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HP and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling


Michelle

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Finally, I get to come along to this thread! :) There's a part of me that found this book a little rushed, and a tiny bit confusing, but yes, on the whole, a great wind up to the whole thing.

 

I loved the continuing relationships between the 3 main characters.. such strong friendship, and yet struggling with jealousies etc, as all teenagers do.

 

I think Snape's character has been fantastic.. I'm so pleased that he wasn't evil after all, and I felt sad for him, after the way he was treated when younger.

 

I have always liked Dobby, and I was cheering when he appeared.. and cried when he died. I don't think it was pointless.. someone was bound to get badly hurt or killed in that situation. He was such a little hero. :)

 

Strangely, Fred's death didn't bother me.. but it may have been because I'd been told about it. Other than that, maybe I react more to films than books these days.. I found Sirius's death sadder when watching the film. (This maybe due to the fact that I have to read in such small chunks, and am often distubed.. at the cinema, I relax, and get more into it.)

 

In fact, I am both excited and dreading the next 2 films, as I think they will be great, but I'll be blubbering in public! :thud:

 

I'm not sure we needed the final bit to the book.. we all kinda knew which relationships would happen. I also hope that we don't get new books about the new characters.. this has always been about Harry, and there would always be the worry that the new stories would cover old ground, simply with new characters. The encyclopedia idea sounds good, and would most probably makes her buckets more money! I'd then like to see what else she can come up with! :lol:

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I did feel that the "camping out" bit seemed to go on forever. I know it was over a period of several months, but if that had been clipped just a little, JK might have had a little more time and space for the few bits that felt a bit more rushed, and we could have given Lupin and Tonks a proper send-off, instead of having them creeping off and quietly dying in the shadows (I know they went down fighting, but the announcement, after the fact, of their death felt like a bit of a damp squib).

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I'm not sure I'm allowed in here, because HP7 is the only volume I have read, and, out in the real world, my friends are aghast when I say that! Nevertheless, I simply have to add my reaction that, even standing alone and on its own, it was a good read and will stand the test of time. For me, the long scenes of filling in answers from previous parts of the story were a real drag, of course, and I didn't think they were especially well-written either. But the few good scenes were so well written and overwhelming for me as to redeem completely the entire book and make me glad I read it. If I now read the previous books, as I am now starting to do, perhaps I can be forgiven the intrusion. :thud:

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I'm glad you made those comments Paul because I loved the first book when I read it to my Harry Potter aged son when it first came out and was hooked, you often hear people talking about hype and bad writing and I wondered whether I had been effectively hooked by the characterisation in the Philosophers Stone so that I had to find out what happened and that actually I had joined in the hype over a badly written set of books.

I didn't think I had but it is good to know that this volume stands as a good read alone (thought it did)

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Louise, I am half-way into Sorceror's Stone and I am pleased with the way it is going. I've certainly heard all the complaints about writing and hype but Volume 1 surprises me pleasantly, and I think large parts of it definitely have a read-out-loud style, which is just right for a read-out-loud story, but pales in comparison with 'high-literary' style like say Nabokov whom I admire greatly. More and more I think it depends on the standard one brings to the book, and I prefer to judge based on overall effect and whether the book works as a whole. So far HP7 did, and it looks like HP1 will also. Hype there certainly was, but so what?

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A few hours on from finishing, I have a feeling that I only have a superficial understanding of all the details, and if I went into details, I may get confused. I feel that I may have to read the last few chapters again, to see if the details really do make sense.

 

Does anyone else feel like this? Does anyone have anything they really didn't understand?

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Louise, I am half-way into Sorceror's Stone and I am pleased with the way it is going. I've certainly heard all the complaints about writing and hype but Volume 1 surprises me pleasantly, and I think large parts of it definitely have a read-out-loud style, which is just right for a read-out-loud story, but pales in comparison with 'high-literary' style like say Nabokov whom I admire greatly. More and more I think it depends on the standard one brings to the book, and I prefer to judge based on overall effect and whether the book works as a whole. So far HP7 did, and it looks like HP1 will also. Hype there certainly was, but so what?

Phew, you see I read the first to my son who was just the right age and then moved on from there and HP has grown up with him and me really!

 

A few hours on from finishing, I have a feeling that I only have a superficial understanding of all the details, and if I went into details, I may get confused. I feel that I may have to read the last few chapters again, to see if the details really do make sense.

 

Does anyone else feel like this? Does anyone have anything they really didn't understand?

I think I need to read 6 again really!

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Does anyone else feel like this? Does anyone have anything they really didn't understand?

I re-read the same section three times before I realised Neville had killed Nagini. That bit just seemed to happen so quickly, and felt like it was glossed over, so I almost missed it completely.

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Phew, you see I read the first to my son who was just the right age and then moved on from there and HP has grown up with him and me really!

!

The further I get into HP1 the more I appreciate it (now p180/309). I think it has the qualities that all great children's books have (IMO): they appeal to both the parent as well as the child, and both enjoy the reading of them. And it seems to me I read someplace -- although I can no longer find it -- that the books were each written to an age level that tracked the growing ages of their readership (Harry and crew certainly age) so it is no wonder that you both have kept up and not lost interest. That all sounds good to me from the viewpoint of a parent, albeit an older one.

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Does anyone else feel like this? Does anyone have anything they really didn't understand?

 

You bet! But then again I have only read HP7. :thud: Now that I am going back and reading HP1 for the first time, I am finding that numerous details stand out that I would have glossed over and missed completely if I had not read HP7 first. She really started crafting the books carefully right from the beginning! I am obviously not recommending reading them backwards, but I certainly believe that re-reading the earlier volumes will provide far more in the way of enjoying and understanding HP7 than one might imagine.

 

PS I too am puzzled by the baby.

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I agree Paul.. at some point, I may go back and re-read the series.

 

I've just reread the bit about the wands, and I went back and read the scene in 6 where Draco disarmed Dumbledore, and I guess that makes sense now.

 

I'm still struggling as to why Harry wasn't killed completely.. why did the killing spell kill the Voldemont part, but not kill him totally? (I'm probably missing something obvious!)

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Now that I've finished it, I'd like to know what character JK Rowling gave a reprieve to and which two died that weren't going to.....

 

I can't wait to see this when it's made into a movie. Thanks for the adventures JK Rowling!

 

I read somewhere on the Internet a post book release interview with JK saying that it was Mr Weasley that she gave a reprieve to! Must admit I thought he was going to be one of the 2 major characters who died.

 

I agree about the movie biz - it'll have to be really chopped down tho especially all that camping around in the woods.

 

Was rather miffed that Tonks and Lupin were killed "off-screen" too - I felt they deserved better than that. If JK was so determined to kill them off, she could have at least given them both a decent send-off.

I agree - it was such a let down that he just came across the bodies.

 

A few hours on from finishing, I have a feeling that I only have a superficial understanding of all the details, and if I went into details, I may get confused. I feel that I may have to read the last few chapters again, to see if the details really do make sense.

 

Does anyone else feel like this? Does anyone have anything they really didn't understand?

As I said earlier the wand stuff confused me with so many people losing their wands and getting other peoples. Exactly how do wands 'chose' people etc?

 

And I'm sure I read through a lot of the last chapter or so too quickly. Still that means something to look forward to when I inevitably read it again. One thing I did do was read bk 6 before hand to prepare myself so that all that stuff about horcruxes etc was fresh in my head.

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I agree Paul.. at some point, I may go back and re-read the series.

I'll definitely be doing that. I'm begun replacing my old kids'-cover paperback copies with the adult-cover hardback ones instead (so they all match and look lovely), and have loaned the first four paperbacks to my Mam so she can see what all the fuss is about. When I get round to it, I'll read them all one after the other, so everything builds up while the previous books are still fresh in my mind. I know I'll also be looking out for all the little clues JK left along the way this time round...

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I bought an adult cover one this time and thought it looked so much nicer I thought I might start doing the same thing! I bet we are not alone! They will probably become semi collectable - what's the bet the first one is relativly rare?

 

Just looked on ebay - it's going at upwards from £14.99 with one at £49.99!!!

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A few hours on from finishing, I have a feeling that I only have a superficial understanding of all the details, and if I went into details, I may get confused. I feel that I may have to read the last few chapters again, to see if the details really do make sense.

 

Does anyone else feel like this? Does anyone have anything they really didn't understand?

 

I agree. It's all so much of a blur, especially when you've cut yourself off from the world in order to avoid those spoilers which are everywhere, from the newpaper to the TV.

 

I did love the explanation about Snape... That whole section made me very teary indeed...

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I stayed up until 1.30 am last Sunday morning so I could read it in one day before I read any spoilers, as I was determined not to find out whether Harry died before I read the book! Amazingly enough, I have not seen one spoiler since finishing it!

 

Anyway, I thought HP7 was excellent. The camping out bit did seem to drag on for a while, but it was necessary - their job couldn't appear too simple or quick. The info dump of newspaper articles near the beginning was also quite boring, but after that the book just flew past (not literally, btw!)

 

I always thought Snape would turn out to be good, and that this would be revealed to Harry as Snape died saving his life, so I was kinda right. I also thought that it had been arranged between Snape and Dumbledore that Snape would kill him, but I thought that this was because there would be some complicated charm that would mean Dumbledore would be able to come back to life, so I was disappointed that he couldn't. Still, it was nice for Harry to have a little chat with his portrait at the end!

 

I was so relieved that Ron and Hermione survived, as I honestly thought one or both of them would be killed. The strange thing about the deaths was that the most attention was given to the non-human casualties - Dobby got almost a state funeral, whereas Fred, Tonks etc were just mentioned in passing, which I thought was strange. For me, it made it rather difficult to care - I was almost in tears over Dobby, but for Tonks etc it was almost a shrug and an "Oh well". Don't get me wrong, I wished they hadn't died, but it was all so unremarked compared to Dobby.

 

I too got a bit confused about the wands, and with rushing to finish, I was a bit confused about other things too. How did Neville have Gryffindor's sword? Am I right in thinking it can be produced by someone worthy in a time of need, or something?? And did it say who took over as Headteacher at Hogwarts?

 

Personally, I did not much care for the epilogue. It was nice to see your suspicions confirmed, and that the people had got together who you thought would get together, but I just couldn't get to grips with the thought of Harry et al as adults, with Hogwarts-age children! It all seemed quite weird!

 

Glad to see Bellatrix got what she deserved, and so relieved that Voldemort was finally finished off.

 

But after seeing the dreadfully disappointing current HP film, I dread to think what sort of a mess they're going to make of filming this one. :thud:

 

Oh yes, forgot to say that the only "spoiler" I have seen stated that there were 11 deaths of main characters. I tried to count, but only got up to 7 or 8, and it's now a week since I read it. Let's see, there was:

 

The unfortunate witch at the beginning

Dobby

Fred

Tonks

Lupin

Snape

Mad-Eye Moody

Bellatrix

Voldemort... Two more?

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According to Wikipeida, the deaths are as follows:

Charity Burbage

Hedwig

Mad-Eye Moody

Rufus Scrimgeour

Ted Tonks

Dirk Cresswell

Bathilda Bagshot

Gregorovitch

Gellert Grindelwald

Peter Pettigrew

Dobby

Fred Weasley

Severus Snape

Remus Lupin

Nymphadora Tonks

Bellatrix Lestrange

Lord Voldemort

 

But there's no mention of Nagini or Colin Creevey (the photography lad from Chamber of Secrets - bless him!) in that list, so I think several have been missed out.

 

Later: I've just found a full list of deaths through all the HP books HERE at Wikipedia. There are 22 mentioned for Deathly Hallows. There are also countless muggles killed "for fun" throughout the book and I'm sure the death toll at the Battle of Hogworts must number close to about 50.

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Mia, the sword appeared out of the sorting hat when Harry needed it, and then the same was true for Neville. So much for the goblin owning it.. I bet he wasn't best pleased when it disappeared! :thud:

 

The wand thing made more sense on a second reading.. let me see if I can recall it.. in book 6, Draco disarmed Dumbledore (of course the elder wand should have been invinsible, but Dumbledore paused to cast the spell that 'froze' Harry). Therefore, although he didn't touch it, Draco was the rightful owner. Later on, Harry took Draco's wand from him.. so the elder wand recognised that Harry had beaten his rightful owner.. and he now belonged to Harry.

 

As for the last film, it's been a while since I had read the book, so I couldn't really compare. I therefore enjoyed it in it's own right. As 'films' I think they work well.. they're never going to be faithful to the books.

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Ah, I thought that was it with the sword. Thanks for the wand explanation Michelle! I get it now (I think). :)

 

And how could I forget to mention Hermione's magical bag? How cool is that?? I really need one of those, lol! :lol:

 

As for the latest film, as a film it is quite good, but as an adaptation of the book, it is horrendous. :) There is so much important stuff missed out. That director is a :thud: useless idiot.

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I read Harry I have several unanswered questions that even my husband mentioned too. What does Harry do as an adult? Ginny? Hermoine? Ron? Yes they grow up and have children but what else? It seemed to leave some things hanging. Do they work for the Ministry of Magic? What do you think happened?

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Blimey Kell, that's a bit more than 11! :thud: More like a massacre!
Massacre indeed - book 7 is a bit of a bloodbath! More deaths in this book than any of the others.
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I actually quite liked the epilogue. I didn't mind that it didn't address what Harry's occupation was...I assume he became an Auror like he always wanted. I could imagine Harry, Ginny and their children living at 12 Grimmauld Place, living with Kreatcher...it all seemed to fit somehow.

 

I also thought the wand stuff was really interesting. I wasn't too confused by it, as Ollivander explained everything about how to take over someone's wand.

 

In the end, I was very satisfied by the book. I thought I was going to feel sad, but instead I felt like she ended the series really well. This has ended up as my favorite book of the series.

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