I wasn't actually planning on reading HP this soon, but my friend gave me it as a late birthday present so I couldn't resist. Anyway, this review is split up into 2 parts: without spoilers then with spoilers. Without spoilers will be first and will contain my general oppinion of the book. However, if you are a lazy turd and want to find out any spoilers, then go right ahead to the bottom of the page. I wouldn't have minded spoilers because it isn't the story but how it's told.
Going into this, I half expected J.K to expand this serries far beyond 7 books. They had to destroy 5 horofixes and the serries has taken more of an adventurous turn. Thank God that wasn't the case, because I despise filler products (things that drag out just so the author can make money, often seen in soap operas, fantasy novels and stupid fighting anime). The first half of the book did drag out though, but all of them drag out in the beginning. There is a great deal of death in this book, as well as teenage angst and romance. You get to see almost all of your favorite locations revisited and learn enough about some characters to change your oppinion on them. The ending was nice, somewhat predictable for me but I read these kinds of books all the time. Anyway, there's a nice chapter at the end so everyone should be happy.
My oppinion of the book is fairly high. It's not the best book ever, not even the best fantasy book ever. However, it did its job and delivered an ending which made almost everyone happy (more on the almost in the spoiler full section). Like I said before, I though the first half was boring and had so many sections where you just want to punch someone, but the fans should be happy. If I could rate it, I'd say a 9/10 (sorry to everyone who will coment on this, but there are some things that could have made it better).
If J.K were to suggest writing a new book, I would hope it isn't Harry Potter, just so the story and characters couldn't be tampered with. She should still write books, because she didn't write Harry Potter to make money. She wrote it because she wants to share a story with the world. Now if there's another creative inspiration by her, as long as it isn't a 7 book monstrosity with the average length being more than 500 pages per book, I may indeed check it out. Anyway, the Harry Potter series was a good series as a whole (I mean, look at the fanbase. They're insane) and hopefully will not disappear over time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Spoiler Full~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyway, for all of you that have already read the book, don't plan on reading the book or are lazy parasites who hear the ending from other people and don't bother reading the book, here's my spoiler full review.
The first half of the book moved slow. You start off with the traditional dark scene involving everyone's favorite death load, Voldemort. Harry must escape his muggle home or else ol' Voldie decides to come after him. How, A few people die within the first few chapters, the most tragic for me has to be Hedwig. We don't know about the muggle-studies teacher and Moody wasn't that bad, but WHY HEDWIG? However, there are 2 weddings, the one harry is going to is Bill and Fleur however Tonks and Lupin are married now too (aw, I wanted Lupin). THe minstry becomes corrupt during this time (the wedding) but beforehand, Dumbledore's will is revealed. Ron gets the deluminator, Hermione gets a fairy tale book that is the basis for the title and Harry gets the golden snitch and the right to Grifendor's sword, but no sword. These items are all significant but you'll find that out later.
Our heros are looking for the missing locket at the time, but now must look out for Death Eaters. They stay at Sirius' old place and Harry finds out that his brother was the one who took the locket. They trace it to the house elf, then Mundungus and finally Umbridge, who is working at the minstry as part of the new Mudblood hating regime (oh, all this talk about pureness sounds familar, like from the Nazi regime. Of course, the 7 year olds reading the book won't know that). Harry becomes friends with Kretcher while formulating a plan with the other two. One day, they sneak in and finally get the locket from umbridge while helping a few people in their wake. However, their hiding place is not so hidden anymore so the threesome heads to the woods and does some camping.
This is where the book really gets slow. The locket is evil and kinda reminds me of the ring from LOTR, minus the obsession of keeping it. Now seems like an appropriate time to discus the rumors circling Dumbledor. Rita Sketer is writing a biography and using information from an old witch. These are all mean things like Dumbledore killed his sister and had dark ideals when he has younger, which really upset Harry. Personally, I would have just said what's past is passed but we have to keep the teenage angst flowing. Ron gets angry about the lack of plan and storms off, leaving Harry and Hermione for some time. The two of them decide to go to Godrick's Hollow, Harry's and Dumbledor's home town. They find his parent's grave as well as a wierd symbol, when the old witch invites them in. She doesn't talk and then it becomes a trap. The two narrowly escape but Harry now has no wand. They're now in a forest and Potter follows a silver doe to a frozen lake, containing the sword of Gryfendor. Before, the trio heard a conversation about the sword hanging in the office is a fake, so this sword is definately real. Harry jumps in but like the ring, the locket tries to kill Harry until he is saved by Ron. The honnor of stabing the locket is given to Ron, but a few secrets are revealed (actually, it's all stuff you know just made more obvious, like Ron's jealousy and love of Hermione). Hermione doesn't show this love yet.
Now that one horofix is destroyed, they need more clues. The symbol on the grave reappeared a few times, including once at Bill's wedding on Xeno Lovegood, Luna's dad. So the trio decide to visit him and ended up being trapped. Luna had been captured and Xeno has to give them Harry potter. But they escape narrowly. Xeno does tell about the three Hallows, objects that let someone cheat death when combined. the invisibily cloak is one of them and the ring Dumbledor cracked is the second. The third is a wand that Voldemort is already looking for. Harry speaks his name and then is caught due to it being tracked. Hermione disguises him though so he isn't recongised at first. They are all draged to the Malfoy's place and end up being imprisoned except Hermione who is tortured. In the cell is Luna, Olivander and a goblin whoes name I will note butcher. They all escape and stay at Bills house, where Olivander tells Harry about how wands chose the wizard and it's possible to change wands (since Harry disarmed Malfoy and now is using his wand). They also form a plan to break into Gringots and steal another horofix, but the goblin wants the sword of Griff, the only thing they know that destroys them. This ended up rather badly but they did end up getting the cup of Hufflepuff.
After they escaped, Harry knows Voldemort knows about Harry knowing about the horofixes. So now they must go to Hogwarts since that is where the last solid horofix is. They meet Dumbledor's brother and find out more about the former headmaster's personal life (snape is current) and find a secret passage to Hogwarts, where they meet Dumbledor's army. Nevil is the leader. Anyway, they have to find Ravenclaw's diadem before time runs out. Of course they do find it while running into Draco and a newly powerful Crabe. Harry saves Draco's life but now there is a war going on between Death Eaters and the DA. I'll list the dead people after this. Anyway, they end up seeing V kill snape and Harry gathers up some memories. While everyone is mourning, Harry looks at Snape's memories.
In short, everything Dumbledor said about Snape is true and Snape truely loved Lily Potter. They knew each other since they were little kids and remained friends until Snape started being evil. Snape begged V to not kill her and then swore alligence to Dumbledor. He also looked after Harry all those years. When Dumbledor tried to use the ring hallow, a curse was put on him and he was going to die in a year but V planned for Draco to kill Dumbledor. So Snape took the job instead so Draco couldn't be corrupted. Anyway, this part is the biggest plot twist in the book and is extremely sad. Snape truely loved Lilly with all his heart. But the second plot twist is when you find out that Harry is a horofix (actually, I kinda guessed this since the profecy Tre made in the order) and Harry must die. So Harry then goes on to his suicide.
I'm not going to say how it ends because people should read this, but let's just say it's happy. There's also a 19 years later account which is rather amusing (Draco's child is named Scopius which makes me happy in a strange way). As for those who died which you may care about, Moody, Hedwig, Dobby, Wormtail, Lupus, Tonks (they had a baby), Fred, Colin and I Forget who else. Also, Percy comes back in a good way. It's all roses and butterflies at the end so enjoy your read (if you're that lazy, start at page 700).
domin007 Community Member 
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