Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (2007)

Written by: JK Rowling

Harry Potter will, I think, go down as one of the great literary heroes of recent times.

Wow. Did I just write that?

Yeah. I did. And I’m not the only one who feels that way, amazingly enough.

But enough about that. How was the new book? Does it end well? Does it make everything else in the series make sense?

Well, let me just say this: I sacrificed an entire weekend to read the 759 page book, stopping only to sleep around page 450. It’s the longest reading marathon I have ever been on. And it’s the fastest I’ve ever read a book.

And it was all worth it.

Rowling has done what CS Lewis was really unable to do: she wrote a satisfying ending to an epic story. She took characters whom we have grown to know and love and found ways to make their ends agree with us. Some go one, some are ripped from us in heartbreaking scenes. She makes sure that nothing in the first 6 books didn’t have a reason for happening. Hell, she even makes one or two things from the movies make sense.

She also manages to make the whole series relevant to our times. The regime of Voldemort resembles Nazi Germany and, to a large and shocking extent, our own current society of fear. This is the most political of Rowling’s series and the deepest.

That being said, this is no longer a childrens’ series. Kids who have grown up with Harry will certainly want to read it…and kids who are Harry’s age in the book (17) are most likely mature enough to handle it.

But if you have a nine year old out there who just loves the adventures of Harry, Hermione and Ron…um…this one ain’t for them. Not only is there some minor cursing in it which will probably offend some folks’ delicate sensibilities (someone is called a bitch and the word “effing” is used a few times…not the actual fuck word, but pretty close), but there are a lot of very mature levels to this one. It deals even more with death, life and violence than any of the others. If Cedric’s death surprised your kid, they might want to wait on this one until they are a little older.

But that’s just me. I know kids need to deal with death sooner or later, but maybe this harsh of a reality may be best kept until, like, 15 or so. And the politics and discussions of death and the past…well, it’ll probably be over their heads, anyway. Those are the points where they’ll be saying, “Can I skip past this chapter? More action, please.”

Or maybe not. This is Harry Fuckin’ Potter we’re talking about. They’ll want to read every word whether they understand it or not.

And, if you don’t want to know ANYTHING about the book, stop reading right now. There’s nothing in here about the end, but I know that I didn’t even want to hear about the beginning of the book before I started reading it.

The book, of course, starts off pretty much right where the last one ended. Harry is back home with the Dursleys and is trying to get them to safety. It’s a strange scene that really shows us how each of them felt about Harry.

But now Harry has to do something that he knows might lead to his death. He has to start collecting Voldemort’s Horcruxes, the objects that he has put bits of his soul into for “safe keeping.” If Voldemort is killed before these are destroyed, he could come back just as he did before.

Of course, Harry isn’t alone in his quest. Dumbledore told him that he was allowed to take his friends, Ron and Hermione, with him. He knew that a) the three of them would be inseparable anyway and b) they would bring things to the fold that Harry himself couldn’t.

The first half of the book is dedicated to locating one Horcrux. That seems like a long time to take when there are still four more to go after that.

And that kind of worried me at first. Could Rowling be padding the book to make it longer for the fans? There seemed to be a lot of stuff that really didn’t make any difference to the rest of the story.

Never second guess JK Rowling. It all came together in the end and made perfect sense.

Harry and his friends soon find out that maybe Dumbledore didn’t know everything that he seemed to. In fact, he may have had some pretty dark secrets himself. Secrets that, at first, Harry can’t believe. Eventually, though, they start to eat at his image of his hero. Dumbledore had lied to him before, even if it was for a purpose. Maybe he hadn’t told him the whole truth about this, either. And why hadn’t he told Harry that he grew up in the same neighborhood that Harry’s parents were killed in?

As I said, everything has its reasons. Even slimy little Peter Pettigrew.

More solutions lead to more questions…and more deaths. This is The Harry Potter Shooting Gallery. But we all knew that was coming. Rowling has no problem killing off even major characters. What’s a side character here and there?

But will she have the nerve to kill off her hero? And what of little Neville Longbottom, who in recent books has started to become quite the hero? Will he survive to be the hero we all want him to be? And was Snape a hero or a villain?

Well, I can’t answer those questions for you. You’re just going to have to read the book. I will say that one of the chapters at the end has a very Matrix/2001 feel to it. But don’t worry. It’s much less oblique than either of those. Rowling knows that we won’t stand for some post-cerebral mumbo-jumbo. This is a scene where two characters work out their differences and ruminate on life and death and what it means to be a hero in a way that everyone can understand. And it’s amazing.

My one complaint is the epilogue. It’s not bad by any means. But it’s a bit too…conventional. There are things that I think were foreshadowed for certain characters that Rowling didn’t feel the need to follow through on. And I would have liked to have known what happened to OTHER characters. Maybe an Animal House style ending would have been in order. “Draco was killed in Vietnam by his own troops.”

Other than that one thing, though, this series has been nearly perfect. (Sure, the house elves were a bit annoying. But there’s a reason for them, too.) And the ending was up to these standards. It was dark, scary, funny, heartwrenching, tragic…all the things a good ending should be.

I’m not really sure why I felt a need to write this review, actually. If you’re a fan, then you’re already reading the book. If you’re not, this review isn’t going to make you run out and buy all of the books.

But, if you’re not a fan…why are you reading this review? Stop reading this and go buy the books! All of ‘em!

Trust me. They’re worth it.