Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (2007, Hardcover)

So, here it is at last: The final confrontation between Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the “symbol of hope” for both the Wizard and Muggle worlds, and Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named, the nefarious leader of the Death Eaters and would-be ruler of all. Good versus Evil. Love versus Hate. The Seeker versus the Dark Lord.
J. K. Rowling’s monumental, spellbinding epic, 10 years in the making, is deeply rooted in traditional literature and Hollywood sagas — from the Greek myths to Dickens and Tolkien to “Star Wars.” And true to its roots, it ends not with modernist, “Soprano”-esque equivocation, but with good old-fashioned closure: a big-screen, heart-racing, bone-chilling confrontation and an epilogue that clearly lays out people’s fates. Getting to the finish line is not seamless — the last part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series, has some lumpy passages of exposition and a couple of clunky detours — but the overall conclusion and its determination of the main characters’ story lines possess a convincing inevitability that make some of the prepublication speculation seem curiously blinkered in retrospect.
Harry’s journey will propel him forward to a final showdown with his arch enemy, and also send him backward into the past, to the house in Godric’s Hollow where his parents died, to learn about his family history and the equally mysterious history of Dumbledore’s family. At the same time, he will be forced to ponder the equation between fraternity and independence, free will and fate, and to come to terms with his own frailties and those of others. Indeed, ambiguities proliferate throughout “The Deathly Hallows”: we are made to see that kindly Dumbledore, sinister Severus Snape and perhaps even the awful Muggle cousin Dudley Dursley may be more complicated than they initially seem, that all of them, like Harry, have hidden aspects to their personalities, and that choice — more than talent or predisposition — matters most of all.

It is Ms. Rowling’s achievement in this series that she manages to make Harry both a familiar adolescent — coping with the banal frustrations of school and dating — and an epic hero, kin to everyone from the young King Arthur to Spider-Man and Luke Skywalker. This same magpie talent has enabled her to create a narrative that effortlessly mixes up allusions to Homer, Milton, Shakespeare and Kafka, with silly kid jokes about vomit-flavored candies, a narrative that fuses a plethora of genres (from the boarding-school novel to the detective story to the epic quest) into a story that could be Exhibit A in a Joseph Campbell survey of mythic archetypes.

In doing so, J. K. Rowling has created a world as fully detailed as L. Frank Baum’s Oz or J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, a world so minutely imagined in terms of its history and rituals and rules that it qualifies as an alternate universe, which may be one reason the “Potter” books have spawned such a passionate following and such fervent exegesis. With this volume, the reader realizes that small incidents and asides in earlier installments (hidden among a huge number of red herrings) create a breadcrumb trail of clues to the plot, that Ms. Rowling has fitted together the jigsaw-puzzle pieces of this long undertaking with Dickensian ingenuity and ardor.

I have to admit to being a Christian who use to preach the evils of Harry Potter, not having read a word of the books. Every rumor I had heard was proven false as I read and smiled my way through Sorcerers Stone, I didn't see a single legitimate spell designed to drag innocent children into witchcraft in Chamber of Secrets, but I did begin to get hooked in by Ginny's sweet infatuation with Harry Potter. The only wicked desires I found in Prisoner of Azkaban was to be a Weasley, making the Twins, Triplets so I could join the escapades of my new heroes Fred and George (Through whom I was now reliving my long long LONG gone youth) I also got hooked in even deeper with the depth of Harry's pain and I have to say that Daniel Radcliffe did an AMAZING job in the movie showing it. The Goblet of Fire is my least favorite of the seven, I did gain a new respect for Ginny when she didn't dump Neville to go to the Yule Ball with Harry and the ending was a killer, I'd heard that Order of the Phoenix was much darker, so I looked carefully for satanic chants but found only a young man fighting with his own inner demons and a bully in cotton candy pink and a position of power ( I would have LOVED to have gotten creative with places for her to stick that damn black quill.)! But nothing broke my heart more than when Harry finally found complete happiness with Ginny, only to lose it at the end of The Half Blood Prince when he broke things off with Ginny at Dumbledores funeral.
I read the aforementioned books in a weekend and ended up at Wal-mart at 3 am buying DH, I couldn't stand until morning to find out what happened next!
There were some obvious contrivances in the plot, and plot holes as big as the state of Texas, but largely, Rowling hit the nail on the head with the finale. There are some character deaths that are obviously coming, and some that tore my heart out (FRED?! NO!)
One of the things that I really loved is how she used the Marauders Map as a device to show the reader that Ginny was still nearly constantly on Harry's mind. Having him watching her on the Map is probably the sweetest bit of fiction I have read in years and as this series has so often, it takes me back to my own teenage years, when I would do silly little things for the sake of love. Unfortunately, this lovely addition to the story makes what is missing from the ending even more glaringly obvious...Harry and Ginny's reunion. Those who followed the future Mr and Mrs Potter from the time Ginny blushed and ran away in Chamber of Secrets and swooned over every hopeful glance will feel cheated by the fact that after the ruined birthday kiss, and all those pages of watching the map...theres nada...zip...zitch. Not even an embrace. In fact, Harry in effect, blows her off, figuring they have plenty of time so she can wait.
The rest is a thrill a minute rollercoaster ride with a few stops to camp out and argue, swim in a freezing pond, get captured, be betrayed by a desperate man and visit the newlyweds. So much happens in fact that by the time Harry and Voldemort finally come down to the final flourishes of their wands and the cries of their curses are the only sounds in the red light of the coming dawn....it is oddly anti-climatic, and while Harry is the obvious hero, Rowling makes it just as obvious that he is NOT the only one, that it truly was something he couldn't have done without Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny and particularly Neville, at his side.

As a fan of the series I have to say I loved it. J.K. Rowling could do no wrong as far as I'm concerned, though I didn't always think that way. As Potter mania first began to grip the youths of America I was in the grips of another British author with initials for a first name.

J.R.R. Tolkien had me spellbound to his stories and at the time I saw Potter as stupid childish kids book with no higher merits. I made fun of the series and the people that read it up until the fifth book came out. I had heard from too many people praising it and its darkening tone and decided to see what all the hype was about.

The first book surprised me a little with its style and use of language though it still had a children's book feel to it. I didn't like the way it ended mostly. The whole "I defeated the greatest dark wizard with... Love" made me think that J.K. just didn't know how to end her book with a low-level boy facing off against a high-level wizard. The journey to get there however, was great and as a result I moved on to the second book.

The second book was even better than the first. A back-story about a murder within the school and a series of attacks gets the heart pumping. Even the more gritty finish made me think twice about J.K.'s ability to write. She still relied a bit heavily on the Dais Ex machina. The fact that Harry just happens to get the magic sorting hat brought to him by Fawkes and pulled out a sword was bit much at the time. But J.K. made use of all those unlikely events later.

The third book was dark and even a little scary compared to your average kids book yet had a refreshing uplifting ending. It also setup the Great War giving rise to Voldemort and his death eaters. The mystery involved in this book was step up from the last keeping you guessing even at the people that were right in front of you. J.K. knows how to setup misdirection.

The forth book was a thrilling adventure with a surprise ending that actually brought a tear to my eye. At this point the series is not for children anymore. Harry is now heading toward adulthood and so is the series. The level of action makes this book fun to read and the bit of mystery keeps you guessing at whom the betrayer is. The murder in this book is what sets it apart.

The fifth book is the actual beginning of the war. It sets up the landscapes in which future battles are to take place. It brings in all the needed characters and gives them personalities. This book is truly great and reminds adults what it was like to be a teenager. That point in life where you think you know everything are start to rebel. It ends on sad note that nearly brought a tear to my eye.

The sixth book is probably the most exciting and crushing build up to a finale that I have read next to book seven of "The Dark Tower". The death of Dumbledore at the hands of Snape enraged me and actually made me feel as if I had been betrayed. I cried at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore.

And now for this book. Book seven in my opinion is the greatest of all. It answers most if not all the questions that you may have about the lives of the characters, their past and their future. Harry's relationship with Ron's sister is realized and the truth about Snape and Dumbledore's relationship is revealed.

The whole book had me in a range of emotions but for a book to make me cry from sorrow, relief, and happiness that is an amazing thing. Very few writers can do that. The last few sentences still make me cry.

For those who are fans of Harry this book accomplishes in many respects the desired result of completing the series. Rowling did the best job she could in concluding the life and times of Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort and the rest of the Magical World.

The book is well in keeping with the rest of the series. It will definitely delight readers and make people want to turn the page. I found throughout the series it was on some level perfectly believable that these people actually existed. That magic could be a part of the world and yet be kept from us Muggles.

J.K. Rowling in her series did a great job invigorating not only the youth imagination but also in giving youth and adults a commonality that they could talk about. I argue that it is part in due to Rowling’s work that the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings was reinvigorated on such a global scale since both are some 70+ years old. I remember reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when I was a youngster some 25 years ago.

As for the specifics of Deathly Hallows, this book was a little more predictable in many ways than the previous in the series. But it does more to explain the history of Lord V, Tom Riddle, Dumbledore, Harry's parents, and Snape. There is a lot of development around Harry, Hermione and Ron as a good deal of the time it is one, two or all three of them in some fashion or another. As with the previous books be prepared with a box of Kleenex nearby, as this is the book where the main battle commences.

Somewhat of a SPOILER: In general I found that like many of the well written or scripted novels/movies, so much time is given up to character development, toils and action, leaving to what I can describe as only as a somewhat hasty conclusion. The conclusion of this basically equated to a "and they all lived happily ever after" except. This to me distracted from what I would argue was an incredibly well written series. It left me feeling a little cheated. It worked in that I'm not waiting on the edge of my seat for the next in the series, but at the same time it made me loose a little interest in anything Harry, which does not bode well for the movies.

All in all I think that people will feel cheated if they do not finish the series and as such the Deathly Hallows is required reading and does an good job (just not excellent). I am glad I read it, but probably will not as I did with the previous novels read the story again.

I could not wait until this last installment of the Harry Potter series finally hit the shelves. I reserved my copy months in advance at my local Walden Books store. I even started counting down the days until its release. Yet, once I had the book in my hands I felt a mixture of excitement, anticipation and regret. After all these years of waiting for the next installment, ever since I finished the first book, I was finally going to read my last Harry Potter book. I could not wait to find out how Harry, Hermione, and Ron's journey would end, but I couldnt help feeling upset that, once read, it would be over. No more staying excited for the next installment to arrive.

That being said, once I cracked open my crisp copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the pang of regret I had felt about this being over, gave way to an overwhelming happiness to be back in this wonderful world of magic J.K. Rowling created. Once I had started, it was all over. I could not stop reading. I had to force myself away from the pages to eat. Each page revealed just enough to make it a necessity to read the next. As any Harry Potter fan knows, this series is so gripping, each line begs you to read the next.

Speaking of The Hallows specifically, I would have to say that it is an edge of your seat story and the most spine-tingling of the 7 book series, and Rowling wastes no timing jumping into the thick of it in the first chapters. Many chapters, I had the feeling of walking through a haunted house, every muscle tense, in anticipation of the next arm-twisting details. Hallows throws twists and turns at you every few pages, throughout the entire book. As it is the 7th book and the main characters are reaching maturity, the books content is much more adult in nature. There is not much more I am comfortable saying, without giving away precious pieces of the final books plots. It was a wonderfully written emotional rollercoaster, that can be ridden over and over again.

After having read Book 7 twice, I am still amazed by J.K. Rowling. It is mystifying how much detail and planning went into these books. The character development, the subplots, the reference towards other epic stories written in history. Coming into the 7th installment, you would not think it possible to tie up so many tresses, as Rowling did. There have also been, looking back, so many clues and hints in the previous 6 books towards the ending of this adventure.

This series is a very complex story, which Rowling wrote for children; however, I would have to disagree with these being children's books. In writing the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling has inadvertently entertwined the literary worlds of child and adult. The Harry Potter series, I believe, will be on the bookshelves of child and adult alike for generations to come.