September 19, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
By J. K. Rowling
Well, it's finally over.
Spoilers abound below. Be warned.
I've gotten really, really behind on my booklog because I have been putting off writing about this tome. I have very strong and very varied opinions on it. So, here's an inelegant summary of what I thought:
- Snape - Oh, love love love for my favorite potions master! Even if Rowling did make him a bit of a romantic wet blanket ("Always!" Feh.). It made me very, very angry that she killed him off with so little respect (nary a mention after he died!) but her writing around death is a bullet-point of its own below, so I'll let that be. I was pleased that she vindicated him entirely - one of the strengths of the Potter series is that even the good folks have flaws and (as someone has said, I forget whom) there is a marked difference in the books between being good and being nice. Snape is good. He is not nice. That's actually one of the things I love about him. I sometimes wonder what I'd be like if I didn't have the overwhelming urge to be so damn nice and desire for folks to like me. I bet I'd be a lot like him.
- Dumbledore - I was very, very happy to see Dumbledore finally get some depth, even posthumously. It's wonderful to see that his wisdom is hard-won, that he isn't always right, and that yes, he has hurt people. Yay.
- Voldie - Consummate villain to the end. Almost a tragic figure, really - absolutely brilliant, but with the tragic flaw of ambition not held in check by compassion.
- Character Deaths - I am planning to write a long, detailed essay someday about what constitutes a "good" death for a character (my classic example of a good death is Boromir's in LotR). Very few of the characters in this book got "good" deaths - they happen offscreen (Tonks, Lupin) or are handled so badly that I wanted to punch something (Dobby - a truly heroic death, important to the concept of elves being persons, and she dashes it off with very little attention. WTF.).
Then there's George. As far as I can figure, Rowling killed George and spared Percy (who, if any of the Weasleys deserves to go, is the one - he spent the last several books betraying everything his family stands for, and gets to return with nothing but "sorry! Oh, and Minister, I quit!" OMGWTFBBQARGH!) because she thought her audience would expect the opposite. That is a terrible way to plot things. A stupid way to plot things. If characters have to die, I expect them to die for a good reason. "To redeem his honor" is a good reason (Boromir). "Because he's the villain and deserves it" is a good reason (Voldie). "So he can rest in peace" is a good reason (Darth Vader). "Because you weren't expecting it!" isn't a good reason. It's a cruel reason. Hell, even Joss Whedon, whose casual attitude toward character death has finally driven me away from his work for what I hope is the last time, can come up with better reasons for his characters to die most of the time. "It makes the plot work" is a WAY better reason than "you weren't expecting it!"
- Camping - boy, howdy, did the pace drag while the trio were camping. And wtf was up with chapter after chapter containing next to nothing in terms of events? Ron being a twat, Hermione being sniffly... could've been done in fewer pages, imo.
- As an end to the series - I think this is a decent one. Ties everything up fairly well. Brings the video-game plot to a fairly good end. Finally explains wtf Dumbledore has been doing this whole time (and I love love love that he was basically using Harry. Heee!). Yay.
I think that about covers it. I'll be intrigued to see what (if anything) Rowling does next - more books in the same world? Something new?
File under: Fantasy
Comments
I heard a good number of folks a little disappointed with the post-logue. Namely, that it discussed who wound up marrying whom but not what they chose to do for their 7th year (which many had skipped or had seriously interrupted) or what careers they moved into (except Neville).
Posted by: agengrgal at September 19, 2007 04:47 PM
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