Harry Potter and the last novel

[rhet...@gmail.com]

So I finished the last book,

spoilers below. Don't read if you're not done.

I enjoyed the final novel quite a great deal. I thought it nicely
wrapped up the loose ends and gave good resolution to much of the
texture of the series.

Some inconsistencies. I don't like how Neville gets the sword from
the hat in the end. I liked the gringotts subplot but I think it was
undercut by the sword's reappearance.

Snape was a somewhat inconsistent character. Or rather Snape's hatred
of Harry. He was sacrificing a great deal to protect Lily's son and
you would think he wouldn't be such a prick throughout the series.

I really liked Dumbledoor being undercut and actually being human. I
loved the scene in which Harry conjures the ghosts to guide him to his
confrontation with voldemort (quite touching, I thought).

Dobby's death was also sad, but I thought it was handled well. That's
a quick run down...any other opinions?

[10lees]

Ok so I finished it a while ago, but I have been waiting to share my
thoughts! (oh and SPOILERS - duh)

I agree, it was a great way to wrap up the series. It made it all
worthwhile and covered pretty much everything. I also liked that they
actually found / thought of the locket!! I was so worried it was going
to be like that damn mirror from Order of the Phoenix, which Harry
never even thought to pull out.

I love how Neville gets the sword, it's supposed to show that he's
truely a Gryffendor, as opposed to belonging in Hufflepuff or
something. JK Rowling was trying to show some solidarity with her
character and protect him from everybody else's words.

I do think Snape was completely inconsistance, I have to admit I went
into the final book completely expecting him to be bad, even though I
did sorta maybe think that he had killed Dumbledore. I believed his
love for Lily, and their childhood friendship made sense, it actually
made a lot of sense.

Another inconsistant thing, the Trace, in the past books it was that
they could only tell where the magic was being performed, not who was
doing it. It kinda annoyed me.

I wanted more characters, narrowing it down to Ron, Hermione and Harry
was a little difficult for me. I loved the book, don't get me wrong,
but definetly would've liked more Luna. I thought most of the deaths
were well handled, especially Dobby, but none of them had the shock
value of Dumbledore or Sirius. Lupin, Tonks and Fred seemed slammed
into the ending and I don't know why they were done - whether it was
just to add the shock value or what.

The touch of Dumbledore being human was amazing.

[Megan....@gmail.com]

i definitely enjoyed the last book, and i think it was well done. i
didnt really expect any more than what i got.

my only "complaint" is that, if she did 19 years later, why didnt she
say a little bit about the others? was mcgonagall headmistress? what
jobs did harry, ron and hermione end up with? did luna marry neville
(and thence become the first cohabitational professors at hogwarts -
anyone ever notice that???)?

it bugs me that Fred dies... but i think it was in there to pause and
give light to what was going on in the battle. i think dobby's death
was a lot more significant and touching. lupin and tonks dying was
severely tragic, and almost too harsh for the storyline.

one thing that bothered me about the series was the issue of
hermione's parents. everyone else's parents are very involved in their
children's upbringing. yes, they are muggles, but they still should
want to SEE their little girl for more than 2 weeks out of the year.

not sure how i feel about the "dream/limbo" sequence harry had with
dumbledore. it needed to happen to fully explain things to the reader,
but i still think it's sort of a cop out scenario.

anyways.... i loved the adventure. i loved that it ended at hogwarts.
i loved that we never abandoned the basic friendships and loyalties
(snape aside). i wished to see more of bellatrix (esp since helena
bonham carter plays her in the films!!!) and luna.... enjoyable!!

[bran]

Ah alas I don't normally comment since i haven't read one of the books
in months, but since this one is about HP I thought I would just go
right ahead and comment. I will not get into the 19 years later part
as I assume we can all agree that, that was just crap.
Moving on. First I find it interesting that you all seem to think
Snape was inconsistent. I think he was one of the most consistent of
all the characters. I mean Snape might have wanted to protect Lily's
son because he always loved her, but he did hate James. And through
out the book is continually reminded of how much Harry is like his
father. He saves Harry over an over again. I think if he thought
more of Harry throughout the books it would have made less sense,
since he hated James so much. That and he would have made a really
bad double agent. Then voldemort wouldn't have trusted him etc etc
etc. I mean its definitly less nice and fluffy this way, but I think
it makes much more sense. I actually would have liked to see a little
more of Snape in this the last book.
As far as the killing of the characters in the final battle. Well
battles are not neat and clean, and to only have killed lesser
characters I think would have been "nice" but in the end made the
story less. I mean I hated when Sirius, and Dumbledore died, but it
made sense. It would have been to cheesy to not have killed anyone
else. Plus Lupin had to die in order for Harry to truely live his own
life. Not that it was explained that way which is why I think the
last part of the book is crap. The one part I didn't understand was
why kill fred and not george that was a little wierd. Then there was
no explination to any of it. Almost like she didn't know what to do
with everyone once the final battle was over. Ok were done fighting
book over. Thats the only part I didn't like.
My favorite part of the book though was when Percy came back to his
senses. I talked about this with some people at work, and when it
happens you just want to scream thank god.

[Megan....@gmail.com]

that's a very insightful look at snape, bran... i think i have to
agree with you. i've chatted about snape a few times, and i always
come back to my gut feelings about him. i always believed that he was
good, but so conflicted and so far into what he was doing that he was
probably one of the deepest characters of the book. voldemort is very
predictable, harry, ron and hermione are too... only a few characters
really surprised me with how they dealt with hard situations.