Book 41: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Here it is.  The final chapter in the Harry Potter saga.  I'm a little bittersweet about this one.  On the one hand, I'm very eager to finally see the final result of this series.  But on the other, I'm a little sad that it will be over once I finish this book.  I haven't seen any of the movies beyond the 5th one, Order of the Phoenix, so this book, like the last are virgin territory for me.  I'm finding that that makes them more interesting.  I have no idea what's going to happen and it's exciting!

Well, this is a big book, but they go quickly.  759 pages makes 109 pages per day.


REVIEW:

This is it, the culmination of the series.  I was unbelievably excited to get to this book.  I finished the previous one early and started on this one as soon as possible.  The previous book was a cliffhanger of sorts and getting answers to all the questions brought up from the beginning the series was enticing, to say the least.  The book starts out with a some great action and continues to deliver some epic scenes throughout.  In fact, Rowling has progressed amazingly as a writer and gives some of the most memorable scenes that I've read in any fantasy book.

The book was not perfect, however, there were a couple of things that detracted from it.  At one point the plot seemed to slow to a standstill for several chapters.  Eventually the plot picked up again but it relied on a bit of a deus ex machina to get it started.  In fact, several plot points seemed to rely on handy coincidences to be successful.  It was not fatal to the book, however.  Even with some of these plot conveniences and slow bits the novel was a tremendous success and the only other problem I had was with the epilogue.  After all the action had resolved and the story reached its climax, the very end seemed a bit awkward and poorly written.  I've been told that it was written a long time ago, but it could have been done better.

I think the biggest disappointment with the book is that now there's no more Potter.  Overall, I'm really glad that I decided to read the series and didn't dismiss them as kiddy books.  It's definitely a series that I will always remember fondly.

9 out of 10