At least it's a holiday

[memnus]

Done.

I thought I wouldn't stay up reading it marathon-style, but here I am.

I'm really, really not pleased with the ending. Matrix Revolutions, anyone? Though really, I guess it's been pretty telegraphed for a while now. And did I completely miss a paragraph where they managed to take out Nagini?

Not sure how this settles the Snape debate. Good, evil? He's just the stalker.

So Harry and Ginny have three children, named... Lily, James, and Albus Severus? Did Ginny not have any say in the naming at all?

But I'm still unhappy that Tonks is dead.

Oh man, it's so past my bedtime.

click

Comments

[ziqueenmab.livejournal.com]

It went by fast, but Neville gets his own moment o' badass on roughly pp. 732-3.

I guess one could handwave away the sketchier aspects of Snape's backstory with the "it was totally platonic, I swear" excuse, but what fun would that be?

Also, man, was the epilogue nauseating.

[theonlyasd.livejournal.com]

I keep adding to my list of irritants:

- Both parents of a new baby somehow found it was appropriate to run off and fight knowing they and their chosen godparent probably wouldn't make it (but no worries, I mean they did spend *several months* with the kid so he won't feel abandoned or betrayed that *one* of them didn't stay to protect him in case Voldemort won).
- Slytherins = unequivocally evil and they all need to be sent back to Death Eater parents pre-battle? Great job, McGonagall. Oh no, wait, great job, Rowling. Way to show things all in black and white. Because no one "ambitious" would want to see the Dark Lord defeated and act in their own self-interest to help see it done.
- If I were a potions master/dark wizard/double agent fooling around with a dark wizard and his gigantic poisonous snake *and* I had the presence of mind to carry random flasks around in my robes during epic battles and confrontations with Snakey-pants... wouldn't I have tossed a bezoar in my pocket just in case of bites?
- Also, I'm irritated by the ending/sacrifice/kill me to kill him thing, too. It always seems like such a cheap ending.

I don't know what she thought she was doing, but I guess it's her book. I liked the book as a whole, but the last 100 pages I was just pissed off.

[dclayh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the slytherin thing pissed me off too: why go all the trouble of making them morally ambiguous only to have not one student fight with the good guys?

And yes, I wonder if the "OMG Harry is Jesus" thing will appease or enrage the fundies who say HP is satanic.

[willskyfall.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind the sacrifice. It felt ritually appropriate, and it outlined the way that Harry's attitude toward death gave him mastery over Voldemort, who broke himself to escape it. Also, I couldn't help but think back while I was reading that chapter to the story of the third brother, who "met Death, [and departed together] as equals." The ending was nothing if not foreshadowed . . .

I say all this because I agree with all of your other points; they bothered me while reading them. I didn't think about Snape and a bezoar, but I was bothered how quickly he went down; and Teh Unambiguously Eeevil Slytherin House has bugged me for several books now. :P

Also, the epilogue was nauseating. Well meant, but painful to read. I'm saying the rest of the book didn't make up for it, but . . . yeesh.

[partly-cloudy.livejournal.com]

...Teh Unambiguously Eeevil Slytherin House has bugged me for several books now.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons the introduction of Slughorn's character in book 6 was so interesting-- an example of ambitious but not evil. Previously, things in the books had been mostly cast in black and white. There was also that comment in book 5 about how "the world isn't divided into Death-Eaters and [non-Death-Eaters]". Taken together, I was impressed by those steps towards shades-of-gray and was expecting that trend to continue in book 7. So much for that.

[willskyfall.livejournal.com]

Also, the epilogue was nauseating. Well meant, but painful to read. I'm saying the rest of the book didn't make up for it, but . . . yeesh.

Ok, I really need to look over what I just typed more often to catch dumb typos. That would be "I'm not saying the rest of the book didn't make up for it . . ." I think HP7 may easily be my favorite book of the series; though I'll probably have to re-read the rest to confirm that opinion.

[ozzygoddess.livejournal.com]

TRUST SNAPE!

[quartzpebble.livejournal.com]

Well, because Ginny obviously didn't have any family members who'd been tragically killed... oh wait.

Well then, because obviously, the Weasley family names would just sound silly. Something like Fred sounds so much less... Historic (TM) than Albus Severus... oh wait.

Well then, because Ginny's character only really exists when Harry wants some. :P