Thoughts on HP7
I finished it! It had its plot and pacing flaws, but when the action shifted back to Hogwarts, I was more than willing to forgive them. Interesting conversation going on at Easily Distracted, too — but don’t read it if you haven’t read the book yet.
Spoilery reflections follow in the comments:
The part that made me cheer: Neville! Go Neville go! He’s one of my favorite characters, and I was afraid he was going to get killed off, but he got to triumph and survive. Yay.
The part I didn’t quite buy: So, in the end, everyone settles down to a life of happy domesticity and has lots of babies, and everything’s peachy thereafter? I suppose I was hoping for either the Scouring of the Shire or else some kind of acknowledgment that all that prejudice and suspicion didn’t just disappear when Voldemort bought the farm.
The parts that are making me scratch my head: Ron’s newfound skill at Parseltongue. The plot convolutions necessary to make the defeat of Voldemort work out.
Small details I liked a lot: Hermione’s enchanted handbag. The Taboo thing on Voldemort’s name. All the Hogwarts teachers using their own methods to defend the castle (McGonagall making inanimate objects move, Sprout with her dangerous plants, and — my favorite — Trelawney lobbing crystal balls at people’s heads).
What I wished there’d been more of: Dumbledore’s Army. Slytherin and its role in the finale (what, they were every single one of them pro-Voldemort?).
The parts that made me choke up: Harry’s visit to his parents’ grave. Snape’s life story. (I knew we were in for something of the sort, but man, that was bleak.) Lupin and Tonks both getting killed. The ghosts walking with Harry to his doom.
Agreed, agreed, agreed. The happy domesticity struck me as Rowling desperately racing towards a resolution (as has been sometimes known to happen in my history, and I hope I’m not alone, with seminar papers and first drafts of journal articles). I share your likes and wishes, but after consuming it in a weekend, I’m also feeling a little blank on the whole thing: I didn’t want to stop reading, but now — well, for my reading experience, the metaphor that comes to mind is the one about the pig through a python.