I have though about the book.
Was it just me or were the deaths handled poorly? I don't think any of them really had the proper amount of time and tension that they needed to be really effective. Especially since so many of them happened off screen.
I hated everything about that epilogue and am very much tempting just removing it from my book.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

My very disjointed thoughts on the book are remarkably similar to your more organised ones. Having devoured it on the Tube last weekend I'm now reading it more slowly to try and get my thoughts into better order.

Definitely agreed on the pacing. If they had to faff around for half the book, we could at least have seen more of how the rest of the world was getting steadily worse.