Review of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows
HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
Review By Steve Fishman
759 pages, hardback first edition
July 22, 2007
For the Quest is achieved, and now it is all over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
And so we are too, at the journey’s
end of what is arguably the most successful book series of all time, as well as our own individual odysseys with the Boy Who Lived. Some have been with him since HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSPOPHER’S STONE was first published in 1997; many (myself included) were latecomers but quick devotees. All have waited breathlessly for this moment, and yet it comes with such a high price. For we will never enter the Great Hall anew, and we will never stand in line again for a new book, of whose secrets and pleasures we know nothing, but surely suspect something. DEATHLY HALLOWS arrives with a burden equal to its hero’s—the most anticipated book in history, with over 12 million copies printed in its first run and 8.3 million of those sold in the first 24 hours alone (put another way, it outgrossed Movie 5’s first whole week in the theatres).
Does it deliver? In a word: Hell, yes.
By the end of the book, every card is put on the table, every burning question finally revealed. Harry: a Horcrux? Answered. Snape: good or bad? Answered. Do Harry and Ron ever read Hogwarts, A History? Answered. And as Rowling herself stated, some will hate it and some will love it, for her answers are surely not in tandem with every theory obsessive fans have put forth over the years, especially in the wake of the stunning events of HALF BLOOD PRINCE (which is indeed revealed as merely Part I of DEATHLY HALLOWS). Those who followed the more reasoned, well-versed-in-Potter-lore theorists may find to their narrative dismay that said theories were indeed correct (or not), but if any hardcore fan found faults with her depiction of “The Prince’s Tale” and “The Forest Again” chapters, then I question their overall judgment in the superb literary quality of the series as a whole.
The story, in a nutshell: It’s a quest – the trio of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermonie Granger must find and destroy four items containing pieces of Voldemort’s soul so that Harry can dispose of the Dark Lord himself, according to the prophecy set forth in Book 5. The story picks up sometime after the ending of HALF BLOOD, almost at a run, and we realize with a start that things are already at their absolute worst. With the impotent Ministry of Magic poised to fall, and Harry about to turn 17 and lose his magical minor protection, Rowling wastes no time tightening the screws, as Voldemort goes permanently on the offensive against the Wizarding Community and Muggles alike. “The Seven Potters” and its fallout in “Fallen Warrior” are especially ruthless, letting the reader know that no character, be it man or magical beast, is sacred anymore. (I particularly relished the death fake out at the end of “Seven”).
Harry’s ensuing Horcrux hunt with Ron and Hermonie does what I most hoped it would: break the mold of previous POTTER books. The books takes place largely outside of Hogwarts, and that’s what invigorates DEATHLY HALLOWS with the unknown, giving it an certain unpredictability missing from the other books. As always, the trio gets to shine, and for large sections, it’s all about them, just them, as they travel huddled and hunted from Grimmuald Place, Malfoy Manor, the wilds of England, the Lovegood household, the Ministry, Gringotts, and of course, Godric’s Hollow, the scene of the original crime. Harry and Hermonie share several heartbreaking scenes together in particular, and there were many (unmistakable) echoes of Sam and Frodo crawling their way towards Mordor, perhaps to their own doom.
And as with all final chapters, there’s a lot of wrapping up to do, and at the same time, a lot of new and unrevealed strands to suddenly digest. Whereas HALF BLOOD delved deep into the tragic, vicious history of Voldemort, then DEATHLY HALLOWS is its mirror, shifting through the prideful, sordid history of the greatest Wizard of them all, Albus Dumbledore, clearly not the man everyone believed him to be. Dumbledore’s greatest failing is revealed as critical to Harry’s Horcrux Hunt, and it is that wealth of exposition, the Deathly Hallows themselves, that offer the critical component in the war against Voldemort.
The book’s not perfect. Theres a few minor promises that Rowling made over the years that never materialize (ex: Dudley’s exact dementor reaction, the elder Potter’s day jobs) The lengthy scenes in the forest are nothing but wait and hurry, Ron leaves and returns for no reason other than dramatic necessity, and the vast amount of new information imparted slows things to a crawl at times. After superbly building up Ginny’s character and potential in PHOENIX and HALF BLOOD, her role is crushingly reduced to the damsel in waiting (but fortunately not the damsel in distress). Likewise, the fates of the last two surviving Mauraders seems perfunctory and underdeveloped. There are several RETURN OF THE JEDI-esqe moments (I’m referring to you, Obi Wan/Luke Dagobah Scene) in which dual motives and long-held secrets are plainly and flatly laid out. And the most contentious issue of them all -- the “Nineteen Years Later” epilogue, supposedly written before the first book was completed -- initially comes off a generic fanfic rather than the expected WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP or LOTR Appendices-type wrap up. (Maybe we’ll get details of the missing timeframe in Rowling’s rumored encyclopedia of the POTTER world).
But all these complaints pale in comparison to the final third of the book, a crowd-pleasing, fist-pumping, tear-rendering sequence of epic battles and explosive revelations. Harry discovers that the one of the final Horcruxes is hidden in Hogwarts, and his subsequent attempt to retrieve The Lost Diadem results in the biggest, most brutal, showstopping battle of the entire series. Like the Battle of the Pellenor Fields before it, The Battle of Hogwarts is just tremendous in scope, living up to all expectations-- virtually everyone and everything you’ve learned about the castle in the past six years is called into play: spiders, centaurs, hippogriffs, dementors, giants, Death Eaters, thestrals, mandrakes, Peeves, the suits of armor -- all of them take a part.
Best of all, the battle still allows each of its major characters (good and evil alike) a moment to shine. And who gets one the biggest moments of them all? Why none other than the Boy-Who-Almost-Was, Neville Longbottom. What a long, proud way he’s come from the introverted and awkward little boy who lost his toad on the Hogwarts Express in Book 1. (The second biggest surprise belongs to Molly Weasley’s ALIENS-inspired line of maternal fury and her ensuing duel, both of which will bring the house down on the movie version’s opening night, played right)
Likewise, the unmasking of Severus Snape’s true loyalty – and it is to neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort -- is no less a tour de force of six full books’ worth of painstaking character development and plotting collapsing and expanding at the same time, creating an undeniable wallop and solidifying Snape’s position as the richest, most complicated character of the entire series. (One final homework assignment: Ponder exactly, the amount of free will involved in the entire Dumbledore/Harry relationship, once you know everything).
Finally, thankfully, there’s no SOPRANOS cut to black, no meta ending. Harry’s mano y mano duel with Voldemort is done in the best Sergio Leone manner and finishes with the same deadly finality – with one standing and one dead on the ground. And while the wistful epilogue proves the door is indeed slightly ajar for future spinoffs, we have complete closure on this particular story. The series is complete, finito, and only the endless re-reads and the anticipation of the final two movies remain.
Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, his tale is done. But his fame and exploits will live on, for generations and generations to come. So before we the first, but not the last, take leave of this world forever, let us raise a glass in tribute to a most extraordinary individual indeed.
J.K. Rowling. Thank you for ten years of truly magical entertainment. Here, here.
+++++
Aside from all the major fist pumping and squee moments, here are a few of the smaller details (the unsung hallmark of her writing) that I loved:
+ The new “Magic Is Might” sculpture at the Ministry
+ Harry’s humiliation during “The Seven Potters” – “Harry your eyesight really is awful” / “Wow, we’re identical”
+ The numerous connections to Book I – Dumbledore’s wish in the mirror, Griphook, The Snitch, Ollivander, Bane, the deluminator, Hagrid’s umbrella, a break-in at Gringotts, Sirus’s motorcycle, “wingardiam leviosum” , “Are you a Wizard, Harry?”, the running redhead on Platform 9 ¾ , Neville’s stand for his friends, tea with Hagrid – wonderfully symmetrical book ends
+ The Death Eaters’ brilliant solution of tracking down Order members – “Voldemort”
+ The return of a hopeful Cho and her immediate shoot down by Ginny
+ Kingsley’s warning patronus at the wedding – a terrific “oh shit” moment
+ The anti-Snape measures at Grimmuald Place
+ Dawlish – The Auror You Love to Jinx!
+ The triumphant return of Percy
+ The French Resistance-esque radio broadcasts and their not-quite-Windtalker- level code names
+ Umbridge’s ghastly (and fitting, from her p.o.v.) choice of a security camera
+ That Zacharias Smith gave, in hindsight, perhaps the most ironic statement in the entire series (think about it, it’s in Book 5). Also, he was pushing 1st years out of the way as he fled Hogwarts before the final battle.
+ Harry’s final confrontation with Lupin: Sad, honest and the mark of true maturity on Harry’s part
+ Granny Longbottom!!!
+ The reappearance of the “Potter Stinks” button
+ The Dursleys (most of them at least) remaining true to themselves to the bitter end
+ The Ghoul in the Burrows attic finally being put to use
+ The Ravenclaw “password”
+ Luna’s bedroom painting
+ Badass McGonagall!!!
+ “Oi! There’s a war going on here!”
+ 12 Failsafe Ways to Charm a Witch
+ The lack of any unrevealed parentage / lineage issues suddenly being brought to light
+ Harry’s choice for Moody’s grave
+++++
One final note: JT is right: The DEATHLY HALLOWS score will truly need to kick ass. Pray that John Williams is still alive and willing when the time comes, cause Nicholas Hooper, he just won’t cut it.
Review By Steve Fishman
759 pages, hardback first edition
July 22, 2007
For the Quest is achieved, and now it is all over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
And so we are too, at the journey’s
end of what is arguably the most successful book series of all time, as well as our own individual odysseys with the Boy Who Lived. Some have been with him since HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSPOPHER’S STONE was first published in 1997; many (myself included) were latecomers but quick devotees. All have waited breathlessly for this moment, and yet it comes with such a high price. For we will never enter the Great Hall anew, and we will never stand in line again for a new book, of whose secrets and pleasures we know nothing, but surely suspect something. DEATHLY HALLOWS arrives with a burden equal to its hero’s—the most anticipated book in history, with over 12 million copies printed in its first run and 8.3 million of those sold in the first 24 hours alone (put another way, it outgrossed Movie 5’s first whole week in the theatres).
Does it deliver? In a word: Hell, yes.
By the end of the book, every card is put on the table, every burning question finally revealed. Harry: a Horcrux? Answered. Snape: good or bad? Answered. Do Harry and Ron ever read Hogwarts, A History? Answered. And as Rowling herself stated, some will hate it and some will love it, for her answers are surely not in tandem with every theory obsessive fans have put forth over the years, especially in the wake of the stunning events of HALF BLOOD PRINCE (which is indeed revealed as merely Part I of DEATHLY HALLOWS). Those who followed the more reasoned, well-versed-in-Potter-lore theorists may find to their narrative dismay that said theories were indeed correct (or not), but if any hardcore fan found faults with her depiction of “The Prince’s Tale” and “The Forest Again” chapters, then I question their overall judgment in the superb literary quality of the series as a whole.
The story, in a nutshell: It’s a quest – the trio of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermonie Granger must find and destroy four items containing pieces of Voldemort’s soul so that Harry can dispose of the Dark Lord himself, according to the prophecy set forth in Book 5. The story picks up sometime after the ending of HALF BLOOD, almost at a run, and we realize with a start that things are already at their absolute worst. With the impotent Ministry of Magic poised to fall, and Harry about to turn 17 and lose his magical minor protection, Rowling wastes no time tightening the screws, as Voldemort goes permanently on the offensive against the Wizarding Community and Muggles alike. “The Seven Potters” and its fallout in “Fallen Warrior” are especially ruthless, letting the reader know that no character, be it man or magical beast, is sacred anymore. (I particularly relished the death fake out at the end of “Seven”).
Harry’s ensuing Horcrux hunt with Ron and Hermonie does what I most hoped it would: break the mold of previous POTTER books. The books takes place largely outside of Hogwarts, and that’s what invigorates DEATHLY HALLOWS with the unknown, giving it an certain unpredictability missing from the other books. As always, the trio gets to shine, and for large sections, it’s all about them, just them, as they travel huddled and hunted from Grimmuald Place, Malfoy Manor, the wilds of England, the Lovegood household, the Ministry, Gringotts, and of course, Godric’s Hollow, the scene of the original crime. Harry and Hermonie share several heartbreaking scenes together in particular, and there were many (unmistakable) echoes of Sam and Frodo crawling their way towards Mordor, perhaps to their own doom.
And as with all final chapters, there’s a lot of wrapping up to do, and at the same time, a lot of new and unrevealed strands to suddenly digest. Whereas HALF BLOOD delved deep into the tragic, vicious history of Voldemort, then DEATHLY HALLOWS is its mirror, shifting through the prideful, sordid history of the greatest Wizard of them all, Albus Dumbledore, clearly not the man everyone believed him to be. Dumbledore’s greatest failing is revealed as critical to Harry’s Horcrux Hunt, and it is that wealth of exposition, the Deathly Hallows themselves, that offer the critical component in the war against Voldemort.
The book’s not perfect. Theres a few minor promises that Rowling made over the years that never materialize (ex: Dudley’s exact dementor reaction, the elder Potter’s day jobs) The lengthy scenes in the forest are nothing but wait and hurry, Ron leaves and returns for no reason other than dramatic necessity, and the vast amount of new information imparted slows things to a crawl at times. After superbly building up Ginny’s character and potential in PHOENIX and HALF BLOOD, her role is crushingly reduced to the damsel in waiting (but fortunately not the damsel in distress). Likewise, the fates of the last two surviving Mauraders seems perfunctory and underdeveloped. There are several RETURN OF THE JEDI-esqe moments (I’m referring to you, Obi Wan/Luke Dagobah Scene) in which dual motives and long-held secrets are plainly and flatly laid out. And the most contentious issue of them all -- the “Nineteen Years Later” epilogue, supposedly written before the first book was completed -- initially comes off a generic fanfic rather than the expected WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP or LOTR Appendices-type wrap up. (Maybe we’ll get details of the missing timeframe in Rowling’s rumored encyclopedia of the POTTER world).
But all these complaints pale in comparison to the final third of the book, a crowd-pleasing, fist-pumping, tear-rendering sequence of epic battles and explosive revelations. Harry discovers that the one of the final Horcruxes is hidden in Hogwarts, and his subsequent attempt to retrieve The Lost Diadem results in the biggest, most brutal, showstopping battle of the entire series. Like the Battle of the Pellenor Fields before it, The Battle of Hogwarts is just tremendous in scope, living up to all expectations-- virtually everyone and everything you’ve learned about the castle in the past six years is called into play: spiders, centaurs, hippogriffs, dementors, giants, Death Eaters, thestrals, mandrakes, Peeves, the suits of armor -- all of them take a part.
Best of all, the battle still allows each of its major characters (good and evil alike) a moment to shine. And who gets one the biggest moments of them all? Why none other than the Boy-Who-Almost-Was, Neville Longbottom. What a long, proud way he’s come from the introverted and awkward little boy who lost his toad on the Hogwarts Express in Book 1. (The second biggest surprise belongs to Molly Weasley’s ALIENS-inspired line of maternal fury and her ensuing duel, both of which will bring the house down on the movie version’s opening night, played right)
Likewise, the unmasking of Severus Snape’s true loyalty – and it is to neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort -- is no less a tour de force of six full books’ worth of painstaking character development and plotting collapsing and expanding at the same time, creating an undeniable wallop and solidifying Snape’s position as the richest, most complicated character of the entire series. (One final homework assignment: Ponder exactly, the amount of free will involved in the entire Dumbledore/Harry relationship, once you know everything).
Finally, thankfully, there’s no SOPRANOS cut to black, no meta ending. Harry’s mano y mano duel with Voldemort is done in the best Sergio Leone manner and finishes with the same deadly finality – with one standing and one dead on the ground. And while the wistful epilogue proves the door is indeed slightly ajar for future spinoffs, we have complete closure on this particular story. The series is complete, finito, and only the endless re-reads and the anticipation of the final two movies remain.
Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, his tale is done. But his fame and exploits will live on, for generations and generations to come. So before we the first, but not the last, take leave of this world forever, let us raise a glass in tribute to a most extraordinary individual indeed.
J.K. Rowling. Thank you for ten years of truly magical entertainment. Here, here.
+++++
Aside from all the major fist pumping and squee moments, here are a few of the smaller details (the unsung hallmark of her writing) that I loved:
+ The new “Magic Is Might” sculpture at the Ministry
+ Harry’s humiliation during “The Seven Potters” – “Harry your eyesight really is awful” / “Wow, we’re identical”
+ The numerous connections to Book I – Dumbledore’s wish in the mirror, Griphook, The Snitch, Ollivander, Bane, the deluminator, Hagrid’s umbrella, a break-in at Gringotts, Sirus’s motorcycle, “wingardiam leviosum” , “Are you a Wizard, Harry?”, the running redhead on Platform 9 ¾ , Neville’s stand for his friends, tea with Hagrid – wonderfully symmetrical book ends
+ The Death Eaters’ brilliant solution of tracking down Order members – “Voldemort”
+ The return of a hopeful Cho and her immediate shoot down by Ginny
+ Kingsley’s warning patronus at the wedding – a terrific “oh shit” moment
+ The anti-Snape measures at Grimmuald Place
+ Dawlish – The Auror You Love to Jinx!
+ The triumphant return of Percy
+ The French Resistance-esque radio broadcasts and their not-quite-Windtalker- level code names
+ Umbridge’s ghastly (and fitting, from her p.o.v.) choice of a security camera
+ That Zacharias Smith gave, in hindsight, perhaps the most ironic statement in the entire series (think about it, it’s in Book 5). Also, he was pushing 1st years out of the way as he fled Hogwarts before the final battle.
+ Harry’s final confrontation with Lupin: Sad, honest and the mark of true maturity on Harry’s part
+ Granny Longbottom!!!
+ The reappearance of the “Potter Stinks” button
+ The Dursleys (most of them at least) remaining true to themselves to the bitter end
+ The Ghoul in the Burrows attic finally being put to use
+ The Ravenclaw “password”
+ Luna’s bedroom painting
+ Badass McGonagall!!!
+ “Oi! There’s a war going on here!”
+ 12 Failsafe Ways to Charm a Witch
+ The lack of any unrevealed parentage / lineage issues suddenly being brought to light
+ Harry’s choice for Moody’s grave
+++++
One final note: JT is right: The DEATHLY HALLOWS score will truly need to kick ass. Pray that John Williams is still alive and willing when the time comes, cause Nicholas Hooper, he just won’t cut it.
--Steve
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