Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[thescarletwoman]

Number 32nd to get my book and got my picture taken a TON of times last night. :D the suggestion to go as Trelawney was absolutely brilliant.

Also? I TOTALLY cleaned up during the great Snape debate. I even got the girl who was running it, who thought he was evil to agree with me.

Start time: 12:49
End time: 7:49

Seven Hours on the dot and two pots of tea later... Also got through the soundtracks of all 5 movies once and am halfway through CoS as we speak.

Really -- hard to imagine that we now have closed canon. Really, really hard to imagine. I'm just... very depressed. Not because of the deaths, but because -- that's it. This is the end and there will be no more midnight book releases to stand in line for. I just feel... like I've lost a huge 'thing' when I closed the book.

I will say? I liked it. Overall it was good. Still doesn't read like JKR's writing style to me though.

All that's in here right now are my initial reactions. I'm a 'speed' reader, but I still took my time as I didn't want it to be over in just 4 hours. Over the next couple of days I want to re-read to really get my thoughts down on each chapter. But right now -- the first initial thoughts.


I'll start with the most important thing.

REEEEEMUS! *SOB* *WHIMPER* *SOB* *FLAIL*

I feel like I've been punched in the gut repeatedly. I was txting jateshi while reading it and she warned me near chapter 33 that she was sobbing. I hit the end of 32 into 33? I was a fucking wreck. Still am, actually.

I've RPed him for 5+ years. It's like losing a best friend, no matter how silly that sounds. At least I still have my current RPGs. Thank fucking god.

My thoughts are going to be so incoherent right now as I'm basically running on about 3 hours of sleep.

I'm still so depressed that Remus is dead. Really, really, really depressed. I knew he was marked for death but still. WOE. And not to go off against the Remus/Tonks shippers... it's still the way it was handled. Besides, you know the slashers are going to jump on his reluctance to mention that he was married or the pregnancy and everything else.

Snape's death: Okay, this I was happy with. Well, not happy that Snape is dead of course, but happy that he wasn't killed to sacrifice himself for Harry. I sobbed for a solid five minutes after I read his death. Then Remus' about 5 pages later? Yeah, Lia was (and still is) a wreck. And then the memories 'leaking' out of him? Um... If that's the case, why doesn't EVERYONE bleed memories like that when they die?

Molly Weasley = FTW. Molly gets the gold star in this. Seriously.

Percy: ZOMG Percy! I'm actually glad to see him back and redeemed.

Snape's innocence: I love that I nailed EVERY reason as to why he was good -- save that he did it all for Lily. It's one of those theories I've agreed with for a while just, didn't exactly expect it in the book. But that he did something to make Dumbledore believe him good. To the merciful death. To everything. It was the reason I cleaned up during the Great Snape Debate. Right down to Dumbledore asking him because he knew Severus would give him a merciful death.

The Hallows: I actually liked this chapter and the whole thing surrounding it. I thought it was a cool story and LOVED the wandlore that came with this book. Being the geek for that side of things I absolutely loved it.

The Deaths: Okay -- seriously. This was like Rocks fall, everyone dies. I swear so many of the main and majorly loved characters kicked the bucket so there couldn't be any more books. I will admit, I only teared up a little bit with Fred's death. Dude, though, doing the whole godfather thing with Harry and then her killing of my baby and Tonks? *shakes head*

Voldemort: TOTALLY pwned. And I cannot fucking WAIT to see Ralph play this. ZOMG.

Malfoy Manor: Peacocks. Dude. Just... yes.

Aberforth: I LOVED that he had so much time in this too. And the goat. And the goat patronus for the win.

Dumbledore!backstory: I liked seeing into this side of him. And I suppose the 'articles' were slightly better than always seeing the Pensieve. Maybe.

The Epilogue: If I wasn't so totally against destroying books, I'd rip it out. When I first read those scanned copies of the epilogue floating around I would have SWORN it was a hoax. The writing is so juvenille. And Jesus H Christ on a Cracker: Albus Severus? Kids named Lily and James? That's the shit I stay AWAY from on the Pit of Voles. Fucking hell.

Comments

[mad_maudlin]

I think the problem with Remus/Tonks is that there's WAY too much character stuff going on there, and it's way too far offstage. I swear Remus is bipolar in this book, because it seems like every time Harry sees him he's either OMGYAY or OMG RARR over something, and to fill in the blanks she either has to dump exposition or just throw things at us out of the blue.

And for what? What does it really add to the story? Well, it gives us tiny bits of information about Merope Gaunt, and Tonks's Patronus changing foreshadows the revelation about Snape's. And, of course, it allows her to PILE ON THE ANGST. Teddy Lupin has no signficance except as a source of angst for Harry, and a vague suggestion of parallelism between Harry-Sirius and Teddy-Harry that's never borne out. It's really the only element of the book I felt she screwed up, but man, she screwed up bad.

[sinspired.livejournal.com]

I was suspicious that he was under an Imperious curse, actually. That might have been the point.

Remember, the beginning of the relationship was off screen as well.

[mad_maudlin]

Yeah, I had that suspicion as well, especially when Lupin was all, "I wanna come with you, Harry! Let's be a gang!" But it just turned out he is crazy. And now he is dead. And there can be a weird Blackcestual threesomes in the afterlife. :-D