Author: J.K. Rowling
Page Count: 759 pages - Hardcover
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic
Publication Date: July 21st, 2007
Review originally written 9-3-2007
When I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince nearly two years ago, I had a prediction. With all the talk of horcruxes and the speculation of what objects they would be, I conjured up what seemed to me a very clever proposition: that Harry Potter himself was one of the Horcruxes. (after looking online this doesn't seem as clever, since several thousand others thought the exact same thing) To me, this plot device would explain everything. It would begin back when Voldemort first killed Harry's parents. Several times in the series characters stated that no one ever actually saw Voldemort kill Harry's parents and attack Harry, so that left matters open to interpretation. In my mind, Voldemort would kill the parents, and then decide right there that the best way to preserve his life was not to kill Harry, but to let him live with a piece of Voldemort's soul in him. Using the sacrifice of the parents - BAM! - another Horcrux. It would be this final splitting of his soul that destroyed Voldemort's physical body. It would also explain the scar on Harry's head, as a method to identify the horcrux. Note that this scenario would make Voldemort extremely clever and intelligent.
Having read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I can say that I was almost right. Harry was indeed a Horcrux, although it was due to pure chance rather than any real intention on Voldemort's part. It is this type of letdown that defines this book. As a book that purports to explain everything and end the series in a perfect way, my expectations never truely materialized. Nothing useful was accomplished for vast portions of the book, leading to an extremely quick ending that felt very rushed. Entire chapters of Harry, Hermionie, and Ron's quest to find the horcruxes could have been cut out of the book and nothing would have changed. I had to resist the urge to flip ahead simply because the characters were not doing anything useful.
The major plot device in this novel were the "Deathly Hallows". While this is an interesting concept on its own, in this setting it felt extremely forced. To introduce completely new magical objects at the very end of a series dealing with magic feels like a deus ex machina. It seems that Rowling had a great new idea and then tried really hard to make it feel natural by tying the Deathly Hallows to (relatively) mundane objects encountered in previous books. To use a comic book term, this looks like a retcon. Besides, the Hallows did not really do anything useful in the book. The Elder Wand ended up killing Voldemort, but that was the only true sign of power from these objects. I must lack the insight to explain why the book was named after these objects which ultimately didn't do much. One can even argue that Voldemort ended up killing himself rather than these Hallows killing him.
I like intelligent villains. I like the Dark Lords who gain power by being smarter and more twisted than everyone else. Voldemort is not a smart villain. Through much of this book he bumbles about while Harry manages to destroy Horcrux after Horcrux, and doesn't even realize it until nearly the end. Even the ending is demeaning to Voldemort's intelligence. He zaps Harry with his wand, and that doesn't kill him. So what happens? Voldemort proceeds to try and zap Harry again with the same wand. Which of course doesn't kill Harry again, and Voldemort is rewarded with an instant death. With the six previous books all screaming how clever and twisted and evil Voldemort was, his character simply doesn't live up to the legend. The only thing I see in his character is arrogance, not intellect. He is simply inept, and this destroys any possibility of a decent climactic ending.
Now, I understand this series is meant foremost for children. I know there is no chance of Voldemort actually winning, regardless of all the talk about how "dark" the books have become. But with all the talk about which characters would die, I expected some type of noble or valiant sacrifice of one (or more) of the major characters. It was a letdown when the only characters who did die were minor ones I did not care about, mainly because I do not write slashfiction. I am sure that thirteen year old girls the world over cried themselves to sleep upon reading that Lupin and Tonks died, but I asked myself "that's it?". And yes, Harry did 'die', but he quickly got better. The novel (and entire series) ended on a sickeningly prosaic note, with all the major student characters getting married and having kids. Again, if I wrote slashfiction I would probably love the ending, but to me this felt too contrived.
The Harry Potter books have been entertaining reading, and I will admit I enjoyed reading the books in the past. But with this dull conclusion, the entire series falters and loses much of its mystique. While I do feel vindicated about my Horcrux prediction, most of the book feels empty of any real meaning or significance. It is simply unimpressive.
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