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Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows
Finally I found enough time to talk about HP Book 7. I actually finished it this morning after reading it all night.
Going to get the book at midnight was fun. For the last two releases (the first 4 were out by the time I started reading the series) I simply got it sent to my home (because I was working) but since this is the last one I wanted to see what the fuss was about.
We got there at 11pm and the place was packed (and this was a big place, think of a bookstore like Borders or Barnes&Noble). The Pre-Order line was already stretch from one end of the store to the other (weaving in and out of the isles so it was actually longer than that) while the line to buy it that night was halfway through the store (again weaving in and out of the isles). By midnight, the Buy line was out the door and the Pre-Order line had stretched across the room a second time and was out the door, going around the corner of the building.
There were huge sheets of paper where you could write messages to JKR. And they had acrobats hanging from the ceiling doing stunts. They eventually had to get rid of the acrobats though because the Pre-Order line needed to go where they were since there was simply no more room.
There wasn't as many cosplayers as I thought there would be. Most were pretty lazy and just threw on a black cloak over their clothes. I saw a really good Umbridge and Trelawney though; they looked awesome. And there was a really cool Gryffindor student. I also saw a nice Slytherin student but she didn't have the cloak on which I felt she needed.
As for the book itself, I really liked it. I thought it was better than the last couple.
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" is my new favourite line. XD
Seriously Molly was never one I paid much attention too. Sure she was good as the overbearing mother but she didn't really do much else besides that. Which was why it was so fucking cool to see her going momma-bear-protecting-her-cubs on Bella (and I like Bella!).
Neville also pwned in this book. I mean in the first book who would have thought Neville would be leading a rebellion at Hogwarts! His Gran also pwned. For years I've felt she's been too hard on Neville but she was too cool here, like when Neville was talking about how she kicked ass when the Death Eaters who showed up to kidnap her and when she showed up at Hogwarts for the final battle. Old women kicking butt is always a cool thing to see (they better not cut her out of the movie or I'd be pissed).
The Riddle-Harry and Riddle-Hermione stuff made me laugh as did the part where Harry said that Hermione was like a sister to him. It seemed like JKR was really out to pwn the Harmoanians. And I loved how Ron got moments to shine like destroying the locket, coming up with the plan to go to the Chamber of Secrets to get the Basilisk fangs and mimicking Harry speaking Parseltongue to get it open. It was good so see since the Harmoanians always claim he's an idiot wife-beater simply because they can't bare to see him paired up with their perfect Hermione (have I mentioned how much I love JKR recently?).
Some the spoilers there were some things that made me nervous. The Snape/Lily stuff was one of those things since I never liked that pairing and it just seemed so stupid. However... I thought it was done really well and believable. I'm conflicted on my feelings though. On one hand I feel bad for Snape that things ended out so badly since Lily was probably his only true friend (the only other people he could call 'Friend' were Death Eaters and they would stab him in the back if they thought it would advance them further). On the other hand, he did it himself by calling her a Mudblood. Yes he was being humiliated and was embarrassed but that's no excuse to be able to lash out at his best friend and crush. However I then remember he's a guy, and guys do stupid things all the time.
Other spoiler that made me nervous was Harry's death and then coming back to life. But again I liked how it was handled and was giggling the entire time Voldemort and the Death Eaters thought he was dead since I couldn't wait to see Voldemort's expression when he learned that Harry was still alive.
I was glad all the Malfoy's survived. Draco and Narcissa were jerks but never really evil. Sure Lucius did some bad things but I think he learned his lesson after being on the outs with Voldemort. Plus all those years Voldemort was gone, he never spent time looking for him even though he was probably the Death Eater with the most capabilities.
One thing I didn't like though was how none of the Slytherin House stayed for the fight at Hogwarts (which is also a problem I had with Dumbledore's Army in OotP). Slytherin are suppose to be cunning and ambitious and we know Half-Bloods are allowed in the house (and it never said the Mudbloods couldn't be there as well but none of those were at Hogwarts at the time) so I think at least a couple should have stuck around and said "Hey, it benefits me more if I stay and fight Voldemort because he could turn on me next since he's already gone after a pure-blood family like the Malfoys" or "Hey, I'll be famous if I stayed and helped defeat Voldemort" or even "If Voldemort gets defeated that leaves me to be the next Dark Lord".
As for the epilogue, I didn't find it as bad as what some people think. It's not her greatest writing but the epilogue was written back when she wrote the first book. I do think she should have re-written it because her current writing is a lot better but I still didn't find it that horrible. And I like how we got closure in that (most) everyone's life turned out well (I know we didn't find out about a lot) but it also left things open ended so that fans could have fun playing around with fanfics; there's so much we don't know in those 19 years that could create really great fics.
Going to get the book at midnight was fun. For the last two releases (the first 4 were out by the time I started reading the series) I simply got it sent to my home (because I was working) but since this is the last one I wanted to see what the fuss was about.
We got there at 11pm and the place was packed (and this was a big place, think of a bookstore like Borders or Barnes&Noble). The Pre-Order line was already stretch from one end of the store to the other (weaving in and out of the isles so it was actually longer than that) while the line to buy it that night was halfway through the store (again weaving in and out of the isles). By midnight, the Buy line was out the door and the Pre-Order line had stretched across the room a second time and was out the door, going around the corner of the building.
There were huge sheets of paper where you could write messages to JKR. And they had acrobats hanging from the ceiling doing stunts. They eventually had to get rid of the acrobats though because the Pre-Order line needed to go where they were since there was simply no more room.
There wasn't as many cosplayers as I thought there would be. Most were pretty lazy and just threw on a black cloak over their clothes. I saw a really good Umbridge and Trelawney though; they looked awesome. And there was a really cool Gryffindor student. I also saw a nice Slytherin student but she didn't have the cloak on which I felt she needed.
As for the book itself, I really liked it. I thought it was better than the last couple.
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" is my new favourite line. XD
Seriously Molly was never one I paid much attention too. Sure she was good as the overbearing mother but she didn't really do much else besides that. Which was why it was so fucking cool to see her going momma-bear-protecting-her-cubs on Bella (and I like Bella!).
Neville also pwned in this book. I mean in the first book who would have thought Neville would be leading a rebellion at Hogwarts! His Gran also pwned. For years I've felt she's been too hard on Neville but she was too cool here, like when Neville was talking about how she kicked ass when the Death Eaters who showed up to kidnap her and when she showed up at Hogwarts for the final battle. Old women kicking butt is always a cool thing to see (they better not cut her out of the movie or I'd be pissed).
The Riddle-Harry and Riddle-Hermione stuff made me laugh as did the part where Harry said that Hermione was like a sister to him. It seemed like JKR was really out to pwn the Harmoanians. And I loved how Ron got moments to shine like destroying the locket, coming up with the plan to go to the Chamber of Secrets to get the Basilisk fangs and mimicking Harry speaking Parseltongue to get it open. It was good so see since the Harmoanians always claim he's an idiot wife-beater simply because they can't bare to see him paired up with their perfect Hermione (have I mentioned how much I love JKR recently?).
Some the spoilers there were some things that made me nervous. The Snape/Lily stuff was one of those things since I never liked that pairing and it just seemed so stupid. However... I thought it was done really well and believable. I'm conflicted on my feelings though. On one hand I feel bad for Snape that things ended out so badly since Lily was probably his only true friend (the only other people he could call 'Friend' were Death Eaters and they would stab him in the back if they thought it would advance them further). On the other hand, he did it himself by calling her a Mudblood. Yes he was being humiliated and was embarrassed but that's no excuse to be able to lash out at his best friend and crush. However I then remember he's a guy, and guys do stupid things all the time.
Other spoiler that made me nervous was Harry's death and then coming back to life. But again I liked how it was handled and was giggling the entire time Voldemort and the Death Eaters thought he was dead since I couldn't wait to see Voldemort's expression when he learned that Harry was still alive.
I was glad all the Malfoy's survived. Draco and Narcissa were jerks but never really evil. Sure Lucius did some bad things but I think he learned his lesson after being on the outs with Voldemort. Plus all those years Voldemort was gone, he never spent time looking for him even though he was probably the Death Eater with the most capabilities.
One thing I didn't like though was how none of the Slytherin House stayed for the fight at Hogwarts (which is also a problem I had with Dumbledore's Army in OotP). Slytherin are suppose to be cunning and ambitious and we know Half-Bloods are allowed in the house (and it never said the Mudbloods couldn't be there as well but none of those were at Hogwarts at the time) so I think at least a couple should have stuck around and said "Hey, it benefits me more if I stay and fight Voldemort because he could turn on me next since he's already gone after a pure-blood family like the Malfoys" or "Hey, I'll be famous if I stayed and helped defeat Voldemort" or even "If Voldemort gets defeated that leaves me to be the next Dark Lord".
As for the epilogue, I didn't find it as bad as what some people think. It's not her greatest writing but the epilogue was written back when she wrote the first book. I do think she should have re-written it because her current writing is a lot better but I still didn't find it that horrible. And I like how we got closure in that (most) everyone's life turned out well (I know we didn't find out about a lot) but it also left things open ended so that fans could have fun playing around with fanfics; there's so much we don't know in those 19 years that could create really great fics.