Deathly Hallows Or a Book Full of Hollows?

Written on 12:47 PM by Unknown

On the night before July 21 dawned, I could not sleep properly. I thought of Nargles and Crumpled Horned Snorkbacks, of Puking pasties and Fanged frisbees, of Dobby and Kreacher, of Snape, Dumby, Ron, Hermione and finally Parry Otter - The Boy who Lived...and whether he would continue to live at the end of the 7th Harry Potter book.

I woke up at 7 am... hoping against hope that i would get the book by 8 o' clock. How sadly mistaken I was! Minutes glided into hours, and at 1 pm I emailed the customer care at IndiaPlaza.In - the online shop from where I had pre-ordered my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and asked when the hell were they planning to send the book! By 4 pm, I was getting pretty nasty and ill-tempered, I kept imagining the doorbell ringing in the back of my head. At 6pm, I sent another email to the customer care at Indiaplaza (they hadn't mentioned any phone no. on the site) and this time it was full of expletives and a threat to drag them to consumer court if I did not get the book by that day! And by 6:30 pm, when I had lost all hopes of reading Harry Potter 7 on July 21 - the doorbell actually rang! I rushed like a maniac, asked the 2 guys who had a grubby looking brown package in their hands...what kept them waiting?! I never bothered to listen to what they replied as I signed on the paper and grabbed that package! Opening it with all the wonder and excitement of an 11 year old, I couldn't stop staring at the cover for a full 2 minutes - I finally had it!

I read it continuously (except for a dinner break from 9 to 9:30 pm) and finished it at 11 am on 22nd July, 2007...phew! And now its time for the review, which was due for quite some days, but it took time for me to gather my thoughts...confused as I was about why I found the book below my expectations.

My Review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Beware of Spoilers if you haven't read it yet!

When I completed the book, I felt a sense of loss. Not exactly due to the half a dozen character deaths, but because I felt...cheated! Rowling seems to have rushed through writing this last book, and I wonder who put that sand timer on her head. The really good moments in the book were when we get to know about the real Severus Snape, the Gringotts heist and escape from the Malfoy Manor. Rowling does close a lot of loopholes in this book, but then she also disregards facts she has herself mentioned in interviews galore!

For example, I distinctly remember J.K Rowling saying in an interview that Ginny is a powerful witch and we will see her real power in the 7th Book. Oddly though, Ginny is completely sidelined in Deathly Hallows - her romance with Harry be damned! And I thought it was 'love' that the Dark Lord knew not, and which could help Harry vanquish him.

Ruhi writes on her blog that she's completely pissed with Rowling after reading Harry potter and the Deathly Hallows. Here's a small quote from her entertaining blog post:

"You tell us in the interview that Grindelwald is dead and then you bring him back alive? AND WHO THE FUCK IS THIS BARBAGE??!!! never heard of this teacher. I DIDN”T even feel sympathetic when she died. ACCIO HAGRID! ACCIO ROWLING!!! So that I can KILL HER!"

On Ruhi's later blog post the next day - Fond Memories with my Harry Potter (carpet) Book, I suggest you scroll down and read the comment posted by one Seraphella. It is amazing...quite similar to my own thoughts about Deathly Hallows, and which she expressed way better! Here's quoting from Seraphella's comment in case you feel to lazy to leave this page:

"Rowling has lost a fan in me. She believes this is her best work yet? It’s rushed trash. Sure it reads well, but it lacks the depth of the other novels. She’s made Harry go from mysteriously powerful young wizard to bumbling moron who only knows 5 spells. You’d think after 6 years in school, he’d have added a bit more to his repetoire. Even Crabbe pulls out a nice new spell while Harry runs around shouting the same old crap…”Stupefy! Accio! Expelliarmos! Protego!” The dialogue read like something I’d expect from a teenager or George Lucas. It was way too juvenile and cliche-ish. The blatant stupidity she showed in Malfoy’s cronies I guess a 4th grader might find amsing, I remember writing like that at that age, but I’d figure someone who’s had a bit of experience could have found a more literary and descriptive means of showing a character’s dimwittedness. Crabbe and Goyle were 17 during their dialogue…how many 17 year olds talk like toddlers?

The plot now…bah! Did she run out of material and decide to borrow some uncopyrighted ideas from fan-fictions? I can understand the Harry-Voldemort connection thing. I really can, but that was developed in book 4 and became way too obvious to use…or at least I’d have thought. Here everyone was thinking what a clever woman, spinning such a vivid and twining tale with complex themes and goals, but we were wrong. The plot, motives, the whole story ended up quite simple. "

Seriously, hers is more of an essay than a blog post comment! She writes further:

"Now to nit-pick…What’s with accomplishing major turning points in the tale without even bothering to show them, describe them and hardly mention them. In no particular order…Percy Weasley miraculously shows up and in 2 lines makes up with everyone and runs into battle. Umm…yeah. Let’s destroy the cup in the chamber of secrets but not tell us anything about what happened. Ron and Hermione just scamper off, come back and say “We destroyed it, your Turn Harry.” Mrs. Weasley somehow becomes a master duelist? Lupin and Tonks? Come on, if you’re going to remove some characters that had personality, at least tell us how it happened. The sword somehow made it back inside the hat? I figured that goblin would never have given it up. In the course of a year, Neville goes from bumbling idiot to heroic He-Man while the Hero Harry turns into a forgetful no talent puppet? Lily Potter had no friends even though she charmed everyone, and yet James had a million friends? I’m sure Lily must have had some friends who would have mentioned Snape’s friendship with her. I guess after his encounter with those brains in OTP, Ron has lost some brain power because he can’t tell the difference between a doe and a stag? Harry “defeats” Voldemorte and everyone has a party before burrying the dead? Two words…”Accio Hagrid?” Stan Shunpike a pimply nosed moron shows talent as a daeth eater? Hermione not only is a bookworm but can cast about 50 spells in rapid succession when she wants to, but can’t quite get a patronus to work when she needs to. Draco is no longer a pale skinned sly badass, he’s now a snivelling drippy noised sissy. Harry a parslemouth can’t tell when a snake is hiding in human clothes? I could keep going of course.

Now what are we missing from this book…
What did Harry’s parents do for a living…aside from hide inside a house and get themselves blownup? What happened to the Weasley’s car? What do Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, Ginny, Draco, and everyone else do now that Voldemort is dead? Who’s taking care of Teddy? What is the curtain in the department of mysteries? Does Umbridge ever die? What happens to Dung and Kreacher? Does Harry ever move in to #12 grimauld place? What happened to the Dursleys and the Grangers? Do Harry and Gang go back to school? How do we go from ignoring each other with Harry and Ginny to bam, 50 kids and married? Why is Ginny depicted as a baby factory? Wizard’s don’t know about birth control?"

Hats off Seraphella. Wish you also wrote your own blog, would have been an enjoyable read! Anyways, continuing back to our review, Deepti writes on her blog Swingingpuss.com something which bothered me most - the non-existent Harry-Ginny romance in this book. She writes and I quote again:

"Ginny was barely on Harry’s mind. Sure, he had Voldemort to deal with and all that shit with the Hallows and a two-timing Dumbledore but his love for Ginny barely crossed his mind. J.K. had conveniently sent Ginny abroad when the situation became volatile. Or how about the time Voldemort was finally defeated? wouldn’t any love-lorn boy want the girl of his dreams to be at his side when he received all the adulation and praise? Instead Harry was saluting the big ‘D’ for all that he had done.

As I read the book I found myself drawn towards the romance between Ron and Hermione whereas Harry’s love was rather limp and unexpressed.

Compare his love for Ginny to the love Snape had for Harry’s mother - Lily. It was the noblest kind of love where he tried to protect her son even at the cost of his own life. He remained true to the love he held dear in his heart since he was nine."

Folks, these 2 great ladies, nope 3 - how could I forget Seraphella! Ruhi and Deepti (the bloggers) and Saraphella (the commenter) really expressed what I actually thought of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I wish J.K Rowling could re-write this book...and take her own time writing it. No doubt it will set records again. 12 million copies for God's sake!

Posted in book review, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the deathly hallows |

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