I am surprised by all the love for this book. Even my girlfriend who, at least up until this book, treasured every word ever written about Harry Potter, thought this book failed as a capstone to this enormous series.
First, let me say that my fondness for the series always stemmed from its boarding school elements combined with the quirky magic setting. The plot has always been a banal Chosen One story (they even christen Harry with that title!) mixed with some Nazi Germany tones (yet another overused theme) and mostly stereotypical characters. Obviously, with most of Deathly Hallows taking place outside of Hogwarts my favorite part of the series was quite noticeably absent. In its place we get a very trite and predictable fantasy story; ironic considering her reported disdain for most fantasy.
The major flaw separating Deathly Hallows from its predecessors is that Rowling apparently stopped treating her juvenile readers as intelligent. Deathly Hallows is full of contrived plot points and retrofitting of the author's design and many other events that require similar convolution from the reader to justify. Why is Voldemort able to kill Harry with the Elder Wand and yet later it has no effect? Which only brings on many other questions about how "mastery" of the wand works. The whole "Harry is a Horcrux" and the wand connection required some fierce and confusing explanation that really served no purpose and would have been better left alone as we already have multiple reasons for Harry's Chosen One status. How was Dumbledore able to defeat Grindelwald if the latter had the Elder Wand? Others have noted more in this thread.
However, the worst is the utter stupidity of Voldemort. It was hard to consider him a credible threat at all by the end of the seventh book because he shows himself a complete buffoon, as do most of the Death Eaters I might add. Of course, the retort that I will likely receive is that he succumbed to hubris. This hubris must be the most inconsistent and yet overwhelming pride I have ever seen. Even then, a modicum of intelligence from Voldemort could easily have thwarted Potter and friends. We have Horcruxes lying around for the taking and a Voldemort who leaves his mind accessible to Harry, showing him his plans and the locations of the Horcruxes. I mean thinking the diadem safe in the Room of Requirement requires alarming idiocy.
Other things spring to mind as well. While the magical consistency of the Potter world always teetered on the brink of ruin, this book brings it crashing down. Harry fires six wands at once. Dueling seems to negate any advantages of a more powerful wizard and reduces it to a fight of reflexes. While most of the time the faculty at Hogwarts, really all adults, seemed far beyond the abilities of anything taught at Hogwarts, the students had little trouble competing with them in the last few books. Particularly disappointing were obvious spells easily within the realms of possibility hinted at in the books that never appeared. Instead dueling just consists of shield charms and your preferred curse. Quite mundane and boring.
Somehow we are also treated to a Dumbledore summation; apparently bad plot devices persist after death. I always abhorred this in past books and it was particularly pointless in this book as Dumbledore actually reveals very little we didn't already know. I hated that, as so often happened in the series, Hermione carries the trio through danger until Harry gets a chance to be brave at the climax. Ron, as usual, gets thrown a few bones of heroism, but mostly just engages in the insufferable whining he has proven so good at it in the past. Rowling also continued the tradition of making the trio completely clueless and incompetent until some random event presents them with the appropriate information to continue. I have a feeling that Rowling would make terrible DM. The list goes on, though I will point out that some of the more urgent scenes were rendered confusing by rather tumultuous and obscuring prose.
Of course, some scenes were very enjoyable, there just should have been more for the climax of a rather hefty seven book series. Snape, of course, remains the coolest character she developed in the entire series, his memories and Harry's kind words about him in the epilogue comprise the most poignant moments in the book for me. However, his death was an atrocious piece of writing and plotting. Most of the deaths were very poorly done; I didn't even realize Tonks and Lupin were dead until pages after the actual event. Sure, throw in a few to amplify the grimness of the situation and heighten anxiety, but most of your major characters deserve more than an inglorious death for little purpose. The deaths of Dumbledore and Sirius for such major characters were especially poorly done; the latter done in by Bellatrix and the former summarily defeated after acquiring a fake Horcrux. The various character deaths felt more like a consequence of Rowling's aspirations for the series than a contribution to the story. Seriously, if after 7 books you can't evoke even watery eyes from me, you have utterly failed as writer.
I didn't really like the artificial sullying of Dumbledore's name and the pages wasted to Harry's turmoil over these mostly inconsequential details. Far more effective in humanizing Dumbledore was the information that Dumbledore had tried on the Resurrection Stone despite knowing the potency of the Horcrux.
Mrs. Weasly assaulting Bellatrix with the only swear word in the entire series also brought a laugh and exhilaration.
Yet on the whole, I expected far more than profligate scenes and shaky and uninteresting plot constructions. The epilogue sure didn't help because this is not a series that needed an ambiguous ending. Part of a bildungsroman story is the satisfaction of seeing the result of the characters' growth. This is even more true for Harry Potter where so much of a reader's enjoyment is tied up in the characters. And really, after seven books I want more closure, even if it is a little strained.
I could continue writing, which is odd because I am not even that vested in the series, but it would just be me venting about a horribly wasted opportunity.
First, let me say that my fondness for the series always stemmed from its boarding school elements combined with the quirky magic setting. The plot has always been a banal Chosen One story (they even christen Harry with that title!) mixed with some Nazi Germany tones (yet another overused theme) and mostly stereotypical characters. Obviously, with most of Deathly Hallows taking place outside of Hogwarts my favorite part of the series was quite noticeably absent. In its place we get a very trite and predictable fantasy story; ironic considering her reported disdain for most fantasy.
The major flaw separating Deathly Hallows from its predecessors is that Rowling apparently stopped treating her juvenile readers as intelligent. Deathly Hallows is full of contrived plot points and retrofitting of the author's design and many other events that require similar convolution from the reader to justify. Why is Voldemort able to kill Harry with the Elder Wand and yet later it has no effect? Which only brings on many other questions about how "mastery" of the wand works. The whole "Harry is a Horcrux" and the wand connection required some fierce and confusing explanation that really served no purpose and would have been better left alone as we already have multiple reasons for Harry's Chosen One status. How was Dumbledore able to defeat Grindelwald if the latter had the Elder Wand? Others have noted more in this thread.
However, the worst is the utter stupidity of Voldemort. It was hard to consider him a credible threat at all by the end of the seventh book because he shows himself a complete buffoon, as do most of the Death Eaters I might add. Of course, the retort that I will likely receive is that he succumbed to hubris. This hubris must be the most inconsistent and yet overwhelming pride I have ever seen. Even then, a modicum of intelligence from Voldemort could easily have thwarted Potter and friends. We have Horcruxes lying around for the taking and a Voldemort who leaves his mind accessible to Harry, showing him his plans and the locations of the Horcruxes. I mean thinking the diadem safe in the Room of Requirement requires alarming idiocy.
Other things spring to mind as well. While the magical consistency of the Potter world always teetered on the brink of ruin, this book brings it crashing down. Harry fires six wands at once. Dueling seems to negate any advantages of a more powerful wizard and reduces it to a fight of reflexes. While most of the time the faculty at Hogwarts, really all adults, seemed far beyond the abilities of anything taught at Hogwarts, the students had little trouble competing with them in the last few books. Particularly disappointing were obvious spells easily within the realms of possibility hinted at in the books that never appeared. Instead dueling just consists of shield charms and your preferred curse. Quite mundane and boring.
Somehow we are also treated to a Dumbledore summation; apparently bad plot devices persist after death. I always abhorred this in past books and it was particularly pointless in this book as Dumbledore actually reveals very little we didn't already know. I hated that, as so often happened in the series, Hermione carries the trio through danger until Harry gets a chance to be brave at the climax. Ron, as usual, gets thrown a few bones of heroism, but mostly just engages in the insufferable whining he has proven so good at it in the past. Rowling also continued the tradition of making the trio completely clueless and incompetent until some random event presents them with the appropriate information to continue. I have a feeling that Rowling would make terrible DM. The list goes on, though I will point out that some of the more urgent scenes were rendered confusing by rather tumultuous and obscuring prose.
Of course, some scenes were very enjoyable, there just should have been more for the climax of a rather hefty seven book series. Snape, of course, remains the coolest character she developed in the entire series, his memories and Harry's kind words about him in the epilogue comprise the most poignant moments in the book for me. However, his death was an atrocious piece of writing and plotting. Most of the deaths were very poorly done; I didn't even realize Tonks and Lupin were dead until pages after the actual event. Sure, throw in a few to amplify the grimness of the situation and heighten anxiety, but most of your major characters deserve more than an inglorious death for little purpose. The deaths of Dumbledore and Sirius for such major characters were especially poorly done; the latter done in by Bellatrix and the former summarily defeated after acquiring a fake Horcrux. The various character deaths felt more like a consequence of Rowling's aspirations for the series than a contribution to the story. Seriously, if after 7 books you can't evoke even watery eyes from me, you have utterly failed as writer.
I didn't really like the artificial sullying of Dumbledore's name and the pages wasted to Harry's turmoil over these mostly inconsequential details. Far more effective in humanizing Dumbledore was the information that Dumbledore had tried on the Resurrection Stone despite knowing the potency of the Horcrux.
Mrs. Weasly assaulting Bellatrix with the only swear word in the entire series also brought a laugh and exhilaration.
Yet on the whole, I expected far more than profligate scenes and shaky and uninteresting plot constructions. The epilogue sure didn't help because this is not a series that needed an ambiguous ending. Part of a bildungsroman story is the satisfaction of seeing the result of the characters' growth. This is even more true for Harry Potter where so much of a reader's enjoyment is tied up in the characters. And really, after seven books I want more closure, even if it is a little strained.
I could continue writing, which is odd because I am not even that vested in the series, but it would just be me venting about a horribly wasted opportunity.
