The Deathly Hallows

It turns out the midnight rain didn't keep anyone away, and I had to stand in line for about an hour and fifteen minutes. But it was a good crowd, despite carloads of drunked frat boys driving past and yelling bad predictions.

** SPOILER WARNING ***
The seventh book is good. It was a little weird reading a Harry Potter book that doesn't follow the school-year timeline, where he isn't taking classes at Hogwarts, and with no Quidditch. But such are all coming-of-age and -identity stories.

I hated the epilogue. The book would have been fine without it. I fully realize I am projecting here, as the only unmarried, unpregnant sister in one family, but seriously, does life really not go on or have no meaning unless you get married to your high school sweetheart, have kids, and send them off to your alma mater/boarding school? It was way too cheesy for me, and ruined the effect of the last chapter. It was great to show main characters decades later, when they're in their 30s and not eternally teenagers; and I realize the importance of family (and friends) is so central to the Harry Potter stories, but come on, leave something to the readers' imaginations! It would have been great if the readers' expectations of characters changed with their own lives in the coming decades. But it's all spelled out though; so marry, procreate, and follow the patterns of previous generations we must. It's tradition. It's safe. But it's the same narrative cop-out of "And then they got married and lived happily ever after." Gack.

Other than the epilogue, the book is great. I knew Snape wasn't evil! (But then, didn't everyone?) And while I was reading Book Six, it crossed my mind that Harry was a Horcrux, but I pushed it aside as ridiculous. There were points when I sniffled and had to reach for a tissue, but it wasn't the sob fest that Book Six was!