Harry Potter & The Terrible Finale

This is a blog I wrote in 2007 just after 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows' had come out.
It was probably the first actual blog I wrote and I have made a few very small changes. Opinion remains the same.
I am posting it here for posterity and someone asked me about it on FormSpring

I finished it in 7 hours and to be honest...this was immensely disappointing.
Even from the moment I bought it and said 'wow...is that it?', I knew that this wasn't going to please the majority of people.

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There were no real revelations in this book, as there have been in its predecessors. They were either predicatable or you'd worked it out already, and I missed the shock value.

The majority of the deaths were waay too rushed, especially Lupin and Tonks which just made me pretty pissed off.

They are two major characters who had just had a kid of their own, and there wasn't even a single moment to dwell on their deaths, what had happened to them or anything!
Fred's wasn't much better either, but at least you knew how he had died and how the family reacted.

The previous 3 books have had major deaths in them, and I'll admit it, they brought a tear to my eye, and that just wasn't the case in this one. It was a bit like, "oh, they're dead. Shit. Anyway..."
I suppose you can argue that JK wrote it in this way to 'get the reader involved in the pace of the story and the fact that none of the characters had time to dwell on the deaths' but in my opinion, that's just pretentious bullshit!

In regards to Voldemort at the end, okay sure, all of his horcruxes are gone and its bound to affect him somehow, but fucking hell he was still a bitchin wizard, so why the hell is he having so much trouble finishing off 3 wizards! He didn't even kill one!

The whole sequence seemed so pantomime and rushed. It seemed as if JK was trying to round everything up in Harry's speech. I was expecting at least one vaguely epic battle between Harry and Voldemort like we got in books 4&5, but no apparently not.
Even the epic castle siege battle wasn't that epic.

Now I move onto Snape and Lily...well who the fuck DIDN'T see that coming?!

I had cracked that little chestnut from book 1!
If you go back and read the previous books, you will pick up more and more on these little moments.
It was good to see all the stuff with Dumbledore and the planning though...

For me, most of the book is just Harry, Ron and Hermione wandering aimlessly around the UK trying to work out how to pull their wands out of their arses.
Again, it is a matter of complete luck that they manage to find any horcruxes or any major revelations to their quest, which was disappointing as it reminded me of the first books.
With every sequel, the books grow up and so had the characters and you would think our three heroes are meant to be pretty badass now so you think they'd be able to work out a little of what the fuck they are meant to be doing.

Ron and Hermiones kiss.

*sigh*

After reading about this chase relationship for years and years you are just going to sum it up in one quick little kiss which is disrupted by Harry shouting "oi, we're in the middle of a battle here"...FUCK YOU JK ROWLING! Not happy with that at all!

Now let's get down to what really grinds my gears about this book.

The 19 years later part.

Congratulations! We know what happened to four of the characters!

Hell I wanna know what happened to George, how everyone got through all their losses, how Ron/Hermione & Harry/Ginnys relationship developed and why the hell the Death Eaters didn't just carry on kicking arse, regardless of the fact that Voldemort was dead!

You've just written this massive battle, the fall of the dark lord and all this other shit and you're just gonna skip 19 years so we can watch their kids get on a train!

WHO'S THE NEW HEADMASTER?!
SO MANY GODDAMN PLOTHOLES!!!!!

Also, how come Harry can suddenly use Unforgivable Curses?

"You have to mean it" Bellatrix says when he tries one on her.
Frankly, I think he'd mean it more after she just killed his only family rather than on some random goblins in Gringotts...

In summary, for me this book reads like the movie script.
It's too rushed and nothing is really dwelled on. I refuse to believe that this is how JK Rowling intended to end Harry Potter. Personally I think she would have killed him off.

Hopefully, once all of the hum drum of the films has blow over she will release another version of the book, her version, because this isn't it. Not by a long shot.

EDIT:
(This edit was about a week after my first readthrough)

I have just re-read the book and needless to say, my opinions haven't changed on it at all.

It still reads like the movie script and there is too much waffling. I still also don't appreciate the vast amount of major characters that were killed off and that it skips an entire 19 years!

However, it has been revealed that a Harry Potter Encyclopedia is being released with answers to all the questions that any devoted Harry Potter fan has regarding what happens next.
It is rumoured RRP is £25.

CAPITALISE JK! CAPITALISE WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

This woman will be living off this book for the rest of her days, and good on her!

It was a damn good story only tainted by the fact that Warner got involved. I think it would have been a much better idea to produce the films after the 7th book, that way JK still has her free reign over the story. I refuse to believe that Warner didn't have a hand in what direction the story took.

Unfortunately everyone feels the need to make as much money as they can so the films were produced.

As the books got further on, coinciding with the release of the films, you can see a literary change in the way that the books read more and more like a film, which is crap, for lack of a better argument.

It is a shame that a fantastic story that developed for a good while was affected so brutally by the films. When you read the books you can feel the heart of a fantastic story but as the books progress you just wish that there was more literary feel to it, rather than reading a film.

To this day I still feel the same way.

I will say however, thank the stars for David Yates who saved the films!
Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince are my favourite books and David Yates did a fantastic job of representing them on film.

I am very excited to see how the 'Deathly Hallows' films.

Yes, plural.

Of course this is the final chance to properly cash in on the Harry Potter franchise so splitting the film in two makes perfect sense from a business perspective.
The fact that it is one of the shorter books doesn't irritate me at all...

Regardless, bring on the finale!