[Click here to read an updated response from my September 2018 re-read.]
And so it ends…there is so much that happens I can’t begin to explain my feelings about the end of this series. As with most of my posts on this re-read, this post is not so much a review as a regurgitation of my thoughts and emotions of the books. So, please accept my apologies ahead of time.
For those of you considering a re-read I encourage you to check out the Harry Potter Read Along over at The Lost Generation Reader from September to December. If I hadn’t just finished I would seriously consider it again. I’m already considering another re-read this time next year 😀 Re-reading this series provided me with a much-needed relaxation and break from my various challenges and I’m definitely glad I took the time to do it.
When I first read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I was at a major transition in my life. I had just graduated from undergrad, I was spending my final summer as a camp counselor and I was in the process of moving to the United Kingdom for graduate school—needless to say it was an intense time period for me and this book really signified the ending of my childhood. What I remember most is that I speed read the novel because I was at camp I HAD to finish it before the campers did because if I didn’t someone would spill the beans about what happens.
I didn’t start reading the books when the first ones were published (I started in the summer of 2000 just before the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), but I still followed this series and it’s add ons for the better part of a decade.  Before the publication of each novel I would meticulously re-read every one of the preceding novels to the complete bafflement of my friends and family. I can’t even explain it now, nor do I want to.
Overall, I enjoyed this final installment of the series. I felt that it wrapped up most everything that Rowling set out to do from the start. There are a few little things that have always left me wondering and it’s about minor characters because those are the ones I believe really make the novels I read great (and so does Tom for these in particular). I honestly believe Rowling won’t go back to the magical world of Harry Potter, unless she squanders her money and desperately needs more, but I’d still like to know how things ended up.
When I frist read the ‘nineteen years later’ epilogue I was really mad that she did it, but now looking back I’m glad she gave that bit of insight. I would still like to know what happened to Dudley (did him and Harry become friends?), what happened to Kreecher (do the Potter’s now live in Grimmauld place?) and what about all of the other characters we’ve grown to love like Luna and the rest of the Weasleys and the other professors?
If there is one part that I didn’t like about the novel that I didn’t like is that the action was all packed within clumps of pages. For example the opening 65 pages are pretty action packed, the last 100 pages are beyond action packed and there are about 40 pages in the middle that are absolutely action packed and everything else is just sort of waffling and filler. I understand why she did this, but you’d think the action would’ve been spread out a bit more throughout the book. I found myself, as I was re-reading, this time unable to put the book down again at certain points. Twice I found myself awake well after 1:00am saying ’10 more pages’ or ‘one more chapter,’ and this was due to the action packed parts of the book which even though I’d read it before made it incredibly difficult to put the book down.
Recommendation: Read it, of course! It’s a great finale to the end of an amazing series.
Opening Line: “The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.”
Closing Line: “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.” (Whited out.)
Thank you for mentioning my read-along! I really appreciate it.
I was also initially upset by the 19 years later part, but now that the book has been out for years and the movies over, I feel comfort in knowing at least a little of what happened after the war. Like you, I want to know more, of course, but perhaps JK Rowling wanted to leave some things up to our imagination.
All was well indeed. 🙂
You’re very welcome! I want everyone to do it and like I said, I would TOTALLY do it again if I hadn’t just finished.
Understandable. I love Harry Potter, but not enough to re-read it twice in a row. Too many other books out there that need reading. 🙂
But they would totally be good together! (and DO IT!)
I always thought it was pretty evenly spread action-wise, perhaps the lull in the middle was more welcome for me as a chance to relax a little.
I loved the final book although I have only read it twice. The second time I remember longing for Hogwarts and just feeling really sad that I’d never go back there properly again. I felt that at the end of the 6th book but during the 7th it just brought it home. Harry was so lost and had so much hanging on his shoulders – he’s just a kid and didn’t know what to do.
I actually feel something akin to physical pain even just thinking about it actually. There are many parts of this book really that just left my chest physically aching from all the tension and trying not to cry. Part of me still just sad that I’ll never read another new adventure in HP land.
Don’t get me wrong – if JKR said was going to write a sequel series I’d be hugely disappointed because it should just be left alone. HP is so special to me and to others, I don’t want it to be milked and for me to end up reading it just because. It’d never be so special again. The books are so tied up with my childhood and memories of when I first read them. I don’t reckon there will ever be another series like this – it’s not as if I’m going to have another childhood again. Re-reading HP is like being in a safe, happy place. It isn’t actually so good for real life as last time I read it I think I left real-life piling up at the door.
I know what you mean. It doesn’t get easier saying goodbye even though I’ve done it countless times before. It actually gets a little harder each time because I’m so over-anticipating what’s coming…
Oh… and I may just have to take part in the HP re-readathon. So many books I should be reading for challenges though… and been so slack.
Do it!!! At least this is one you know you’ll enjoy. Or just save them as a rest when you finish is year’s challenges.
Awake after 1am reading only twice? I recall that happening more than two times… just saying.
And yes, everyone who gave me a hard time for not reading HP, I am currently on book three and can’t get enough.
Perhaps I shall do a “celebrity” blog post (heavy emphasis on perhaps).
😀
Squee!
I always wanted to know what happened to Luna and Kreecher too!
I’m sure it’s from the movie but I always imagined Luna and Neville getting married! (The book made me wonder if it was Luna and Dean though.)
Haha yeah the film did feature Neville going after Luna, but never got that feeling from the book. Was recently helping my boyfriend to move rooms and found he has a pristine matching set of this series. I want to steal them and read them right now!
JK did an interview thing after DH (when it came out that Dumbledore was gay and there was the whole hoopla about that) where she said about what happened to the various characters. I think she said Luna went off travelling and Neville married thingamebob Bones.
Oh – I will definitely have to look that up. I sort of blocked out all HP after it ended for a while. I definitely read the short card she wrote about Sirius and James for the charity book.
I first read Harry potter when I was 9 and followed it religiously as it came out. When the last book came out i did t eat breath or sleep until I had consumed it and answered Ally questions but atlas it left me sad and angry just like you felt when it was all over. I was ironically 17 as well. I felt like my childhood was over.
Then I found the chamber of secret shortly after my own undergrad graduation and as I started a new job that I absolutely hated Harry kept me sane because I was young again and even though I knew what was going to happen I still gasped and cried with a turn of a page. I got fired from my job shortly afteXr I finished order of the pheanix and the last two have helped through this difficult time. Thank you for your article it it has made me realize I am not alone.
Thanks for stopping by and for the comment. It’s really great how books can really take a permanent place input consciousness and help us through good and bad times.