Sigh - I came home from work and read the last 125 pages of Harry Potter . . .
I really liked it, and hopefully, the lady at work who I always discuss the Potter books with, and who finished this book a couple of weeks ago, will be back in the office tomorrow!
Princess and Ffleur and anyone else who read it - what did you think? I'll post my thoughts as a comment . . .
Spoiler alert - if you haven't read the book yet, don't read the comments!
posted by Diane at 7:35 PM
16 Comments:
The Potter series has changed dramatically from the first children's book, to this final chapter. Gone was Hogwarts and Quidditch and now it is Harry, Hermoine and Ron as Voldemort hunters . . .
I was sobbing after Harry dove into the final thoughts of Snape and found out the truth about his allegiance to Dumbledore, and that Harry was doomed to die. And when he saw his parents . . . .
Princess - I did sort of feel too that the final chapter was an afterthought, but I liked it
What did you guys think?
I also thought the return of Percy should have been explained better
I also thought there was alot reminiscent of Nazi Germany and its treatment of Jews in the Death Eaters persecution of Mudbloods. I was reminded of the saying that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing . . .
I think JK Rowling was influenced by Lord of the Rings and 2001-A Space Odyssey. The latter due to the baby creature that foreshadowed V's death.
I'd always thought Snape would turn out to be good and that Harry would live. It is children's lit!
The part about Snape, in this book and the previous, touched me deeply. We've all experienced feeling left out, marginalized etc while at school, so my heart bled for Snape. For Rowling to write about that so well; she must have experienced such pain herself.
I agree with Princess that the final chapter was rushed. In an interview, Rowling stated she wrote the final chapter 10 years ago when she started the series. So I read it carefully looking for style changes. Because her characters and style blossomed so much througout the arc of the books, I thought the last chapter would be more like her first book. But I believe ultimately it was edited to remain consistent with the books. No doubt her thoughts of Harry surviving, marrying Ginny etc were there at the beginning but I truly believe it wasn't written exactly as it was.
I'm embarressed to admit I've forgotten already, but did it say what job Harry was doing as an adult? Was he still considered famous?
ffleur - it didn't say what he was doing now, but the kids on the train were staring at him, so he must have still been the stuff of legend . . .
when read the first book, I described it as Lord of the Rings lite . . . but I think they ultimately stand on their own
after the last book, I hoped that Dumbledore was not really dead, and that Snape was really a good guy - and I agree with you - I think she does have a good feel for those who have felt like outcasts
Not about Harry Potter - I was wondering what kind of dog your yellow dog (Hannah?) is. She looks just like my Teddy after he's clipped. Here's a picture of Teddy - we think he's lab/German shepherd mix. His coat is really thick and wiry when he's not clipped.
http://lynneslittlecorner.blogspot.com/2006/12/maggie-and-teddy.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
lynne - Hanna is AKC registered Labrador Retriever
Teddy looks like he has alot of yellow lab in him too!
I don't believe the last chapter was written ten years ago. Or, at least as Ffleur put it, it has been edited quite a bit.
I think we were supposed to deduce that Harry and Ron (and Ginny and Hermione) were living in the Muggle world because they were too famous to live in the Wizzarding world, hence all the buzz related to their arrival at the train station.
I thought the final chapter was just a little too tidy, the nod to Malfoy, the children named after everyone who had died (minus Fred- where's the recognition for Fred?) the love for Lupin and Tonks son, although who the heck raised him all those 19 years if not Harry, his godfather????
I read in the wikipedia entry for the book that there were a number of things Rowling excluded in the final chapter - including Harry and Hermoine working at the ministry and Ron working with George in place of Fred at the shop
Good question on the baby werewolf though . . .
I closed all the comments, because not that I read the books or are even planning to read the books, I still like a good surprise.
Floating her assets: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=400787&in_page_id=1773
I couldn't resist. (She's kinda hot.)
I feel bad for having not read any of the Harry Potter books--maybe when my daughter gets older (but then she was too scared to read C S Lewis' Narnia Chronicles)
I've just gotta read them!
Hi-- first time reading.
I thought that Percy just came out of no where, but I was glad to see him finally come to his sense.
The epilogue was weird, but I liked it-- I like things like that.
I loved the book. I flew through it at the beach. I migh reread over the winter.
Loved it. I think my comment would be too long if I went into everything I liked about the final chapter...suffice it to say, I thought it ended perfectly!
Finally finished the book last night and I loved it. When it was revealed that Harry had to die, I just couldn't believe that she was going to kill him - I hadn't seen it coming. I thought all along he would survive.
I didn't get the feeling, as an earlier commenter did, that they were living in the Muggle world. I got that Harry was still a bit famous, and I was also wondering why no one was named for Fred! And I also wondered who the hell raised little Teddy, and still want to know WTF the whimpering creepy baby was all about.
I'm sure she'd written the last chapter much earlier, but after all these years, it would be impossible for ANY writer to leave it alone and not rewrite and re-edit it a hundred times. Anyone who has ever worked creatively knows you never finish anything - you just abandon it. I'm sure Rowling was changing it up until she turned it in.
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