Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J. K. Rowling
Started: 17 Feb 2008
Finished: 24 Feb 2008
759 p / 8 d
95 p/d

So, back in January I read Book 6 and commented that it was a little slow. In the comments to my post Matt offered that Book 7 “moves much faster”. And that is definitely the case. The book starts and then BOOM you get to page 55 and there is massive action and tension which barely ever lets up from there until the end of the book. It sucked me in and this book is one of the major reasons I didn’t get a lot done this last week. I had hoped to get lots of stuff done, but no, each time I had an excuse, I’d go read for a chapter or so instead. I did have the discipline to not just sit and read the whole thing without stopping, although it was tempting. Even so, I ended up averaging almost 100 pages a day, which is rare for me. Not because I can’t read 100 pages a day of course, but because normally I’m busy doing other things and only end up reading for a few minutes a day, which of course slows things down.

One of the things that made a difference here I think, and which sets this book aside from all the other Harry Potter books, is that Rowling almost as soon as the book started ditched the structure which governed all the other books. That structure basically being the structure of the Hogwarts school year. That had provided a certain amount of predictability to all the other books. This time that was out the window. Now, you still had the bit at the end where everything that had gone on is explained and comes together. But that wasn’t too bad.

There are a few bits of how it all came together than I was expecting long before it happened. (Trying to be vague so as not to spoil anyone who has not read it yet.) But there are other things that did indeed take me by surprise. And other things I expected to happen which did not.

All in all a good mix though, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

It is a shame the series is over. But things did get wrapped up nicely, so I actually hope Ms. Rowling sticks to her guns about it really being over, rather than coming back for another dip and diluting the original seven books.

Having said that, bring on the rest of the movies! This last one will be a doosey if they do it right!