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| Sunday, July 22, 2007 01:47 PM |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (SPOILERS) |
 by Fëanor |
Whited out for your protection. Highlight to read:
The book could also have been called Harry Potter and the OMG WTF KILL DEATH DEATH KILL, but I guess that didn't have the same ring to it. Seriously, Rowling let us know this time from about page 1 that the gloves were off and things were going to be serious and violent and major characters were going to die about every other chapter. So brutal! As I was reading (and I know other people had this experience as well) I found myself almost every other page yelling out a curse at some other horrific thing that had occurred. It seems like our heroes are constantly weaving their way in and out of terrible mortal peril and horrendous, seemingly dead-end situations. Of course, there were also moments when I hooted for joy, and other times that I just broke down crying. Hedwig was a tough blow right at the beginning, then I thought Hagrid was gone, too, and that was hard. Then I was sure Hagrid was dead again near the end of the book, before he suddenly appeared well and alive (is the guy invincible or what?!). It was hard to see Fred, go, especially since I love Fred and George so much, and they were so cool again in this book. But for some reason the deaths that hurt me the most were Dobby's, Lupin's, and Tonks'. This surprised me, as I really disliked Dobby quite a bit the first time he appeared, and Lupin and Tonks had never really been that important to me as characters. But I guess Dobby had grown on me, because I definitely shed a tear when he went down. And Lupin and Tonks' going crushed me, I think mostly because of the powerfully tragic parallels to Harry's own parents, dying and leaving their young child behind, and the fact that Harry was godfather to their child.
A couple of my favorite moments in the book had to do with Neville. I love the story he tells about the Death Eater going after his Gran, and what a bad idea that turned out to be. That woman is awesome. Then of course there's the scene where Neville steps neatly out of a binding charm, whips the sword out of the hat, and hacks Nagini's head off all in one motion, which was just about the most bad-ass awesome thing to ever happen in the history of the world.
Other moments that made me cheer: when Harry comes out from under the cloak and casts Cruciatus on that dumb-ass Death Eater who spit in McGonagle's face. I had so been waiting for Harry to cast a really serious curse like that on somebody. I can't tell you how satisfying that scene was to me.
Speaking of McGonagle, she's pretty awesome. It's cool every once in a while to get a description of a really serious wizard duel, and that's what we got when she finally went wand to wand with Snape. It was over in seconds, but so much crazy crap happened. Then, the Battle of Hogwarts in general was just an incredible sequence.
But besides the action and such, I was also really impressed with the powerful ideas Rowling was working with, and how subtely she managed to get them across. What further impressed me was the way she finally pulled everything together and made the whole series all make sense as one complete, interlocking story. This book is full of references to all of the others, and that's important, as everything connects back and makes sense. She's known where she was going, it seems, ever since page 1 of book 1, and that's just amazing.
Harry Potter's story is really, of course, the story of a boy becoming a man. Of a boy realizing what courage really is, what friendship and loyalty and love really are, what's really important in life, and what it means to truly face death. And, perhaps most importantly, of a boy realizing that everyone is human, everyone is flawed and vulnerable - even the parental figures he has revered and thought invincible - but everyone is worth trying to save. Which is why the fact that he casts a disarming charm that gives him away at the beginning of this book, and another against Voldemort at the end, is so important. Just as important as the mercy Bilbo shows Gollum in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
I suspect some will quarrel with, and call a cheat, the fact that Harry does not actually have to die at the end to make things right, but I am completely fine with it. What's important is that he was willing to face death, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. And his walk down to the forest and through it was incredibly well written and emotionally effective. And I think the explanation of the machinery of the magic that caused all that to happen makes its own kind of sense.
There are many great scenes and a lot of great dialogue in this book, but one little passage that particularly stood out for me is this one, spoken by Dumbledore: "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
Word.
And I'm out. |
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