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Our family has read these many times over. Our youngest wanted to read Deathly Hallows again but our copy went missing so we bought another. So glad we did!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Unnecessarily long and drawn out. About halfway through one of the movies Ron expresses his frustration that they were supposed to be looking for horcruxes but they were now looking for the Deathly Hallows instead. "So there's some other bloody thing we're supposed to be finding, too?" or something like that. I was right there with him. That said, there are parts in the book that would have been nice in the movie. Like Harry, Ron, and Hermione discovering that Luna's bedroom walls are covered with pictures of them and the word "friends," presumably making them think twice about how they've seen and treated her in the past - a touching moment in a story that could use more humanity and less running around.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
So, here it is at last: The final confrontation between Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the “symbol of hope” for both the Wizard and Muggle worlds, and Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named, the nefarious leader of the Death Eaters and would-be ruler of all. Good versus Evil. Love versus Hate. The Seeker versus the Dark Lord. J. K. Rowling’s monumental, spellbinding epic, 10 years in the making, is deeply rooted in traditional literature and Hollywood sagas — from the Greek myths to Dickens and Tolkien to “Star Wars.” And true to its roots, it ends not with modernist, “Soprano”-esque equivocation, but with good old-fashioned closure: a big-screen, heart-racing, bone-chilling confrontation and an epilogue that clearly lays out people’s fates. Getting to the finish line is not seamless — the last part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series, has some lumpy passages of exposition and a couple of clunky detours — but the overall conclusion and its determination of the main characters’ story lines possess a convincing inevitability that make some of the prepublication speculation seem curiously blinkered in retrospect. Harry’s journey will propel him forward to a final showdown with his arch enemy, and also send him backward into the past, to the house in Godric’s Hollow where his parents died, to learn about his family history and the equally mysterious history of Dumbledore’s family. At the same time, he will be forced to ponder the equation between fraternity and independence, free will and fate, and to come to terms with his own frailties and those of others. Indeed, ambiguities proliferate throughout “The Deathly Hallows”: we are made to see that kindly Dumbledore, sinister Severus Snape and perhaps even the awful Muggle cousin Dudley Dursley may be more complicated than they initially seem, that all of them, like Harry, have hidden aspects to their personalities, and that choice — more than talent or predisposition — matters most of all.Read full review
For those who are fans of Harry this book accomplishes in many respects the desired result of completing the series. Rowling did the best job she could in concluding the life and times of Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort and the rest of the Magical World. The book is well in keeping with the rest of the series. It will definitely delight readers and make people want to turn the page. I found throughout the series it was on some level perfectly believable that these people actually existed. That magic could be a part of the world and yet be kept from us Muggles. J.K. Rowling in her series did a great job invigorating not only the youth imagination but also in giving youth and adults a commonality that they could talk about. I argue that it is part in due to Rowling’s work that the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings was reinvigorated on such a global scale since both are some 70+ years old. I remember reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when I was a youngster some 25 years ago. As for the specifics of Deathly Hallows, this book was a little more predictable in many ways than the previous in the series. But it does more to explain the history of Lord V, Tom Riddle, Dumbledore, Harry's parents, and Snape. There is a lot of development around Harry, Hermione and Ron as a good deal of the time it is one, two or all three of them in some fashion or another. As with the previous books be prepared with a box of Kleenex nearby, as this is the book where the main battle commences. Somewhat of a SPOILER: In general I found that like many of the well written or scripted novels/movies, so much time is given up to character development, toils and action, leaving to what I can describe as only as a somewhat hasty conclusion. The conclusion of this basically equated to a "and they all lived happily ever after" except. This to me distracted from what I would argue was an incredibly well written series. It left me feeling a little cheated. It worked in that I'm not waiting on the edge of my seat for the next in the series, but at the same time it made me loose a little interest in anything Harry, which does not bode well for the movies. All in all I think that people will feel cheated if they do not finish the series and as such the Deathly Hallows is required reading and does an good job (just not excellent). I am glad I read it, but probably will not as I did with the previous novels read the story again.Read full review
The final book completing the Harry Potter series is full of suspense, fear, and hope. Remember what happened to Salman Rushdie? Well, if I divulge too much, other Harry Potter fans will come and get me. So here's what I can tell you without being fearful for my life. It's Harry vs. Voldemort, the final showdown. The wizard world is in turmoil and engaged in a very important battle for the future of wizard-dom and its reprocussions in the Muggle world. I won't tell you who wins, but it involves prophecies and serious detective work to find all the Horcruxes. It's the darkest and bloodiest book in the whole series. You WILL cry at the end, for what you'll have to find out for yourself. Now the book was amazing. The Afterword was not. It was trite and so annoying, something only my fourth-grade self would have written. That's why I gave The Deathly Hallows a "good" and not an "excellent." It leaves a nasty taste in your mouth. So here's my advice. Read the book. Then when you get to the Afterword part, put the book away! Enjoy it for about a day or two. Then read the Afterword part. This way, you'll enjoy the book apart from the sappy afterword. Two separate experiences and memories. This book is not meant for children. You can tell them the end, and spare them all the bloody details until they are more mature to read it. Do not read this in a public place! I read Half Blood-Prince at work and some idiot co-worker told me the ending, even though he clearly saw me reading it. If you choose to read it in public, like on the bus, hide the cover or put a fake cover over it. Just wanted to warn everybody about the afterword. In my opinion, that's the lowest point in J.K. Rowling's career.Read full review
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