Book Review @ soapcentral.com

I'd just like to say HAPPY NEW YEAR! to Everyone-Cowboys lost that sucks and I could go on a rant on how it's all Jessica Simpsons fault just to be funny, but I won't so like everyone else I'm going to do the SURVEY, and I ask what's your New Years Resolution? Do you have One? I don't.

Ok here we go/

What is your full name? I am not telling, my first name's Angela

 

Nickname? too many to name

 

Coke or Pepsi? Sprite,Dr.Pepper,or Creme Vanilla Coke

 

Favorite Song? Too many to mention, I love music in general

 

Earliest memory? Don't have one I tend to block a lot of things out

 

Milk Chocolate or Dark Chaocolate? Milk

 

Do You Recycle? Yes Alluminum cans and plastic

 

Big Mac or Whopper? Big Mac

 

Last Book You Read? Last book I completed reading was a book called Conspiracy by Aphrodite Jones

 

Beach or Mountains? I have to say mountains since I've never been to the beach

 

What kind of shoes are you wearing? I just took off my Uggs and put on my ugly Crocs

 

T.V or Book? Sadly I have 1 addiction and it's T.V

 

Favorite store? Any store that sells clothes or/and Jewelery

 

What was the last thing you ate? Cookies

 

Clean Freak or Total Slob? I'm Clean But I'm Not A Freak About It

 

Favorite Car? Jeep or Chevy

 

Best gift ever recieved? Puppy

 

Best gift you've ever given? 100$

 

Do you wish on Stars? Every night- witch proves it does'nt work

 

Ever been stung by JellyFish? NO

 

Best Cartoon Ever?Cartoon T.V Rainbow Bright,ScoobyDoo,Smurfs

 

What Scares You?Seriously-Failure-NotSoSeriously Spiders,Clowns,Sharks

 

Last Person You Spoke to? My Mom

 

Favorite Doughnut?Glazed

 

Stupidest thing You've ever done? Like right out of a cartoon I was running around my house searching for one of my many animals, and walked on the head of a shovel and it came straight up and hit me in the face knocking me back, and in a daze I again stepped forward and did it again, and I had a bloody nose for like an hour. I can't believe I just told that story.

 

Been to NYC? NO

 

Best sitcom ever? Friends, Fresh PrinceofBelAir,Grounded for Life

 

Been to LA? NO

 

Favorite place you've visited? Toas,NM

 

Least Fave Vegetable? ColliFlower

 

Dreamer or Doer? Both

 

One word to describe you? Fantabulous, and many other words

 

Name of very first friend? Nicki

 

I would change my first name to? I like my name

 

Night Light or Completely Dark? Pitch Black

 

Ever pull an all Nighter? Yes once could'nt do it again, I like sleep

 

Believe In Love At First Sight? I have'nt experienced it so no, Lust at first sight Yes

 

Best Pizza Topping? Pepperoni,

 

Ever owned a goldfish?No

 

Happy New Year!!!

 

What's Your Resolution?

 

 

 

The book series, anyway. You don't think I'd spoil the end of the book in my title, did you? Anyway, I finished it a few hours ago, and probably would have finished it a lot sooner without my overnight excursion to the casino. Stupid friends celebrating birthdays at silly places.

So, what did everyone think?

Now, I'm not a wand-waving, fanfic reading, super crazy fan of the Harry Potter series. In fact, I still haven't seen the latest movie, but I think that fans of virtually every facet of the series are probably going to be pleased with the endings and happenings for their favorite characters and relationships. I mean, unless you're just rooting for Voldemort to kill them all, in some sort of great, tragic ending.

So, my rambling, point form, notable points review of the happenings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

(Here be spoilers!)

- The book starts off with what is essentially a pretty exciting conundrum of what to do as Harry approaches his 17th birthday and the protective charm on the Dursley's house executed by his mother is lost. With the Death Eaters power ever increasing, and the Order of the Phoenix notably weaker without Dumbledore, it was suitably sticky, and it gave us, I think, the nicest possible "in character" ending for the Dursleys, where we find out that, disconcertingly for them, somehow, overtime, they did grow some affection for their odd relation Harry. That's all they really factor in, except for a little, unexpected cameo at the end by Petunia, and while it would have been interesting to have them figure in somehow in the end, or have some sort of follow up, I feel that Rowling did such a good job following up and including everyone else, that I have no beef about it.
- First casualty of the book: RIP Hedwig. *sniff*
- Second casualty of the book: RIP Mad Eye. Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers just don't have a long shelf life.
- Neat cameo: Stan Shunpike.
- Then the book slows down....way down...and we get into Bill and Fleur's wedding, aka "neat plot device to throw all kinds of characters together"...because everyone shows up at a wedding. People like Victor Krum, and Luna Lovegood and her father Xenophilias (coolest name EVER), and Elphias Dodge, who happened to know Dumbledore very well. That's what I convinced myself it was, because I am convinced that no one truly gave a damn about Bill and Fleur's relationship or whether they got married or fell off a cliff. The important theme that's sown here is Harry's growing mistrust of Dumbledore, which I thought was a neat inclusion into the book on a few levels. As a reader, it's great to see this venerable character degenerate before your eyes. Six books of thinking Dumbledore is the greatest, and you thought his part of the story was over...and then...not so much. For Harry, losing faith in his mentor is a great "coming of age" theme. And lastly, it keeps Dumbledore, a much loved and important character, in the story even after he dies.
- Other than that, it's slow getting to that all important journey. It's nice to see the Weasley's...but FINAL BOOK...move it along. Yeah, yeah...Harry digs Ginny. We know. I don't know...I'm not the biggest fan of Harry and Ginny. They seem...without substance. Other than that, the only thing of note is what was bequeathed to our trio of heroes by Dumbledore's will: Ron gets a deluminator, Hermione gets a children's storybook in runes (Hermoine gets a book! Surprise!), and Harry gets his first snitch...and supposedly the sword of Godric Griffindor, which the Ministry nixes, saying it wasn't Dumbledore's to give. It's a standard tactic in any sort of fantasy adventure book. These are your heroes. These are the cool new tools they will suddenly find themselves needing in the book. Have fun trying to guess what they're for.
- Then, you'd think the adventure would pick up. But...it doesn't. Not really. There are quite a few chapters of Harry, Hermione, and Ron sort of fiddling about, not really sure of what to do, but on their own, and I suppose it helps create that necessary "internal tension" between "our heroes", and establish that whole "the path doesn't always run smoothy" mentality, it does drag a little, and you start becoming impatient for all three to just figure it the hell out already. There's a nice bit of a turn with Kreacher the house elf that was entertaining, but it didn't last.
- A little trip to the ministry relives nicely and lets you say goodbye to all of your favorite inner workings of the ministry. Dolores Umbridge plays her own sweetly nasty role, and we're treated to a little reminder of the Percy Weasley tension.
-Ron leaves...which I thought was interesting. Ron's the loyal sidekick buddy...they NEVER leave, and it was odd for Harry and Hermione to be all by their lonesome for so long, but I'm sure that was a nice shout out to the Harry and Hermoine shippers, who will no doubt be writing "long lost night in a tent" passion fanfics for years to come.
- Ron comes back, and has his loyal sidekick's kickass day in the sun, where he gets to dawn the UBERCOOL weapon and slay something, and save Harry's life, and generally show what a cool guy he is afterall. For Ron fans, I think this is his climax, and it occurs early in the book, but at least it get things going again, and Ron has to face all of his internal struggles with being overlooked by his family for Harry, and his deepseated (but mistaken) belief that Harry comes first for everyone: his friends, his family, Hermione. It's sort of standard, and cliche, but still enjoyable. I almost wish that Dumbledore had bequeathed Ron the sword instead.
- There's a nice trip to Luna's house, with some general absurdity, a really, almost harrowing conclusion, and just a really sweet, touching moment where Harry gets to see Luna's room, and I thought that little inclusion was just wonderfully brilliant and telling about Luna. Luna has a fairly big part for a school chum of Harry's in this book, and I was surprised at how much I really grew to like her.
- A brief plot device trip to the Malfoy mansion reminds us who all of the bit players on the evil side are. A little bit of redemption for the Malfoys in the final book, I thought, as less mean-spirited, and more just people who wanted their family to be successful, and ended up getting over their heads. Draco's fear of Lord Voldemort shows that he's not truly evil, and Narcissa's concern for her son really redeems the family unit on a whole. Again, nice wrap up. I think Rowling does a wonderful job with all of her minor character round-ups.
- Dobbie the house-elf makes a surprise (for me!) but rather touching cameo.  I cried.
- Bill and Fleur are used again in another one of those odd gatherings of people so that Harry can learn information. Ollivander shares wand lore. Harry meets a goblin who can get him into Gringotts (to look for a horcrux) but with a price. While I suppose it's cool that Harry and company robbed the wizarding bank and stuck it to the man, what we're really all waiting for at this point is for Harry to return to Hogwarts so that we can find out what happens to our favorite minor characters. We DO!
- Neville. GREAT ENDING. We find that in Harry's wake, Neville has shown his true Gryffindor colors, and even has a VERY important part in the final battle which I think is satisfying for those who wanted Neville to play a bigger part because of the prophecy.
- The Weasleys all play a heavy part in the battle, even Percy, and pay a hefty price, but great to see them all in action, particularly Mrs. Weasley, whom we all secretly suspected was fierce.
- Wonderful cameos from Dumbledore's Army. Dean. Cho. Lee. Luna. Padma. Pavarti. Seamus. Katie Bell. Angelina Johnson. etc.
- The professors...were a little short changed, but had their day in the sun. I was most interested in McGonagall, being my perennial favorite, and she had her take charge moment, and her kickass magic moment, and her emotional moment...I just felt there could have been some kind of bigger turn for her character. Flitwick, Slughorn, and Sprout also make their cameos, but the best one, for me, was Trelawney, who proves that crystal balls are useful after all. :)
- The Order has a rather dark ending, I think. Remus, in particular, had a weird turn that never felt right in the book, but, I understand after reading the book that he really needed to end the way he did to finalize the story of the Mauraders, and that era in Magic history, and it's not necessarily a sad one until you take the events of the book as far as he's concerned into account.
- Snape, I think, had the most surprising ending for me, just because of Rowlings comments about him in interviews, that the readers aren't supposed to like him, or feel pity for him. But really, I think she was trying to bluff a little to be misleading, otherwise she's really genre blind when it comes to her audience, because aside from children of the right age, her larger market are the fantasy readers of the world, and believe me, there are a lot of Snapes in that population. I really like that they go back and lay Snape's mindset from the get go and walk us through and leave no stone unturned, and it really works for Snape as a character, I find.
- The end? Fanficatiously shmaltzy? Yes. Maybe a little overdone? Yes. Fitting end to the series? Absolutely. Absofreakinglutely and for every character, a fitting, fitting end that will, no doubt leave fans of all the characters very, very, happy.