Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J. K. Rowling (based on 3253 customer reviews)

(Hardcover)
Edition: 1st Edition, Book Seven (7)
Author: J. K. Rowling
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

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Most useful review as voted by customers:
535 out of 660 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/21/07

A perfect ending to a glorious series

Before the release of the seventh and last book of the Harry Potter series, I re-read all the preceding volumes. Throughout, I followed how the author developed her grand theme of Right vs Wrong, the strong vs the weak and the evils of the misuse of power. How was Rowling to end this series? Obviously, the Apocalypse was at hand, and the heroic struggle between Harry Potter and the evil Voldemort would be the climax of the series. While we waited for the last book, rumors abounded. Fake spoilers floated over the internet like the soul-sucking Dementors, threatening to extinguish the enjoyment people would get from this final volume. So, no spoilers from this reviewer. All I will say is that "Deathly Hallows" lived up to my expectations and in fact, ended pretty much as I imagined it would. Rowling keeps true to her theme right to the end and to her artistic vision as well. There is plenty of action right from the get-go. This is by far the most exciting of the seven books, with duels, battles, fights, daring escapes and amazing twists of fortune. There are plenty of surprises and also many reasons to weep. The action sometimes is non-stop, but from time to time, there are welcome respites in the action, times for moments of tenderness or friendship between surprising pairings of characters. The sub-theme of the redeptive power of Love is evident in these idylls. J. K. Rowling is a master writer who has created an amazing work of art with the Harry Potter series and just as any master craftsman, she has chosen the perfect finish for a fine series of books. I look forward to new series with entire new worlds or...perhaps this is really the end. Some authors do write themselves out when they've said their say. I don't know. But I do know this author is one I enjoy reading and I hope we have many more new adventures to discover from her pen. Bravo! Joanna Daneman

493 out of 557 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/22/07

A stunning and thoroughly satisfying conclusion

This is arguably the most "hyped" book in history, and if J.K. Rowling had to sneak down to the kitchen for a glass of red wine to calm her nerves while writing The Goblet of Fire (as she said she did), one wonders what assuaged her while writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The collective breath of tens of millions of readers has been held for two years...and now...was it worth the wait? Did Ms. Rowling live up to the hype? (For that, amongst hundreds of questions, is really the only question that matters.)

The answer, most assuredly, is YES.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is told in a strikingly different style than the previous six books - even different from The Half Blood Prince, and, I daresay, it's a better written, better edited, tighter narrative. And while the action is lively and well paced throughout, Rowling found a way to answer most of our questions while introducing new and complex ideas. What fascinated me was this: Some people were right, with regard to who is good, who is bad, who will live, who will die - but almost nobody got the "why" part correct. I truthfully expected an exciting but rather predictable ending, but instead was thrown for a loop. We've known that Rowling is fiendishly clever for years - but I didn't think she was *this* clever.

Not since turning the final page of The Return of the King twenty-eight years ago have I felt such a keen sense of loss. My love affair (indeed, everyone's love affair, I imagine) with all things Harry began somewhere in the first three chapters of The Sorcerer's Stone, and has lasted, on this side of the Atlantic, three months shy of nine years. For all that time we have waited and wondered - was Dumbledore right to trust Snape? Will Ron and Hermione get together? What's to become of Ginny and Harry? What really happened on that tower, when Dumbledore was blasted backwards, that "blast" atypical of the Avada Kedavra curse as we've seen it when used throughout the series. So many more questions than those listed here, and so many devilishly well-hidden hints. The answers, as I hinted above, will shock and awe you.

When first we met Harry Potter, he was "The Boy Who Lived", with an address of "The Cupboard Under the Stairs". Who could help but bleed sympathy for Harry, treated abysmally - abused, really - by the only blood relatives he had, and forced to live under said stairs by those awful Muggles, the Dursleys? It was a sensationally brilliant introduction, one that ensured that our heartstrings would be plucked and enchanted to sing. He was The Boy Who Lived.

Since reading that first book, we have enjoyed Rowling's spry sense of humor - portraits that spoke, stairways that moved at any given moment, Hagrid jinxing Dudley so that a pigs tail grew from his behind, Fred and George's fantastic creations, etc, etc., etc., and more etc's. There was a sense of wonder and magic in Rowling's writing, so thoroughly captivating that the recommended age group of 9-12 in no way resembled the book's actual audience. It was common to see adults walking about with hardcover copies of the latest book, sans dust jacket (to hide the fact that they were reading a "kids" book, I suppose). It was also common to hear of eight year olds sitting down with a seven-hundred-plus page book! By themselves! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it.

As for Harry, we admired him. He wasn't afraid to stand up for what he felt was right, even if he found himself in detention for it. He was brutally honest, and immensely courageous and loyal. Harry came to embody, at times, who we would like to be. He wasn't perfect, of course. He suspected Snape of being the one who was after the Sorcerer's Stone, and in The Chamber of Secrets, he thought that Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin. This didn't diminish Harry in our eyes - it made him more human, more real, and even, perhaps, more enviable.

Endless fan sites have been erected. For an adult to go to any of them, and find that thirteen year olds are having an easier time parsing out the books plots, subplots, and mysteries, was (for me at least) humbling, but yet also a testament to Rowling herself, and her remarkable creation. She encouraged an entire generation of young readers to read and to think for themselves.

But the time has come to say good-bye, for this is truly the end.

So good-bye, Harry. Good-bye Hermione, Ron, Professor Dumbledore, *Professor* Snape, Professor McGonagall, Professor Hagrid, Ginny, Fred, George, Neville, Dobby (and all the house elves), even Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. We will miss all of you, every character we encountered, from Muggle to Mudblood to hippogriff and owl, and everything about the world you all so vibrantly inhabit. And to Ms. Rowling: know that you have brought immeasurable joy to millions and millions of Muggles worldwide, and know that we cannot possibly thank you enough. What a tremendous gift you were given. Thank you for sharing it with us.

479 out of 480 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/13/07

Great End to a Glorious Series

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Probably the best of the series. Rowling finally unfurls all of her resolutions (well, most of them anyway) to her intricate plotlines she has so successfully nurtured throughout the seven books.

The book is very fast paced, there are a lot of actions sequences, and you can tell everyone is playing for keeps this time. And yes, there deaths and tortures. Lots of them!

The ending, especially the scene involving Hagrid and Harry, is one of the most wrenching scenes in the entire series. The last few chapters will have you speed-reading to find out what happened next. Snape, obviously, has an important role, and we finally get the answers to his loyalties. While some complain that we don't get a lot of Snape until the very end of the novel, she has built his character so successfully we don't need to see a lot of him in this novel.

While the Epilogue has gotten a lot of people mad, it does give us a little (very little) snapshot of what happened after. Still, I think there's almost a novel's worth of material you could write about in the reconstruction after Voldemort's fall. Rowling has given further information in interviews, webchats, etc, about what happened to the characters after the end of book seven.

Now that we finally have the entire series at last, I can only applaud Rowling's unflagging invention. This is indeed a series for the ages.

309 out of 438 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/21/07

Absolutely brilliant!

I live in Eastern Europe, where there has not been a six-month advertising campaign, where bookstores were not open at midnight, and where people did not spend three days in sleeping bags outside of shop doors. I did, however, buy the book within two minutes after the relevant bookstore opened, and I read it in one go. Magnificent, that's all I can say. Certainly I do not want to give up any of the book's many secrets, but I can say this: Everyone who appeared in the first six books reappears in this one, without exception, and sometimes in cameos which say "And there, standing before him, were Cho and Mary and Peter and David and Lee and Andrew and Susie and John." There to make the appearance, never to be seen again. Sort of like Miss Jeannie and her mirror on Romper Room. Second, JK Rowling said that people would die in this book, and she was right. Won't say another word about that. Third, this is the decisive battle between good and evil, and I won't be giving away plot points to say that in the end, good wins, but with several twists. Fourth, several baddies turn out to be good. Won't say which ones, because some baddies remain very, very bad indeed. Fifth, I think JK Rowling deserves every one of the gazillions of dollars she's earned for this series, and I am terribly, terribly sorry that it's finished now, but "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows" is certainly a heck of a way to go out with a big, big bang. Thank you, JK.

300 out of 386 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/21/07

Dark, but terrific!

What a wonderful read!

Sure it's dark (and too violent for younger readers), but this final installment in the Harry Potter saga is one of the best books in the series. It's better than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) -- there's not near as much exposition, far more character development and some real spine-chilling moments -- and, I think, as good as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5).

The best part? That nothing seems forced or thrown together. Rowling wraps up her many plot points and reveals the fates of her characters in ways that almost always surprise you, but afterward seem inevitable.

And how she does it is so inventive! Many throwaway moments and whispered remarks from earlier books foreshadow what happens here, and devices that had little importance before, such as Sirius's flying motorcycle, now play key roles. While creating yet another gripping tale, the author ties her entire epic together with the skill of a true literary master. As for that magic question "Is Snape good or evil?" the answer is... both.

In addition, the book treats its title character with the complexity he deserves. It portrays the (now) young man as disillusioned, full of doubt, overwhelmed -- a tortured soul who, though a responsible leader in an all-out war, often seems to yearn to do nothing more than sweet-talk Ginny Weasley.

By the way, regardless of the temptation, don't skip to the end. It doesn't work. The answers to all those key questions everyone wants to know unfold throughout the story. Yes, quite a few characters die, but not all in the last chapter. And besides, the joy in reading these books is not learning just what happens, but how it happens, and why.

68 out of 92 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/21/07

No Spoilers :)

So, if you're here you know the premise of the boy wizard, his friends and his nemesis. You know this is the last in the series, and you probably already know if you're going to purchase it or not; what you're looking for, then, is an opinion.

Since the only books I can guarantee we've both read are the previous books in this series, in order to ensure we're speaking a common language regarding which books we like and dislike I have to base my comparisons on those. So:

It's not the most complex of the books, but it is definitely the most adult; and I don't mean the topics, but how they are approached. Perhaps a better word would be mature. There is a very different feel both to the writing and the plot; a sense of inevetability, an a bit of distance; the flavor of a writer pulling gently away from her characters as she has to say good-bye to them and write what's likely to be the last tale of their adventures. There is - I do not consider this a spoiler - a battle, and there is death to be found.

It ties up loose ends, all the way around; it is a lovely finish, and worth the wait. I'm not sure the young end of the audience will be quite as enamoured with it as the older readers - as the characters have aged the series has wandered into concepts that they might not get for a few years yet, and this book takes quite a leap forward in character maturity.

In comparison to the other books: I liked book 1, as a bright and primary-color painting in crayons; it was nice. I enjoyed the fact that it wasn't patronizing towards its younger readers, while being comprehensable by them. I liked book 2, and book 3; book 4 began to loose me a little, although it was still good; book five just irritated me. Book six was ok, and this, book seven, I think is as good as the first books were, if in somewhat different ways.

So there you have it. It's well written and fast-paced, although there are a couple stretches of time which I felt she maybe included only to make it come out on the same timeframe as the rest of the books, a school year... All in all good book, a good ending.

Cheers, and happy reading!

46 out of 63 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/21/07

a fitting but uneven close with a weak start and strong middle 3.5

There's good news, middling news, and bad news in the final Potter installment, a book that replicates in many ways the unevenness of the series as a whole. First the good news. The main character, which has always been the book's strength, continues in that vein through most of the book. Harry's oh-so-realistic ongoing grief at his parents' deaths, his sometimes-bends-but-never-breaks bond with Hermione and Ron, his coming-of-age process through idol-worship then respect then disillusionment then adult understanding with Dumbledore, his sense of a greater good--all of these aspects that have made Harry Potter one of the more compelling figures in modern fiction are here in full force. Along with the character of Harry himself, the triangular relationship with Ron and Hermione has also been a consistent highlight in the series, and this too continues, though here it has its rough moments that feel a bit forced, as if Rowling felt the need to show the relationship in danger of fraying so as to make us appreciate it all the more when it does not. Personally, I found the "bend" moment hard to believe and could have done without it. With or, better yet, without it, though, it's hard not to be moved by Rowling's presentation of the bond between these three.
The middling news involves the plot itself. The Potter books have always, I thought, been uneven in this area. The first two solid if not inspired, the third the strongest, the fourth too episodic, and the fifth and sixth with strong plots at the core but diluted by overwriting.
The good news on the plot is that there are, as there always have been, several very moving scenes. There are also a few good action scenes, though action scenes have never been Rowling's strong point and they aren't here as well with a few exceptions. The biggest problem with the plot is that it doesn't actually start to take off, doesn't become compelling, until one is already a third of the way through it. That's a lot to slog through to get to the good parts, though of course nobody is going to put the book down at this point.
The problems with the first few hundred pages are rife. First, there is a great sense of disconnect as the reader moves between a sense of urgency and violence. On the one hand, Voldemort and his death Eaters are infiltrating the Ministry and Hogwarts, killing muggles and muggle-borns right and left, torturing others while the Order of the Phoenix is marshaling its forces, going into all-out battle, and yes, dying. On the other hand, we're treated to an oddly desultory wedding scene as days trundle by in preparation for domestic bliss. The two just don't seem to make sense side-by-side. There are also several major plot holes which I won't go into to avoid spoilers, but at which any discerning reader will find themselves saying "but what about . . . " or "but wouldn't they . . . " again and again. Coincidences also stack up too neatly to move the plot along.
Even worse then the ongoing coincidences though, are the plot points that are necessary to the Deathly Hallows that seem to have been pulled from nowhere. We get lots of exposition and explanation, but for many of these it's just too hard not to think that we should have heard a lot of this before. For instance, in all the many, many, many pages of quidditch detail we get (way too much) in earlier books, it turns out there is something we somehow haven't learned that just happens to play an important role in this book. And it's just one such example of too many such examples. It gives the book a sense of arbitrariness that spoils the reading somewhat, though again, mostly in the first third or so of the book.
There are a few other problem areas. Time moves on in awkward chunks in the first third. The final third, which is especially strong, has its pleasures diluted somewhat by some very clunky exposition, something that has unfortunately been a pattern of earlier books. Perhaps Rowling felt too tied to the formula she's set for herself. Some of the characters were disappointing--Hermione seems to lack some of her strength we've seen growing in her, Ginny was too absent, and some characters (no names due to spoilers) have major changes in attitude that happen far, far too quickly and easily, literally in a matter of a few lines. The book, as all of them since book three have done, suffers from being overly long. One of the reasons book three was so strong was it was the tightest of the series. Hallows could easily lose 200 or 300 pages and be all the stronger for it.
Many have remarked on how the tone of the books has darkened as the series has continued, and this book certainly continues that trend, with more deaths in the first few chapters than perhaps all the others combined. While I thought we've been set up well for this trend, it still seemed a huge leap in intensity and frequency, as if we'd jumped the smooth curve we'd been on the last three books. And the deaths, until the end, were on the one hand jarring due to the new frequency and nonchalance, but also were too abstract, as if they were mere props so we "know" what a bad guy Voldemort is. He's always been a somewhat amorphous villain, one of the weaknesses of the series, and that continues here as well. He's given newfound powers, and a newfound freedom to kill and torture, but he still never feels alive as a character. He's there because he needs to be there, Harry needs an adversary and what's a fantasy epic without a Dark Lord, but he's more of a symbol of a dark lord than one that really makes you feel his evil.
A few other general problems. Part of the richness of the Potterverse has been its small touches of magical background we see in Hogwarts. There was no way around this for Rowling but due to the requirements of the story we get almost none of that here. It's understandable, as mentioned, but it still feels like a loss. The magic in general also feels a bit more muddled, with lots of stunning spells and wands flying into the air and so on. The rules of magic have always been a very weak part of the story but that hasn't mattered much. Here, where the stakes have been raised so high, the reader feels that thinness much more. That same thinness also surrounded the magic world's place in the muggle world. With so much of the series staying so highly focused at Hogwarts and other "magical" places (such as the ministry for instance), that hasn't been a problem. But in the beginning, as Rowling attempts to show Voldemort's effect on both worlds so as to heighten his villainy, the muddiness of their connections becomes more pronounced. One of the reasons the latter two-thirds of the book is so much better is she pretty much drops the whole muggle world connection.
It's hard to discuss much more of either strength or weakness without giving away too much of the plot. So how does Hallows stack up as the finale? To be honest, the first near-300 pages were incredibly disappointing. I despaired of finding anything enjoyable, being regularly bothered by awkward plotting, bad plot holes, forced characterization, arbitrary revelation of knowledge, convenient coincidences, and poor writing. But the change at around 300 was pronounced, almost becoming a completely different novel. The book became much more focused in terms of plot, time narrowed and no longer moved along at a strikingly non-urgent pace, the bond between the three main characters came more into play, and we rediscovered the Harry Potter character that has carried so much of the series. From 300 to close to the end was the book we'd all been waiting for and it carried me along in its plot and moved me thanks to its characters. It redeemed the first few hundred pages and then some. Unfortunately, it didn't maintain that level of quality all the way to the very end, as it stumbled somewhat to the close with, as mentioned, some very lengthy and awkward exposition (not once but twice, including at what should have been a climactic moment which was spoiled by too much explanatory talk) and then an epilogue that had its moments but felt too much like trying to wrap up lots of ends and that had as well some moments where things seemed like they hadn't changed enough (and if that's too vague, well, what do you expect--we're talking about the epilogue after all).
In the end, there's a great 300-page book in the Deathly Hallows. Unfortunately, you have to read a few hundred pages to get to it. The book's strengths do in the end outweigh its weaknesses, or at the least, by the time you get to the latter third you've forgotten the weaknesses. The four stars are really closer to three, but in fact it should almost be given several different ratings: a low two for the first 300 pages, a high four for the next several hundred, and a three for the last 40 or so. It's a fitting end to the series, and in its unevenness, a microcosm of the series as a whole. That said, it's with a bittersweet sense of completion that one closes the book--a fitting and appropriate end, but an end all the same.

6 out of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/21/07

Remarkable ..... Just remarkable

JKR's right. Everything comes to a definite (and very satisfying) end - no Sopranos stuff here. And all those red herrings and throw-away lines from all of the earlier books all come back to play their part. Absolutely masterful stuff. I suspect JKR's also right when she says she can never write anything as good again - the Harry Potter series is a masterwork by any standard.

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