Greatpilgrim's Full Review: J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallo...
~This review contains mild spoilers for DH~
If you’ve made it to Book 7 in J.K. Rowling’s astronomically popular Harry Potter series, you’re either a dedicated fan, an insatiable reader, a masochist, or just want to find out whether Harry dies. I’m perhaps a combination of all four (maybe not so dedicated, since I’m more a fan of the audiobooks and movies) and, like the rest of the world said they did, I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when it came out in July 2007.
This 750-page tome brings us to Harry’s 7th and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, at a time when Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters are perilously close to overtaking almost every aspect of society: the Ministry of Magic, the wizarding media, Hogwarts, even muggle (or non-magical) politics. Yet before he can face his destiny head-on in a confrontation with Voldemort, Harry drops out of school to set out on an odyssey, accompanied by unshakeable companions Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, to find the last pieces of Voldemort’s soul – the Horcruxes, without which Voldemort is indestructable. The success or failure of their quest is critical to the dwindling Order of the Phoenix, who are no match for the Death Eaters, their soul-sucking minions, and the cowed masses doing their bidding…and indeed the fate of both the wizarding and muggle world has come to rest on the shoulders of a 17-year-old boy.
J.K. Rowling didn’t have to write a good conclusion to her series – zillions of copies would sell either way – Deathly Hallows just happens to deserve at least some of its hype. The story is massive, given the number of threads from past books and current developments that Rowling follows, drawing them tighter and tighter into the weave of the plot. Yet Harry is always the focus, the heart of the action, a brilliant simplicity that suffuses everything else with significance and single-mindedness.
Rowling is in her element when summoning a thrilling plot to her fingertips, rewarding the reader for their time spent on an inventive and entertaining chase of epic proportions. The beginning is characteristically mysterious – a Death Eater meeting that sets the dark tone of the novel – and quickly turns suspenseful. Things happen off-screen with a realistic absence of glory; you can sense the grimness of war permeating the battle scenes. Of course the final showdown is what everyone cares about in Deathly Hallows, and I was even more impressed with it than I expected to be – the ethereal touches were a welcome surprise, the death toll catastrophic (really, did we need to kill off quite so many characters?), the sincerity of Harry’s struggle a childlike counterpoint to the twists of fate that make the conclusion satisfying to adult readers.
Deathly Hallows’s pacing becomes an issue after the initial rush of excitement; this was one of the major complaints from fans, as the action gets uneven at times and lulls into middle-of-the-tome ponderosity. Not all of this is a bad thing, though. I happen to love the quiet scenes where it’s just Harry, Ron, and Hermione (sometimes, minus one of them when the trio splits) on a Quest. It’s like old times, before the series got too big, and offers some of the most tender, skillfully drawn scenes of the entire novel. I felt my heart creaking a little over Hermione’s devotion, Ron’s test of loyalty, the Trio’s bond strained to its limit – Rowling just hits this one out of the ballpark.
Other attempts at pathos are less finely spun: the Remus and Tonks storyline plays out like a soap opera, the Snape denouement is much too over-the-top, and early on the Dursley scenes don’t quite ring true. I’m happy to say, however, that most of our cast is back in character (after a slight OOC detour in Half Blood Prince) and are at least as lifelike and quirky as Rowling has ever produced. I’m still not totally convinced of Rowling’s power of characterization on the written page, but the vividness of their portrayal in the audiobook (where Jim Dale gives the performances of his life) and on film carries them in ink.
Most of us, I imagine, are familiar with Rowling’s sprawling style, sly and matter-of-fact on the sentence level but in need of a good editor when taken collectively. I found myself entranced nevertheless by storytelling that is entertaining if not masterful, and I didn’t expect great eloquence, so was free to enjoy the book for what it is, a LONG young adult novel that occasionally has literary promise but is consistently engaging. Surprisingly, the gloomy style of Half Blood Prince is given a wry, sensitive twist of humor in Deathly Hallows with a resulting blend of light and darkness that reverses the trend of the latter Potter books toward sober cosmic gravity. There are some great tongue-in-cheek moments as well as some of the dirtiest lines Rowling has ever published…something for everyone to giggle over, I guess! (For further proof, check out http://mctabby.livejournal.com/408168.html "Deathly Hallows: The Rude Bits )
There are several things that keep Deathly Hallows from being as good as it should be. The first – or should I say last – is the dreadful epilogue. To call it “bad fan-fiction quality” is insulting to bad fan fiction. ‘Nuff said. Moreover, Rowling seems to have put less care into the writing than normal; certain patches of gawky descriptions and dialogue stick out like a wacky wizard in a crowd of muggles. For example, the obvious “catch everyone up with who’s who (even though all but the keenest of readers will already have been confused by the Death Eater chapter)” paragraph on p. 45, in which just about every single stinkin character gets on average seven words of description (some rank less: “Ron, long and lanky; Fred and George, grinning identically” ad nauseum). Finally, there are some lazy conveniences of plot going on, and the emotion that accompanies scenes of departure and arrival cannot disguise the awkwardness one feels over Rowling’s forced conclusions (Ron is going to have Harry issues, dadgumit! The goblin they meet randomly in the woods of course has the clue they need to find the next Horcrux!)
With all these blemishes detracting from the polish of the finished work, what makes Deathly Hallows worth reading, a four-star novel for that matter? This is a highly personal thing, I think, but this is an opinion after all. And for me, Harry Potter is comfort reading; cozily written fantasy that dabbles in epicry but sticks mainly to whimsical plot-driven storytelling. It’s worth reading for the pop culture value, the impact it has had on past and future YA and fantasy literature, and most of all for the way the characters crawl under your skin, warts and all, and demand that you hear their story out. Is that worth the 4000-page journey? You decide.
The Harry Potter Series 1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s [Philosopher’s] Stone
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
(In case you were wondering, I do NOT recommend beginning with Deathly Hallows. ;)
Muze: Copyright 1995 - 2008 Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.