Harry Potter Book 7--WARNING SPOILERS!!!!

HorseFilms said:
I'll get to observe the festivities tonight. Allison is an assistant manager at B&N and she roped me into being the photographer for the evening.
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That's actually cool.

I will be going to Barnes and Noble to check out what's going on but I have it being delivered by Amazon tomorrow morning but just like with books 5 & 6 I will end up buying it at 12:30am at Walmart (where there aren't any lines to get the book and it's cheaper and next door to the Barnes and Noble)

Either way... I am excited and had to intentionally not read anything with spoilers in this thread just out of fear.
 
I finished it this morning at 4am. Great read and completely worth the wait, but I can't help but feel robbed... There is no more story.
 
I bought the book yesterday and finished it today, boy I am worn out. There is hardly a quiet moment, that author had you going and going and going. Also, could you believe,

spoiler -- do not read any further and I mean it, if you don't want to know --

























how many frackin' people she killed off?! Oh my God!
 
SPOILERS


Reviews of the book are kind of pointless--I mean who's going to read the first six and skip number seven if it gets panned? :) That said, I thought it was a very satisfying ending to the series. If I was JK Rowling's editor, i think I would have lopped off 100-150 pages, but at this point, no one's got that kind of wizarding power. BTW, I'm going to add SPOILERS to this thread title so, we can discuss the details of the book.

I have to say I was surprised that none of the primary characters were killed in the last book. The deaths in the earlier books seemed a lot more significant --Sirius/Cedric/Dumbledore. I guess we were supposed to be suckered into thinking she was going to kill off Harry, but I was never convinced of that. The rumors preceeding the book seemed unlikely and things seem too neatly wrapped up at the end of the book. I figured Ron or Mrs. Weasley would get the axe, because those characters had a lot more weight than the (mostly) minor characters that got killed off. In the end, I think Rowling didn't want to upset the younger readers of the series too much and that's cool.

Ending a story is the hardest part of writing and I think Rowling did a bang up job. I can't say I thought the epilogue added much, but it didn't detract either. I guess it leaves things open for the future adventures of the Potter/Weasley kids.
 
overall it was pretty good, but i thought it was a bit of a cop out when the incredible hulk showed up and bashed voldemort's head in with a rock. i don't see how the hulk was immune to voldemort's spells just because of the unique color changing properties of his skin.
 
Barry_S said:
SPOILERS


Reviews of the book are kind of pointless--I mean who's going to read the first six and skip number seven if it gets panned? :) That said, I thought it was a very satisfying ending to the series. If I was JK Rowling's editor, i think I would have lopped off 100-150 pages, but at this point, no one's got that kind of wizarding power. BTW, I'm going to add SPOILERS to this thread title so, we can discuss the details of the book.

I have to say I was surprised that none of the primary characters were killed in the last book. The deaths in the earlier books seemed a lot more significant --Sirius/Cedric/Dumbledore. I guess we were supposed to be suckered into thinking she was going to kill off Harry, but I was never convinced of that. The rumors preceeding the book seemed unlikely and things seem too neatly wrapped up at the end of the book. I figured Ron or Mrs. Weasley would get the axe, because those characters had a lot more weight than the (mostly) minor characters that got killed off. In the end, I think Rowling didn't want to upset the younger readers of the series too much and that's cool.

Ending a story is the hardest part of writing and I think Rowling did a bang up job. I can't say I thought the epilogue added much, but it didn't detract either. I guess it leaves things open for the future adventures of the Potter/Weasley kids.
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SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS

I am getting ready to read it for the second time because I am still having a hard time wrapping my mind around certain parts. Overall I will break this down to certain elements:

Series
I am disturbed by people reading book 7 without reading the first 6. It is like reading the last chapter in a book without reading any other part. This bothers me.

Pacing
From the start this book has a complete different pace and a sense of urgency that none of the others in the series have. This is a freight train and the pacing is mind blowing. At the same time there seems to be a lot of... what's the best way to describe, weird passages of time (weeks of living in the woods, weeks of preparing for Gringotts) The passage of time in Year 7 just moves at a shocking pace.

Snape
I wanted him to be simple, I wanted him to be bad and a simple character, the Benedict Arnold. I was convinced that they would find some way to redeem him and make him good and I knew it would be cheesy and I would resent J.K for it, but ultimately, this was my favorite spin in the entire storyline. I loved what she did and Snape went from one of my least favorite characters to my most favorite.

Dumbledore
As book 6 was an exploration into Tom Riddle, book 7 was an exploration into Dumbledore. The legends faded into a character study and I felt rewarded. I know I have a solid understanding of him now.

Voldemort
His power, obsession, and anger really can be felt and I like the fact that she didn't write him like a children's novel bad guy... He really was pure evil, straight from hell.

Granger
I have always like Hermione and her power in this book cannot be disputed, but the whole element of Hermione being like Scully from the Xfiles just bothers me. As a reader you just want to smack her and say "after everything you have seen and done you have to understand that there are certain things that don't make sense and are still real in this world" That is the only area of her character that bothered me

Ron
Has he changed at all? I just always felt like he was sort of a third wheel and was never a real big fan of his. Certain elements of his story were great but ultimately didn't need this story line.

Ginny
I felt robbed by some elements of her absence in this story. I really loved the relationship of Harry and Ginny in the 6th book and wanted to explore that more than the cliché absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Harry
Harry's sacrifice is set up to mirror his mothers and yet while I think that he is forced to grow up too quickly, I did enjoy his journey. His epilogue seemed a bit forced though and I wanted more information about what happened to him in those 19 years, what he does, ect.

Epilogue
Is she setting up further tales? More than that, Ron & Granger PLUS Harry & Ginny? Who ends up marrying and having kids with their high school sweetheart? Who ends up marrying their entire social circle?

Neville
Who would let him teach?

Malfoys
I loved Lucious becoming a little *****... Draco, I really like the turn in his story line.

Hollows
This was just great and really a cool story line

Deaths
Unlike Barry, there was almost too much death for me. I didn't really expect a major character to die, but let's be honest, Voldemort is sort of the main character/antagonist for 3000 pages (taking out the Sirius story line) so a main character does die. Part of Harry dies. Hedwig dies, Tonks dies. Lupin dies. Moody dies. Snape dies. It was death death death. George died, that hit me hard. In general the death was overwhelming, dark, and heartbreaking, but you felt that it was war. I didn't need Harry and company to die in order to feel the severity of the situation, it was everywhere.

Kids
Since the second book I don't know how appropriate these books are for kids. They deal with death, war, and even though it is the story of children in extradinary situations it is dark and scary. Then again, I have no kids so who am I to say what they should and shouldn't read.

Overall
The Snape storyline/revelation made everything cool for me.
 
The thing that concerned me the most were the plot holes, which were GLARING. And I'm not the type of person to go over every page and read every words looking for consistency either. I only noticed plot holes when they're big.

Plot Hole #1
It's clearly stated that the third Hallow, the Invisibility Cloak, cannot be penetrated by any spells. Yet in book 4, Mad-Eye Moody (the fake one) was able to see right through it not once, but twice. Harry even asked him about it and he confirmed that his magic eye can see through invisibility cloak. Sooo, is the cloak perfect or not?

Plot Hole #2
The evil Grindewald has the Elder Wand, so he's unbeatable. Right? Then how did Dumbledore defeated him and take his wand? It's not like he just stole it in the middle of the night. There was a big epic battle that everyone witnessed and wrote about. So if the Dumbledore can defeat the unbeatable wand, what makes it so special? For that matter, once he has the wand, why didn't he just go look for Voldemort and beat him down since the wand is invincible?

It's a good book overall but I felt like Rowling bit of a bit more than she can chew with wrapping up the story in a whole new direction.
 
I'm not going to defend Rawling because I don't know what she meant but my interpretation of them is that the Hallows are just extra powerful. I know that the fairy tale presents them as perfect and unbeatable but maybe they are just extra powerful and the fairy tale just blows them out of proportion.

I mean the resurection stone doesn't exactly bring back the dead, completely.

So there is my defense of her, although you do bring up a couple of good issues, they are both issues I'm willing to overlook.
 
I do feel robbed off my childhood. I've read these books since they first came out and have anticipated them, as they came out for 9 or 10 years. I feel that it was strange reading those last lines...like closing the childhood chapter of my life for the last time. Weird as it may sound, it really irritates me that people are reading the last chapter first because they want to know so bad what happens, or that people read the seventh book without reading the other six, as mentioned earlier.

What bothers me even more about the HP franchise is how people are suckered into thinking that the movies are "good". They in no way reflect anything close to what Harry Potter is about...or the magical realm your mind seems to wander to, everytime you pick up the book. Maybe its just because I've read them from the beginning, but I really don't think much of Harry Potter "fans" really are fans of the series. I don't want to sound pompous, but if you really are such a fan...read the books from 1-7 fully and then compare it to the movies, without jumping to conclusions or making assumptions based on spoilers and little to no knowledge.

Just so that my post remains relevant to the seventh book, I feel that she finished the series to the best of her ability. Sure, there were some plot holes and heartbreaks with people dying - but it was a satisfying end to an incredible series.

-Kegan
 
Spoilers:







I was bothered by how many people got the axe, Mad-eye, Lupin, Tonks, Snape, Goyle was it?, Fred really bothered me, dang, dang, dang, not the twin brother!
I loved how Snape turned out to be a good guy, loved that.
 
Hunter007 said:
What bothers me even more about the HP franchise is how people are suckered into thinking that the movies are "good".
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They are. They're way better and more entertaining than the Lord of the Rings flicks. For instance, I haven't fallen asleep once during a Harry Potter movie. I haven't once stayed awake during a Lord of the Rings movie.
 
Charli said:
Spoilers:







I was bothered by how many people got the axe, Mad-eye, Lupin, Tonks, Snape, Goyle was it?, Fred really bothered me, dang, dang, dang, not the twin brother!
I loved how Snape turned out to be a good guy, loved that.
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I don't know. I felt like all these people got killed to appease the fans in a way. Obviously book 7 was building up to be the darkest of the series, so some of the good guys have to die. But it'll be too upsetting to fans to kill off Harry, Ron or Hermione so all these auxiliary characters are thrown to the wolves instead. With all the pre-release hype about who's going to die, the way all the main characters survived felt somewhat like a cop-out to me. Especially with that epilogue where everyone is happy and all the pieces fit together a little too well. It would have hurt to kill off any of the main characters, but maybe it would have a bigger impact.
 
Well, despite the fact that it had kept getting darker and darker - it was originally a children's book and that has to be kept in mind. Killing off one of the main characters would have been quite upsetting to old fans, as well as new (and might have some crazy, psychological impact on the younger children...I mean you have to consider the INCREDIBLE hype Harry Potter got).

As for the reference to Lord of The Rings - I liked the movies, but I didn't think they did the books any justice. Same concept really, but in my opinion...less hype. Again, just my opinion. I doubt any movie can REALLY do a book justice and personally, books should be left as is. Film is a creative medium, so why do we have to siphon off other creative mediums to make something entertaining? There are plenty of fantastic ideas that have been portrayed via film that have never made it to book form, simply because the book will not do the movie justice.

The only reason I find that the HP movies aren't great is because its growing tiresome. They're trying to take more shortcuts and because of that, are cutting out too much of the original plot.

-Kegan
 
I liked most of the movies and most of the books, but the movies do feel very condensed compared to the books. Unless you want to watch a 5 or 6 hour movie, you're not going to get all the subplots and minor characters. But they're still very enjoyable and I really liked the latest one--it felt very dark and textured, but not dreary.

A few more random comments---

Snape--No surprise he was a good guy because Dumbledore always trusted him and was a touchstone character. Very anti-climactic death for Snape, though. Why no fight between two wizards royale?

Dumbledore--why bring up the family stuff so late when it would have made the series much more interesting if he seemed a little more unstable early on. A little forced and it was a backstory that didn't lead anywhere, but could have been pivotal in an earlier book. Also, if characters die, they should stay dead. Sort of a cheap trick to bring back a dead character to help with exposition.

Ginny--Overy 700 pages and not one to spare for her character development? Huh? I guess Harry had a cardboard fetish. Thought the love interest angles would get more interesting as they got older, but they were pretty much static.

Spells--why is everyone using the same tired spells they learned the first week at school? Thought they'd have some fancier stuff to trot out especially in Snape vs Vol and Harry vs Vol.
 
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