Harry Potter Wraps Up in Style

July 24th, 2007

Beware Muggles who have not read the book, there be spoilers below! Although through various means of internet-y magic, they have been blanked out for your reading pleasure…if you want to read them, highlight the blank text with your mouse!

Knock, knock!

Who’s there?

The friendliest Canada Post worker you’re ever likely to meet…delivering my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! He actually sing-songed “it’s Harry Potter!” when I opened my front door…which was so far beyond awesome, nothing I say can even do it justice. I made a crack about being the oldest person who pre-ordered a copy of the new novel, but whether to make me feel better or in truth, he told me I wasn’t.

So the book arrived at 12:45pm this past Saturday. By 1:45, I was on Chapter 8…now whether that’s an indication of its fabulosity or just of my hunger to find out what the heck a hallow is and why exactly it’s deathly…I can’t be sure.

Now I don’t like to brag but…well…who am I kidding? I love to brag. I had several predictions going into this final saga (and at 609 pages, I do mean saga) and some of them were right. I will acknowledge though that many other people predicted the same events, so I’ll hold off on calling MENSA just yet. Among those coming true the one I’m most proud of is that Dumbledore did indeed instruct Snape to kill him. As well I figured, based on the glimpses we were given into Snape’s past, that much of his hate of Harry was a show and that he was never truly one of You-Know-Who’s right-hand men. Very rewarding since I think he’s a fabulous character.

It took me just over six hours to finish…I would’ve been able to do it in a little less time but it is really freaking hard to read through tears. Now that is NOT a spoiler since my tears had little to do with any one occurrence and more to do with the fact that I knew my time in J.K. Rowling’s colourful and original world was coming to an end; although the fact that four of my favourite characters (and many others) bit the big one did not help at all. And when Harry decides to make the ultimate sacrifice so that no one else would be hurt? And then survives? Well…I was a big puddle on the floor. The author did a bang up job trying to give every one of her amazingly named cast of characters a part to play in this ultimate battle between good and evil and each one of them works as well as they did when we first met them. Some play smaller parts than I would’ve liked but you can’t win them all! On that note, if Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape aren’t the best names you’ve ever read? Well…there’s no hope for you.

Is it the best written book out there? Nope. The beginning dragged a wee bit, there were several “false” starts to the climax of the story that grated on my last nerve and an ending so sappy it made me smile and grimace at the same time. Does the plot always work? Not every time…there were more than a few times I had to pause and wonder what the hell had just happened (it usually involved me ranting to my empty apartment in language that should not be anywhere around a “children’s” book). Although, if you look hard enough almost every plot point is so damn well thought out it makes your head hurt just a little in appreciation of the effort Rowling put into this whole story. Still…is it one of the most captivating books you’ll ever pick up? Without a doubt.

Despite all my little picky problems, there wasn’t one line of this book I didn’t enjoy and I am very sad to see the story of Harry, Ron, Hermione and their wonderful world of Witchcraft and Wizardry come to an end. I will miss every single one of those wonderful characters…from the Boy Who Lived himself, right on down to Nearly-Headless Nick and the Grey Lady. I’ll even miss the Dursleys and the Malfoys…two fantastically written examples of familial super-dysfunctionality. I’ll miss words like Muggle, Quidditch and Horcrux and look back fondly on a time when others would know what I was talking about if I mentioned a “Blast-Ended Skrewt” or “Bernie Bott’s Every Flavoured Beans”. I’ll miss…

What? There are still 2 more movies to come? Well, hell! This isn’t goodbye at all…more like see you next year…bring on movie 6!

Posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 11:06 am by Emma and is filed under Just For Fun.