SPOILERS CONTINUE!!!
DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW HOW THE LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK ENDS!!!

I thought the ending, from meeting Aberforth onwards, felt a little contrived - especially trying to cram in all the past characters, no matter how unlikely - and all the deaths seemed highly unnecessary, but overall I thought it was a good ending to the series. I have always preferred the way she writes the dialogue-heavy scenes to the 'action' scenes, in which I get frustrated with the lack of description and unfocused details, I thought that Snape's final memories were brilliantly told whereas I found the robbery and escape from Gringotts to be quite sloppy, for example. The final chapter was far too saccharine for my taste, although I suppose it's nice to find out how everything turns out. I would have preferred a detached description of their futures rather than revealing all the events through unnatural dialogue, which seemed very forced to me, however.

Did anyone else notice the problem with Ron saying "only three [horcruxes] left!" when there was only three destroyed up to that point? Could this just be a bad typo?

I'm just glad she didn't kill Harry off.
But why Snape? Whyyyy?

Am depressed.

I agree that the final chapter was a little bit saccharine. But I wanted to know how they all ended up. The fact that Harry called his son after Dumbledore and Snape nearly finished me off. I was a sniffling mess by the end.

What's Harry Potter?

Doesn't he play for Arsenal?

Quote: zooo @ July 24, 2007, 6:17 PM

Doesn't he play for Arsenal?

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No, I would have heard of him.

whats a book?

What's an apostrophe?

Whatisaspacebar?

Quote: Scatterbrained Floozy @ July 24, 2007, 8:12 PM

Whatisaspacebar?

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This one's a clever one!

Quote: zooo @ July 24, 2007, 5:27 PM

I was a sniffling mess by the end.

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Wuss!

Anyway, on the original question, yeah. Everything was tied up quite cleanly I think, but it did feel a bit rushed in places, and I wasn't entirely happy about just how some of it worked out.
I'd not really considered the point about the action sequences, but I suppose you're right. Maybe I'd rather just get to the point, rather than ponce about with the same people running around the same other people firing the same spells to attack and block... Personally, I think that her real weakness is character establishment. The main characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Dumbledore, Snape, Voldemort, etc) are really done well, but anyone else doesn't really seem to have any real establishment to me, and often nothing to particularly distinguish them. I find that, in general, she'll just make a fleeting reference to just who a character is - if she considers them important enough - on their very first appearance. But after that, they're just mentioned here and there, and the reader is just expected to remember the most obscure characters, from perhaps 3 books back, and they're only mentioned another once or twice in the current one! By the time one has remembered just who the character(s) are, they're not mentioned again.

The fact that half of them have the oddest name you have ever heard doesn't help too much either...

Back on the book itself, some parts I wasn't too happy with, as mentioned, but overall pretty good, and pretty much as I predicted (i.e. Harry doesn't die). Very annoying how it cut right at the end with the too-much-action line to 19 years later though. I want to know just HOW Harry and Ginny got together. Did he see her from behind, across the room the next morning, go and tap her on the shoulder and she turned and jumped into his arms? Did they just start going out, taking it slow and building up to getting married like in a "normal" relationship? Or perhaps she snuck into his bed later that night and wanked him off under the covers?

And did anyone else want Harry to turn to Ron and Hermione at about half a dozen points throughout the book and just scream "FOR FUCKS SAKE YOU TWO, JUST KISS!!!"

I really enjoyed the book although i agree with the whole rushed/crammed bit at the end...and the meeting Dumbledore in heaven stuff...hmmmm. I agree with Aaron (suprisingly) about the whole skipping 19 years ahaead. I wanted to know about Fred and how the Weasleys coped with it (whom i can't believe was killed off) and how they all got together...and well it was just annoying. So many unanswered questions.

Like to see them try and fit all that in a movie!! haha

I just don't geddit.

Harry Potter? Wizards? Book?

Quote: Aaron @ July 24, 2007, 11:37 PM

And did anyone else want Harry to turn to Ron and Hermione at about half a dozen points throughout the book and just scream "FOR FUCKS SAKE YOU TWO, JUST KISS!!!"

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Now I want to read it.

haha Im quite tempted to read it now-I outgrew it a bit after book four

Psssh! You can't outgrow Harry Potter!

Anyway, did anyone else notice that this last book is set in 1997?!

I cant tell if youre kidding or serious!

Well I spose I didnt outgrow it as much as I wanted to start reading classics yeah that does reflect kind of geekily on me