2007; 784 pages. Book 7 (out of 7) in the “Harry Potter” series. New Author? : No. Genres : Fantasy; YA; Adventure. Laurels: Winner – 2007
Newsweek – Best Book; and others. Overall Rating : 9*/10.
It’s showdown time! A duel to the death between the Boy-Who-Lived
and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Come out fighting and may the best wand
win! Or, for you Muggles out there, a contest of magic between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
Harry’s definitely the
underdog. Voldemort’s minions have taken
over key positions at both Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic. His Death Eaters are looking high and low for
“Undesirable Number One”. For the moment Harry’s friends are hiding
him, but sooner or later his cover will be blown.
Things look bad for the good
guys, but Harry’s got one slim hope – destroying the entire set of horcruxes,
each of which holds a piece of Voldemort’s soul. Too bad Harry has no idea where those
horcruxes are, what they look like, or how to destroy them even if he does find
them.
And we won’t even mention the
prophecy. You know, the one that says
the only way Voldemort can be killed is if the Boy-Who-Lived dies also.
What’s To Like...
Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows is the seventh, and final, book in J.K. Rowling’s
fabulous Harry Potter series, although there
are some supplementary screenplays and short story collections for diehard fans. The overall tone of the series continues to
get darker, but that’s not surprising for a “showdown” story.
Once again there are a bunch
of riddles and mysteries for Harry and his two closest friends – Ron and
Hermione – to solve: What is
“Grindelwald’s Mark”? What is the Sign
of the Deathly Hallows? Who is the
mysterious “R.A.B.”? Where is the Sword
of Godric Gryffindor? And possibly most
important of all, who is the owner of the Silver Doe Patronus?
In addition to the
riddle-solving, the horcrux-finding, and the Harry/Voldemort main storyline,
there are a gazillion other characters with their own secondary plotlines to be
tied up. J.K. Rowling does an amazing
job of this, devoting much of the first half of the book to do so. You’ll come away with a good idea of what
happens to the Dursleys, the ghosts, the house-elves, the centaurs, all the
Weasley siblings, and even the owls after the series ends.
I liked the drawings at the
beginning of each chapter, as well as the captivating “Tale of the Three
Brothers”, from whence comes the book’s title. There are also plenty of spells and magic
gizmos to marvel at; my favorites being the Polyjuice Potion and the Extendable
Ears. And it’s always a treat to have
Peeves, Dobby, and Hagrid show up in a scene.
The ending is, as expected,
fantastic. Everything builds to an epic, action-packed, several-chapters-long, final battle. Most (but not all) of the good guys survive;
most (but not all) of the bad guys are vanquished, and the series-long question of whether
Snape is a white-hat or a black-hat is finally resolved. Things close with an Epilogue, which takes place
nineteen years later, and which left me misty-eyed.
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.9*/5, based on 37,157
ratings and 6,133 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.57*/5,
based on 3,288,633 ratings and 75,366 reviews.
Excerpts...
“I couldn’t think what to get you,” she
said.
“You didn’t have to get me anything.”
She disregarded this too.
“I didn’t know what would be useful. Nothing too big, because you wouldn’t be able
to take it with you.”
He chanced a glance at her. She was not tearful, that was one of the many
wonderful things about Ginny, she was rarely weepy. He had sometimes thought that having six
brothers must have toughened her up. (loc. 1522)
“His knowledge remained woefully
incomplete, Harry! That which Voldemort
does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children’s tales, of love,
loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a
power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped.” (loc. 8996)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sells for $9.99 right now, as do the
other six books in the series.
“Imagine if
something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever.” (loc. 672)
It’s hard to find nits to pick about
anything in Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows. As usual, there’s a
small amount of cussing – I counted eleven in the first 50% of the book – and most of them are variations of the mild “hell”
and “damn” invectives. Oh, and Harry gets kissed once, but he’ll
remember it for a long time.
The book screams for a “Cast of Characters” section, but to be fair,
in the Kindle version, which is what I read, when you click on someone’s name,
even a minor player, it usually sends you to a link with a background
about him/her/it.
Finally, for those who loved
the Quidditch and Hogwarts classroom antics in the earlier books, it should be
noted that this book contains nary a trace of either.
9 Stars. It’s taken 20 years or so, but I’ve made it through the entire Harry Potter series. I read them all in order and the first one in French. This is a great series, one that keeps both YA readers and adults thoroughly entertained. The Epilogue could possibly be used as the basis for a sequel, but J.K. Rowling hasn’t done so in the intervening fifteen years, and frankly, I think that was the correct decision on her part.
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