Book #11: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter done growed up...
As a Harry Potter fan, the anticipation was high for the seventh and final installment in the JK Rowling series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Like many of the avid HP readers, after six books, I found myself attached to the story arcs of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The sixth book had left off with a massive number of questions to be answered, and so when HP7 came out in 2007, I felt like I was in a race against time to get through the book as quickly as possible, so as to avoid spoiler alerts. In any event, with the release of the highly-anticipated seventh film in the series, I decided to give HP7 another read to re-sharpen the sense of what the heck happened. I felt going in to the re-read that I had flown through it the first time in a matter of a couple of days and that there were things that didn't sink in as they did the second time around. Here's what I thought:

I liked the immediate action in the book. While there were a LOT of questions that needed answering, such a thick-looking book really got going right from the get-go. There was a lot of action early on, which kept setting a strong pace. Rowling does a great job early of setting the table and giving the reader samples of what's being served before the guests arrive for this conclusive dinner. While there are a lot of things going on at once, most readers will no doubt have been invested in her cast of characters for a while, and so it's a little easier to juggle what's going on. Besides, by the time the three main characters- Harry, Ron, and Hermione- head off on their own, things slow up considerably, leaving the reader plenty of time to get their head to stop thinking so fast.

Deathly Hallows: a lot warmer of a read the first time around, in 2007.

Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote a rather misguided review of the film, saying that the movie lacked gusto. However, as an enthusiast of the books, I'm inclined to really appreciate the fact that the film captures the setting for a sizable middle portion of the book. It's less flashy than its predecessors (in both the book and the movie), it's cerebral, it's two/three people trying to crack a difficult puzzle and find a needle in a haystack, without the luxury of being on a farm. In the book, it's easier to read pages than to sit through a movie that doesn't seem to go anywhere. However- and the movie illustrates this quite effectively- the sense of frustration has gotten to the point of being able to feel it yourself. While Corliss may have only seen the films and forgone the books, what Deathly Hallows pt. 1 brought to the screen should have been abundant in information that would have helped fill in the gaps of the 6th HP movie.

There were times in Deathly Hallows that I felt Rowling had rushed to in order to keep the book at under 1000 pages. While I am not alone in thinking that wouldn't have been such a bad thing, I understand the hurried nature of such scenes as the break-in at Gringotts and the run-in at Malfoy Manor. I will say that these details did an admirable job of preparing the reader for the epic showdown at the Hogwarts Corral, which leads me to my next point...

I could have gone for a little more detail of what the hell was going on during the climactic battle. A life-or-death battle for control of the wizarding (and, it is assumed, the rest of the) world at Hogwarts certainly deserves a lot of attention. At times, it seemed as though the chaos ensuing inside the castle was described in just as chaotic a fashion. This isn't a full knock on Rowling as a writer; in fact, I am impressed that she undertakes the job of jumping to action involving the entire Weasley family as well as Harry and Voldemort, while sprinkling in the fate of Professor Snape. It was, however, difficult at times to adjust to the fact that there was so much going on in a matter of time where the pages yet to be read seemed to be dwindling rapidly. This, perhaps, is the best testament to the Deathly Hallows: it was such a page-turner that nervousness over what was going to happen at Hogwarts led to increased nervousness thanks to the fact that the end of the series was rapidly approaching.

All in all, the book was better the second time around, especially when in combination with the movie. I eagerly anticipate the film conclusion of the Harry Potter saga, particularly now that I've re-read HP7. There's a lot to be said for the series of books, and the best of which may be this: the time and energy invested in these characters has been quite an effort to tally. What it does, though, is endear the characters and story and world of wizarding to us all the more. And so, as the end of the line comes, all of that invested time, energy, and feelings towards this undertaking of a series are well-justified by Rowling's thrilling conclusion.