130 of 154 people found the following review helpful:
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...
Not quite sure
I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series and have read this book a couple of times to really take it in.
Certainly the darkest book of the series, this is at some points quite frightening, even for an adult. Not sure how they will make this film accessible to children.
On the whole the main storyline is actually very good, from the wedding to...
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
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Amazing how some book can be so good that when you've finished them you get filled up with a sadness and nostalgia that you cant describe. this is one of them.
absoloutly gripping from the first sentence to the last, harry potter and the deathly hallows completes harry's journey in the wonderful, sometimes sad, incredibly dangerous world of magic.
unlike the other books, this novel is full of destruction, death and loss. It doesnt even have the spirit-lifting moments of humor for us to depend on. however, i think this book is enough fast moving that you dont think about it too much and you just become engrossed with the charecters lives. to tell you the truth i find it impossible to fault this book. a 100% must read, and best harry potter ever.
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I'd like to say that I was not one of the people who grew up with Harry Potter, it was around me but I never felt interested enough to have a read and even disliked the hype so much that I could have never imagined reading and absolutely loving it.
Eventually, at 22, I gave the first book a chance and read it in a day and I quite enjoyed it, needless to say the more books I read of the series, the more obsessed and involved did I feel and at the last book, The Deathly Hallows I could not imagine that this journey has come to an end.
I felt at points frustrated at the slow pace and not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel but I think JK Rowling made it quite clear that a big part of this book is about frustration, patience and somewhat hopelessness.
When I then finished this book I was in tears, well I was in tears throughout the book but the end just hit me hard and I realised that there won't be any more books and what I've read can never be read again the same way. I felt depressed, not because it was a bad book, quite the opposite, it was such a good book and such a good series that I felt like I lost friends. As sad as this sounds, I feel that Rowling created a world so detailed, so close to my heart that the end of it felt like a funeral. I think she felt quite the same and of course even worse when she was writing the last chapters of this book and I cannot even imagine the pain she felt for saying goodbye to Harry and his friends.
I don't think any book has touched me the way these did, not because it is the smartest or funniest book I've read but because it feels so real that it is hard to imagine it isn't. For this, I thank JK Rowling, she enriched my life with this epic story and I hope, for generations to come, they feel the same way about it.
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'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' is the seventh and final book in the saga and does not disappoint at all. JK Rowling again brings to life her unique magical world and unforgettable characters that we have all grown to know and love (and hate) in this final battle against Lord Voldemort.
I don't want to give away any of the story but I can say that from the get-go the action is heavy and the surprises come from all directions, especially when you least expect it. Rowling also is extremely ruthless and bloodthirsty with book 7, making it impossible to predict who's going to meet their demise next. The deaths are also very violent which I can imagine would be a bit disturbing for younger readers.
All the loose ends are tied up by the end and Rowling does a fascinating job of answering all the questions that every Potter fan has been theorising about over the past few years. This is an absolutely brilliant book and an excellent end to one of the best series of books ever written and it is actually quite sad to think that there will be no more Harry Potter books to come (although a spin-off is the last thing I want) with no more midnight launches to look forward to and no more discussing theories with other readers.
This is a series of books I know I will read regularly again and again for years to come and one that is without a doubt an absolute classic with a fantastic ending.
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I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series and have read this book a couple of times to really take it in.
Certainly the darkest book of the series, this is at some points quite frightening, even for an adult. Not sure how they will make this film accessible to children.
On the whole the main storyline is actually very good, from the wedding to the ending there is a purpose to the story which becomes clear after a couple of reads.
I can understand the negative reviews, as there are certain parts that definately go on for too long and make the reader loose interest. It almost seems like JK was trying to fill some space, where the book didnt need it.
The ending was approprite and anything more extravagent would have made this series even harder to let go. JK has produced an amazing set of books that will be appreciated for years and years to come, but i think that she has steered away from the childrens book that this once was, and has firmly cemented this book into the adult section.
Overall another really good book, but i feel that it was missing the spark that the earlier books had. However the last few chapters are the most explosive that she has ever written and she really should be congratulated for that!!!
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After years of waiting, devoted fans finally got to read the conclusion of JK Rowling's iconic seven part wizarding saga. And it is a fitting end to the series.
The Deathly Hallows is a fast paced, plot driven read, with lots of action throughout. Within a couple of chapters there are nail biting battles and Rowling is pulling no punches (within reason, as it is after all a children's book). The conclusion had me unable to stop reading, utterly gripped to find out at last how it would all end.
This story is different from its predecessors, which all had a familiar structure based around happenings of the school year. This novel sees Harry no longer at school and so the cosy predictability of earlier tomes is lost. This is no bad thing - it makes a more exciting read and conveys more accurately how Harry feels, cast adrift from the routine he knows. It also would have been very hard to do the story justice if Harry and his friends were still having to attend classes and hand in homework.
Unsurprisingly, the book is much darker in tone than the others, and although there are still flashes of humour, they are far fewer. Rowling creates a sense of menace and foreboding, and does an excellent job of conveying the fear of being hunted and of trying to oppose an unjust, corrupt state. For those who like to see allegory, there are strong tones of the Holocaust as wizards with non-magical parents are rounded up. Rowling should be applauded for demonstrating how such things can come about with frightening speed and the terrible effects on ordinary people caught up in the middle. I am sure that teachers of history and politics will be making use of this book.
Less good points include a section in the middle where the plot doesn't seem to move on much, though it does serve a purpose. Older readers in particular may miss the presence of the many suporting characters of earlier books. While most get a cameo appearance, the story is focussed utterly on Harry and his two best friends, and as they are often living in isolation, we get much less of the adult and other characters whom for many readers are the main attraction.
In terms of answering questions and tying up loose ends... well, for Rowling to have done them all, she'd have needed to produce a novel the size of a paving slab, and it would have probably been a pretty tedious read. Let's just say she answers the most important ones, and covers some of the rest in general priniciples. It would have been nicer to have a longer epilogue, with the fates of more characters mentioned, but then again, there would always be some that had to be missed.
There are a number of deaths in the book but these are handled skillfully and, whilst upsetting, I do not think they would unduly distress a younger reader. There is nothing too graphic, and children from 8 upwards should be fine, although there is a lot of subtext here that will go over their heads.
Overall, this is a fitting finale to one of the biggest literary phenonema of modern times. Old and young readers alike will be intrigued to know what happens to Harry and his friends, and they will not be disappointed.
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Oh my goodness. Its over, the long wait is finally over. I could hardly contain myself in the weeks running up to the launch of the last book in this phenomenal series. Although, as Rowling herself felt, my excitement and anticipation were tinged with a looming sense of loss and finality.
Well. I queued at midnight - sorry Amazon. I read for around 17 hours with a mere 3 hours sleep and finished the book on Saturday evening. What a rollercoaster. I'm about to start it all over again. There's so much detail to take in and mull over.
With the 2 year gap between books 6 and 7 there was plenty of time to second guess the storyline of Deathly Hallows. Most of my guesses were wrong, a few small details I got right. Who cares!!! The sheer joy of finally knowing how Harry, Ron and Hermione spent their year chasing down Voldermort's Horcruxes, who lives, who dies, who is exposed (for good and bad ....), who triumphs and how - its all there on paper and in my head now. The relief, the joy, the sadness too (I can hardly believe I cried at one point when our gallant trio are in a cottage by the sea).
The thing I love about the Harry books is the trail of oh-so-subtle, out-of-the-corner-of-your-eye details that Rowling drops in throughout the books that become important as the story progresses. In the weeks leading up to the launch I re-read the series hoping to spot as many of these a possible. I tried to guess for myself what all the Horcruxes were and where Harry could find them. I had a real sense of involvement in the stories, like a children's panto where you want to yell at Harry "he's behind you", "it's over there".
Having finished Deathly Hallows now I can give testament to Rowling's mastery of hint and deception. When looking for clues early on in the series there were absences of information about some parts of the story (such as backplot about all the Hogwart's ghosts) that I noticed, then dismissed thinking that such things were obviously unimportant to the overall plot. These absences have now been filled and create breathtaking twists and turns to the storyline.
I loved it!
My children are only 3 and 1 year old. I can't wait until they are of age to start having the Harry books read to them. These are truly masterpieces of children's literature that will last for generation after generation. Well done Rowling. And thank you very, very much.
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The final Harry Potter book finishes the story perfectly. It charts Harry's attempts to destroy the remaining horcruxes in his attempts to finally defeat Voldemort, along with Ron and Hermione. I'll avoid spoilers. With this book, Rowling has produced a masterpiece. The narrative is tightly woven, providing intense storytelling while weaving together all the unfinished story threads from previous books, as it hurtles towards the climactic battle within Hogwarts itself. The ending itself is brilliant, and once you have read it, you will find it hard to imagine it finishing differently. The storytelling is simply excellent.
It's certainly a dark book; this can't be denied. The world Harry now lives in is almost indistinguishable from the Hogwarts of the first book. Rowling devotes little time to the amusing details, like moving portraits or wizarding sweets, which filled earlier books, and instead we are presented with a bleak world, ruled over by a tyrannical Ministry of Magic. Harry must fight even to survive on a daily basis. But the darkness isn't, as some reviewers suggest, a criticism. With this book, the series, like Harry, comes of age. Gone (thankfully) is the constantly moody Harry of books V and VI. The Harry of this book, while not without flaws, has matured to face the challenge ahead.
The notion that anyone is purely good or pure evil is challenged here more than ever before. Voldemort's supporters show moments of compassion, while Harry's supporters, and none more so than Dumbledore, show elements of evil. The bond between Harry and Voldemort is closer than ever. But even so, Harry is able to prove himself more heroic than ever before. It has been suggested that each book deals with an important life lesson. The lesson here, which Harry, Voldemort, and all the other characters must here deal with, is coming to terms with death. Rowling's ideas here border on the Christian, though there is no religion involved. Redemption, too, is important here.
Overall, until now, the Harry Potter novels have been good stories, but have never quite reached greatness. The Deathly Hallows changes that. Anyone who dismisses the series as just a children's story doesn't have a leg to stand on now. It's not just a story, it's deep, intelligent, incredibly moving, and bound to be one of the books which defines the twenty-first century. Rowling should be congratulated; this book fully deserves to become a classsic.
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I finally finished reading this today and I was more than satisfied with it. Although a little waffly in the middle it's every bit as good as the other books and a great deal darker. The epilogue seemed a little "tagged on" but it didn't annoy me like it has some others.
A fine read and I can't wait for the film now.
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This is probably the best in the series - a cracking good read from start to finish. I'm not entirely sure that younger readers will keep up with all the twists and turns, particularly towards the end, and some of what's here definitely of an 'adult' nature (e.g. many deaths, some scenes of torture). But anybody who has come this far will be not be disappointed.
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