Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, or Harry Potter and the incredibly long camping trip?! (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling)

Member Name: candyfloss89

Product:	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
Date:	05/08/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fantastic characters, compelling and well written, emotional and funny, incredible imagery

Disadvantages: characters spend too long sat around in tents, cheesy epilogue

Ok so the Harry Potter books are my favourite books in the entire world. I have read them all several times and recently decided to reread the last book in the series, Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
With the death of his arch rival Dumbledore, evil Lord Voldermort and his loyal followers are tightening their grip on the wizarding world. With death, disappearances and destruction around every corner, there's only one person who can stop Voldermort. That person is "the chosen one" Harry Potter. Harry's been left with the dark and seemingly impossibly difficult mission of destroying Voldermort's remaining defences, without the help of his friend and mentor Dumbledore. Will the help of his best friends Ron and Hermione be enough to defeat the most powerful dark wizard of all time?

GOOD POINTS
Like all Harry Potter books it has the perfect blend of sadness and dark humour. However with death and destruction galore, the whole tone of this book is darker than the others and you never know which character is going to die next. You get the feeling that no one is safe, even the major characters. I like this because it makes the book unpredictable and you're constantly on edge whilst reading this. I hate books with a predictable outcome but this one twists and turns the whole way through. It's this constant uncertainty that keeps you reading and even if you intend to read only one chapter, you end up reading about 3 or 4! The fact that it's over 600 pages long didn't stop me finishing it in less than a week, it's just that good!

Rowling's has not just created the character of Harry potter but an entire magical world. All of the main characters are strong and well developed, there doesn't appear to be a single weak link. The subplot thrown in about whether Dumbledore really was as good and honest as he appeared to be is genius. As readers you take for granted that Dumbledore was good, honourable and perfect so you're almost as shocked and upset as Harry to learn that he may have flaws. It's wonderful character development, as is the change in Draco Malfoy's character which we saw built up in Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince. Malfoy is no longer a one dimensional villain and as a result we understand him better.

Everything's so vividly described in such detail, every object, every place, every feeling, and every character, the enormity of the task ahead of them, the hopelessness of it all, the horror of their situation. You life it with them and you feel their emotions. Particularly emotional chapters include "Bathilda's secret", "The battle of Hogwarts" and "Kings Cross", all of them brilliant in their own right and for different reasons. That is the magic of Rowling. She can having you sobbing over one chapter, intrigued and enthralled by another and laughing over the next, just through the power of her dialogue and description. In short it's just a perfect, compelling and wonderful conclusion to a brilliant series.

BAD POINTS
The name of the review, "Harry Potter and the long camping trip" would have been a more appropriate name for this book. The trio spend so much time camping out and making plans in tents that they get frustrated by their lack of action against Voldermort. The problem is, so does the reader. It would be unrealistic to expect them to have all the answers straight away as it is a seemingly impossible mission they have been given and of course it's going to take time to work out. However, if the trio had been at Hogwarts trying to figure this out, it would not have mattered as much because all of the side characters and events at Hogwarts would have made up for it. However, them just sat in fields and woods, going over the same things over and over again is highly frustrating.

Which brings me to my next point, the lack of Hogwarts featured in the book! We've had six books where Hogwarts and its characters have been brilliantly established. All of this is sacrificed in this book and we don't see enough of brilliant characters, particularly Snape, Professor McGonagall, Hagrid and even annoyances like Peeves the poltergeist! This coupled with the obvious absence of Dumbledore (my favourite character) leaves a massive hole in the book.

The plot is confusing, especially the plot surrounding the Deathly Hallows. When I finished reading, I had no idea whether the Deathly Hallows had played any part in the eventual outcome of the book or not! A bit like the revelation of The Half Blood Prince in the previous book, I'm unsure of what relevance it leaves on the overall story. I had to read several times to get my head around this.

The epilogue is the cheesiest thing ever. Sometimes I just read the book and skip the epilogue because it makes me cringe so much!

OVERALL
Stunning, wonderful, compelling. Sure it has bad points but it's good points more than make up for that. It's just the perfect way to end a perfect series of books and a must read for all Potter fans.

Summary: Read it!