2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 clear-up, of books I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.
[I think I have finally outgrown this series and fandom, and I can no longer in good conscience support it, thanks to She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. My once-love of the franchise has turned sour; I am disenchanted, disinterested, and I can't look at it fondly anymore. I will always have the memories, but not the books.]
Final Score: 4/5
2020 EDIT: Link here to my further and final thoughts.
Original Review:
Harry Potter Reviews
Book 7: 'The Deathly Hallows'
I'm not gonna lie. I haven't been this nervous to write anything since my final year at university. Where do I even begin with a review of the final book of one of the best fantasy series of all time? What can I say what millions before me haven't already discussed? How can I possibly convey the ingenious execution, planning, not to mention the epic scale, of such a book? How can I sum up the book's multi-layered themes and developments, and those of the series spanning seven years?
Like so many, I grew up with 'Harry Potter'. I remember clearly reading each novel with excitement. In those days my older brother would read them first and then it would be my turn. With 'The Deathly Hallows' this was no exception. In the summer of 2007 I read the first six 'Harry Potter' books and by the time I was done, my brother had finished the last one.
'The Deathly Hallows' is not perfect. Now there's an understatement.
Welcome to life, my friends. If everything went our way all the time, life would not be worth fighting for. How dare an author of an acclaimed book series make us feel things! How dare she make people die in wars!
To keep things simple and make my review perhaps a little different from others out there, I'll only talk about the things that matter most to me in 'The Deathly Hallows'. The things I wish to discuss.
But first, what exactly happens in 'The Deathly Hallows'?
Spoilers ahead:
Albus Dumbledore is dead, killed by the traitor Severus Snape (or is he?), who is now headmaster of Hogwarts. Lord Voldemort, his Death Eaters and his followers are taking over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. To call the dark wizard "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named" holds real safety this time - not paranoia - because to say his name means Death Eaters coming for you and torturing you. Maybe killing you or your loved ones. In war, the threat is real. Harry Potter is destined to kill this wizard - or he will die by the monster's wand, for only one of them can live.
Along with his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger - who have stuck by him through everything for the last six years - Harry is snuck out of his home in 4 Privet Drive by the Order of the Phoenix, towards the destination of The Burrow. They must be prepared for a quest to find and destroy all seven of Voldemort's Horcruxes - objects in which the Dark Lord had put a piece of his soul in order to prolong his existence. When Harry turns seventeen, the charm his deceased mother Lily had cast on him and on the Dursley house to protect him from Voldemort will break, leaving the once-Boy Who Lived more vulnerable than ever before.
Friends and family die, innocent people suffer, Muggles and Muggle-born wizards and any non-human magical creature are tortured and oppressed under Voldemort's reign. Horrors of the darkest magic, and a corrupt society, unleash.
Harry is reaching the final stages of growing up and becoming a real wizard. 'The Deathly Hallows' is the final stop of Harry Potter's epic coming-of-age journey.
'The Deathly Hallows' - the finale - gives the readers a last taste of most things from the previous books, including the sense of danger and desperation from all of the characters. Oh, so many characters.
It also gives the readers: the return of Hagrid riding Sirius's flying motorbike, the death of Hedwig the owl (one of the many sad deaths in the book), Dumbledore's last gifts to the young wizard trio, Harry's visions of Voldemort's current actions, Rita Skeeter's scandalous new book, 'The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore', the mystery surrounding the seclusion and death of Albus's sister Ariana, a Weasley Wedding, the return of Dolores Umbridge and her despicable wickedness, the demise of Dobby (oh how I cried!), Remus Lupin's impending fatherhood, a mirror with an eye in it, a sword, a silver doe Patronus, the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb - stolen by Voldemort, Harry's parents' graves, a snake in a moving corpse, great use of the Invisibility Cloak, Hermione's ingenious plans and fast-forward-thinking, Malfoy Manor, Xenophilius Lovegood and his story of the legendary Deathly Hallows - three objects to make the owner the Master of Death, Ron's courage and trust in his friends being put to the ultimate test, Griphook the goblin, breaking into Gringotts bank, a dragon, Dumbledore's brother Aberforth, Dumbledore's Army's fierce dedication to rebel, Percy Weasley's redemption (about time, too), the final battle in Hogwarts - where it all began, Dumbledore's backstory, Snape's backstory, Ron and Hermione's kiss, Neville Longbottom's crowning moment of awesome, Mrs Weasley's crowning moment of awesome, and wizard fairy tales.
Best moments:
* Dudley Dursley telling Harry, after a lifetime of bullying and abuse, "I don't think you're a waste of space." Harry saved Dudley from Dementors in the fifth book.
* Dedalus Diggle tells Harry as it is: "The hopes of the wizarding world rest upon your shoulders." There is a lot of pressure put on our hero.
* Poor Hedwig. The cute, feathery symbol of the innocence of Harry's wizard childhood is gone now. Only darkness and danger build up from there.
* Ron leaving Harry and Hermione and then coming back after many weeks - showing the challenges of friendship and why such a love is worth fighting for.
* Hermione's reaction to Ron returning for their quest: "You - complete - arse - Ronald - Weasley!"
* Ron and Hermione's first passionate kiss during the Battle of Hogwarts, and Harry's reaction to it: "Oi! There's a war going on here!"
* Away from Ron and Hermione now. There's also Luna Lovegood's home, and the lonely girl's large pictures of her friends framed in her room. So sad in its own way.
* Harry calling out Lupin for choosing to abandon his wife Tonks and their unborn child for any reason. Werewolf or not, he is a father now and must be there for his new family in the midst of war and death. Harry will be the baby's godfather - a nice mirroring of James and his friends around the time when Harry himself was born.
* Harry and Hermione's return to the house where James and Lily Potter were killed sixteen years ago. And the remaining horrors there (of the snake-in-the-waddling-corpse variety).
* Dobby's tragic death by Bellatrix Lestrange's desperate throwing of a knife to his heart. His burial as well. A very sad end to a small but important friend to Harry in his life in the wizarding world.
* Another character spoiler death - Fred Weasley, one of the continuously hilarious twins. Mrs Weasley's worst fears are realised in one of the most beautifully-written passages ever.
* Neville practically leading Dumbledore's Army and the Battle of Hogwarts, and standing up to Voldemort and killing Nagini the snake with the Gryffindor sword. He WAS meant for the Gryffindor House all along. The cowardly boy who could barely cast any spells right is now a man of great courage who will use his talents to save everybody. Nearly every good guy gets his or her own crowning moment of awesome in the Battle of Hogwarts, even Peeves the poltergeist and Professor Trelawney.
* Voldemort's defeat and death by his own Killing Curse backfiring on him. Again. Harry does not stoop to murder like his enemy; he only uses a disarming spell (Expelliarmus) against Voldemort. His mother's love saves him once again, and he is the true master of the Elder Wand.
* Finally, saving the best moment to last, the chapter 'The Forest Again'. Harry's terror of his seemingly-inevitable death by Voldemort - on top of feeling betrayed by Dumbledore - is wonderfully written. Dark and hopeless ('It was over, he knew it, and all that was left was the thing itself: dying.') but with a childlike beauty to it ('Would it hurt to die?'). Perfect. A triumph.
Now for what I wish to discuss about the end of the 'Harry Potter' series:
The chapter, 'The Prince's Tale'. So, Severus Snape loved Lily Evans. He was a lonely half-blood wizard (similar to Harry, in fact), and was the one who told the Muggle-born witch what she was in the first place from childhood. They were close friends at Hogwarts. However, Severus always had a fondness for Dark Magic and pure-blooded wizard supremacy, and Lily rightly did not like this. He was jealous of James Potter for his popularity and hated him ever more for the bullying and humiliation. It is revealed that the real reason why, in 'The Order of the Phoenix', the memory contained in Snape's Pensieve was his worst: Severus had called Lily a Mudblood. In his fury at James, he had let his own bigotry and bitterness consume him, and he called his best friend - the girl he loved - an offensive term used for Muggle-born magic users. Lily never forgave Severus for that, and she stopped defending him for his Dark Arts ambitions. When James and Lily got together a few years later, Severus was livid to say the least. He would have been forever dedicated to Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters if not for his undying love for Lily, the only friend he ever had. And after she died, he promised Dumbledore to protect her son who still lives.
Snape's entire motivation is loving Lily, and he begrudgingly looked out for Harry just for her. Everything was done according to Dumbledore's plans.
That's the gist of Snape's tale revealed in this book. Dumbledore's plans aside, I cannot bring myself to sympathise with Snape. Simply because he is not a sympathetic character. At all. A poor childhood and getting bullied at school are no excuses for bullying children yourself as an adult when you're a teacher. And what a terrible teacher Snape is. It makes him no different from James. But James eventually grew up, while Snape did not. He still has an obsession with Dark Magic, and he still holds prejudices and beliefs befitting a Death Eater (brought on by his abusive Muggle father, presumably).
Snape doesn't change. He would have become a Death Eater even if he hadn't known Lily or James. He had called Lily a Mudblood when she was trying to defend and protect him from James, for ***** sake! I didn't see his bigotry being challenged when he fell in love with a Muggle-born witch. Wanting to kill innocent people (including babies!) and become a part of a world where people like Lily would be tortured and murdered isn't going to endear me to Snape's character. Even her death by his master's wand doesn't change his ways that much. He bullies students who were not even born when he suffered the worst of his life. He never cared for Harry; he admits as much. He hates him simply because he's James's son. The only good things Snape does in Harry's story are being Dumbledore's spy in Voldemort's rise to power, not killing Harry, and keeping Remus safe during the full moon. Nobody's perfect - and they shouldn't be - but overall I find Snape's motivations to be confused and a bit pathetic.
Unrequited love is a weak motivation for bad people in fictional stories, and in this case it's no different, in my opinion. Maybe it's Snape's capacity to love that makes him different from Voldemort, but it's not much of a redeeming feature in the grand scale of his actions and viewpoints.
But I do find Severus Snape to be a complex character; we wonder why Dumbledore trusts him so much. But a sympathetic character? No. I cannot feel for bullies who refuse to grow up.
"Probably the bravest man I ever knew" (Page 607). No.
Here are other things I wish to mention:
* Feisty and bubbly Tonks barely has a presence since becoming a wife and a mother. I really hate the sexist cliche where a previously well-written and capable female character is turned ineffectual and boring should marriage and motherhood come into her life. But at least Tonks gets to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts, despite what happens to her there...
* I do agree with popular opinion that the epilogue is rather cheesy. What really baffles me is the idea that someone like Harry would be cruel enough to name his child Albus Severus. Severus. Ugh!
* Why are nearly all the half-bloods and half-breeds in the 'Harry Potter' series only magical or different from their mother's side of the family? Harry has a Muggle-born mother, Hogwarts student Seamus Finnigan has a Muggle father, Hagrid has a giant mother, Voldemort/Tom Riddle Jnr had a Muggle father, as did Snape...It shows how most mothers in general are wonderful and magical...?
* Speaking of mothers, I do like how Narcissa Malfoy will do anything to protect her son Draco, even if it means defying her master, Voldemort. This reflects Lily's love and protection of her Harry.
* The Dursleys being Harry's only living relatives is in my opinion the biggest plot contrivance in the series.
Oh, what the hallows. I think 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' is a truly epic end to a great series that inspired a whole generation and made its mark on popular culture. Not all of its gazillion subplots and character resolutions reach a perfect conclusion, but on the whole it's exciting, urgent, scary and dangerous - like an ending should be.
Themes such as social prejudice, corruption, love, hate, war and finding one's identity and destiny reach terrifying zenith levels in the finale. Quite believable for a fantasy book with lots of magic: dark and mature but clear enough for younger readers to grasp.
There is still a magical, fairy tale charm to be found here - and not just from the talking of the Deathly Hallows and other wizard fairy tales, different from the Muggle ones we know ("Cinderella? What's that, an illness?" Ron once says - one of the funniest moments in this dark fantasy).
It's a beautiful treasure, and a pleasure to behold.
This review ended up being colossally longer than I had planned (or not planned, for that matter). So I'll very briefly reflect on my thoughts on the two-part movie version: Both parts are the most exciting and action-packed of the film series. Even the epilogue is beautifully done. Add in the writers keeping Mrs Weasley's "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" line, and I was a very happy and contented book purist. I found it to be necessary to split the book into two films, so as not to miss out on any important details. Sadly it seems now that every film based on the last book in a YA series is split into two parts, for no reason other than to milk a cash cow for just a little longer before the successful franchise dies out.
Well, I feel quite triumphant; finishing reviewing all the 'Harry Potter' books in less than a month. Opinions are often hard to put into words perfectly.
I shall now conclude this review; of the end of 'Harry Potter' - and of the magic of his world and journey.
Harry Potter Book 7:
Final Score: 4/5
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