I'm rather glad that somebody else liked it. I've got the distinct impression that a number of people on my friends list were under impressed. :-(
I liked the more grown-up style compared with the previous books. OK, they've been getting older as they've gone on, but HP7 was much, much older that HP6. The editing seemed to be tighter too, which was a benefit.
Luna was great; I was surprised when she was found at the Malfoy's. Dobby and Kreacher were great. Dobby's funeral was very touching.
The whole hide and seek chase through the countryside was rather well done, I though. I've commented in my own journal that I thought the whole plot line was rather like that of John Buchan's The Thirty-nine Steps: escaping from city life and from one's friends, tracking through the wild, trying to piece together what is going on, being captured and escaping, reappearing to fight the big battle.
I'd guessed that Harry was a horcrux; OK, I don't know for certain, but it seemed very likely to me. The whole reasoning about how they were created just seemed to indicate that he had to be one. What I wasn't sure about was how he was going to be destroyed as a horcrux but survive as Harry. I think how it was done was actually very clever.
The back story to Dumbledore was clever and ingenious. Proof, if any were needed, that nobody is whiter than white. We've all done bad and or stupid things in the past. I did feel rather sorry for the old lady in Goodrick's Hollow (I can't remember the spelling of her name sufficiently well and I can't be arsed to find it in the book).
Lupin and Tonks were very much short changed. Tonks I can understand, she was never much more than a bit part (though an entertaining one), but Lupin, as others have said, was a reasonably major character earlier on. To get married off-stage and to die off-stage seemed rather harsh.
I did like the way that quite a few previously developed characters did get deaded. I wasn't prepared for Moody to die right at the beginning. I also wasn't expecting so many named characters to be eliminated in the final battle. Usually in a situation like that most of the named baddies are killed, but most of the named goodies aren't. Killing one of the twins was really a sit up and take notice move on her part. I was impressed.
I missed Snape during the bulk of the plot, but his back story chapter at the end was just so good. You just feel for him so much. What would life have been like if he hadn't called Lilly a "Mudblood" when he was being bullied by James? Of if he had realised that he could influence the Sorting Hat and ended up in the same house as Lilly?
His death was so sad. It was also ultimately unnecessary. The plot would still have worked without it, though perhaps the overall impact of the book would have been reduced. I really hoped that he would survive.
I was a bit non-plussed with the way everything happened in Gringotts and I found the dragon a bit anticlimactic. A bit "here is a ready made escape vehicle for you that you didn't know that you'd get, but you could be pretty sure you'd need."
I found the visit to old-man Lovegood a bit of a classic "the heroes have walked into a trap" type of situation. Particularly where they are trusting their host, but he has actually tricked them into staying to await capture. The way he was always looking out of the window was a big give away. However, I can forgive her, because it is always far more obvious in a book than in either real life or in a film. The author has to mention the important things like the host looking out of the window; whereas in real life or a film it can simply be part of the background and if the viewer doesn't notice then that is their lookout.
I must say that I couldn't work out if Harry was going to die at the end, or whether Voldemolt would die, or whether he would be reformed, or whether he was an evil manifestation of Harry, or that Harry had been turned into a good manifestation of Voldemolt, or even if it would end up as Neville who would do the final defeating. It was good right to the end.
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I liked the more grown-up style compared with the previous books. OK, they've been getting older as they've gone on, but HP7 was much, much older that HP6. The editing seemed to be tighter too, which was a benefit.
Luna was great; I was surprised when she was found at the Malfoy's. Dobby and Kreacher were great. Dobby's funeral was very touching.
The whole hide and seek chase through the countryside was rather well done, I though. I've commented in my own journal that I thought the whole plot line was rather like that of John Buchan's The Thirty-nine Steps: escaping from city life and from one's friends, tracking through the wild, trying to piece together what is going on, being captured and escaping, reappearing to fight the big battle.
I'd guessed that Harry was a horcrux; OK, I don't know for certain, but it seemed very likely to me. The whole reasoning about how they were created just seemed to indicate that he had to be one. What I wasn't sure about was how he was going to be destroyed as a horcrux but survive as Harry. I think how it was done was actually very clever.
The back story to Dumbledore was clever and ingenious. Proof, if any were needed, that nobody is whiter than white. We've all done bad and or stupid things in the past. I did feel rather sorry for the old lady in Goodrick's Hollow (I can't remember the spelling of her name sufficiently well and I can't be arsed to find it in the book).
Lupin and Tonks were very much short changed. Tonks I can understand, she was never much more than a bit part (though an entertaining one), but Lupin, as others have said, was a reasonably major character earlier on. To get married off-stage and to die off-stage seemed rather harsh.
I did like the way that quite a few previously developed characters did get deaded. I wasn't prepared for Moody to die right at the beginning. I also wasn't expecting so many named characters to be eliminated in the final battle. Usually in a situation like that most of the named baddies are killed, but most of the named goodies aren't. Killing one of the twins was really a sit up and take notice move on her part. I was impressed.
I missed Snape during the bulk of the plot, but his back story chapter at the end was just so good. You just feel for him so much. What would life have been like if he hadn't called Lilly a "Mudblood" when he was being bullied by James? Of if he had realised that he could influence the Sorting Hat and ended up in the same house as Lilly?
His death was so sad. It was also ultimately unnecessary. The plot would still have worked without it, though perhaps the overall impact of the book would have been reduced. I really hoped that he would survive.
I was a bit non-plussed with the way everything happened in Gringotts and I found the dragon a bit anticlimactic. A bit "here is a ready made escape vehicle for you that you didn't know that you'd get, but you could be pretty sure you'd need."
I found the visit to old-man Lovegood a bit of a classic "the heroes have walked into a trap" type of situation. Particularly where they are trusting their host, but he has actually tricked them into staying to await capture. The way he was always looking out of the window was a big give away. However, I can forgive her, because it is always far more obvious in a book than in either real life or in a film. The author has to mention the important things like the host looking out of the window; whereas in real life or a film it can simply be part of the background and if the viewer doesn't notice then that is their lookout.
I must say that I couldn't work out if Harry was going to die at the end, or whether Voldemolt would die, or whether he would be reformed, or whether he was an evil manifestation of Harry, or that Harry had been turned into a good manifestation of Voldemolt, or even if it would end up as Neville who would do the final defeating. It was good right to the end.