This post will contain spoilers, so if you don't want to know what's going to happen in the book, don't read it!
OK, that out of the way...
I quite liked the book. It was pretty grim compared to the earlier ones; much less humor and lots of death and other nasty fates. Lots of moral ambiguity (Harry uses the Cruciatus curse without thinking twice, for example, and even Dumbledore's shining reputation is called into question.) It was a fitting finale to all the investment we readers have in the series. HOWEVER, of course I have a few minor complaints.
1. The epilogue was really pretty bad. Not only that, it skipped over a ton of stuff that we really ought to have seen. Seeing the Harry/Ginny romantic subplot was resolved, but not seeing the resolution because it takes place off camera is quite a blow. Not finding out anything about what the main characters do after school (other than get married and have kids) was disappointing.
2. J. K. Rowling seems to have mentioned many times in the past that she wanted to end the book in such a way that no obvious follow-ups, sequels or licensed stories would be obvious. However, the way she ended so thoroughly closed the door on further adventures for Harry that it felt really forced and the "4th wall" fell to pieces as I could see her manipulating things to cut off any such talk. Blegh.
3. Not nearly enough Ginny. She's been getting more important as a character the last few books and almost dropped off the planet in this one, other than a few scenes near the beginning and a token cameo at the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment