Hallows Vs Horcruxes (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling)

Member Name: GramiWay

Product:	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
Date:	18/08/09 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Just excellent from start to finish with all the pieces crawling together

Disadvantages: The last chapter?!!!

Released originally in 2007 'Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows' is the final book in J.K Rowling's massive series featuring the boy wizard and the secret magical community. It is going to be turned into a movie that will have two parts with the first being released next year.

The series has seen Harry Potter grow from a small boy who discovered his magical heritage and ventured to the school Hogwarts, an institution within the hidden magical world that trains young witches and wizards in the arts of magic. With his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry has gotten into some scrapes over the years though the time for teenage rebellions and romance have passed as the fourth book ended with the return of Lord Voldemort, the evil dark wizard who terrified the magical community for years until Voldemort attempted to kill Harry but failed...

With Voldemort's return came a much darker style of writing from Rowling's pen. Characters we had come attached to began to drop like flies as the dangerous war threatened to engulf the world yet again. Forced to grow up and shoulder the responsibility that has been thrust upon him, Harry finds himself without his long line protectors but armed with the knowledge of Voldemort's horcruxes. If the remaining horcurxes are found and destroyed then the dark wizard will be rendered mortal and will be able to be killed like everybody else... With Hermione and a reluctant Ron by his side 'The Deathly Hallows', truly leaves behind every aspect of innocence Rowling had conjured up in previous instalments and throws her main characters right into the heart of darkness...

The plot of the book is fairly simple and it's almost as if everything the characters have learnt over the past six books is tested here. The rather arrogant and teenage angst ridden nature that crippled Harry in the past two books is absent here which is a pretty drastic change in character. Ron & Hermione of course are always brilliant and their determination to help Harry is a great sign of how strong their characters are. The book is thrown into darkness straight away as a number of the Order of Phoenix members arrive to take Harry away from the Dursleys to protection and in doing so they are ambushed by a gang of Death Eaters with Voldemort himself in tow.

The book sort of faints into a Lord of The Rings style quest as Harry and company hunt the horcruxes. It's an interesting development on Rowling's behalf to not have the trio return to Hogwarts and the book doesn't suffer because of this as we see friendship and strength tested to the maximum.
What I have always loved about Rowling's writing is how she is able to create this entire world and have it flow from her fingertips onto paper and really take a hold over the reader. You can actually visualise the places she describes and the things the characters see and it's very rare a book manages to do that for me.

Of course I'm not going to spoil the ending or give away lots about the plot but I found myself enthralled from start to finish. There are lots of characters returning to the story which really does bring around a sense of closure though it's the final battle at Hogwarts that just blows me away. I am hooked on every word as Rowling describes this epic battle and you get such a rush through you as you see all the characters band together. It's what was sorely lacking from 'The Half Blood Prince' and we can see why as Rowling dedicates at least four huge chapters to the event and it is a fantastic ending to the series. [I choose to ignore a certain portion of the ending which reads like it was written by some fan fiction wannabe].

You do feel as if you've grown up with these characters and that the fate of this fictional world matters to you as much as it does to them. I did find at times that Voldemort was extremely careless. He's meant to be the strongest dark wizard ever yet Harry & Hermione can escape him at one point in the book and he doesn't think to ground them or something? Again during the chapter at Malfoy Manner, I'm amazed at how easily they get away. It's as if Rowling drags it out throughout the book with many near misses and constantly upping the stakes so she can knock us down when the final fight gets underway.

'The Deathly Hallows' opens a whole new chapter in Harry Potter mythology whilst also closing the door on the series altogether. If you're a hardcore fan then you're obviously going to read far too much into every knook and cranny that Rowling opens but other than that, this is a fast paced and exciting book that has the perfect balance between mild humour and despair and even a faint hint of romance. Rowling has pulled out all the stops to make the ending as brilliant as possible and after waiting for this moment since the very first chapter of 'The Philosopher's Stone', she really doesn't disappoint. It's an incredible final book that cements the series' status as one of the best selling of all time.

Summary: The end of the Harry Potter saga