**DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS
Introduction and Acquisition: Needs no introduction. Acquired the day of its release, though I waited until a sober hour of 9am, rather than participate in the frenzy of its midnight release. Barnes & Noble on Austin Street, in line behind the other three dozen non-costumed fans.
Time and Circumstance: Day of release, summer of 2007. I made a point of setting aside the entire weekend for the read, giving my husband much advanced notice. Aside from a couple of minor breaks and one quick lunch breaks, read the whole thing through. Finished at 8pm the same night.
What's cool: Oh golly, where to start? The satisfying, epic ending which, if I would have given JKR any credit at all, should have been quite obvious. She did not plan a minor children's story, she planned your classic, historic, mythological ending. Three heartful cheers for Rowling. The Deathly Hallows mystery unfolded nicely. I loved her bringing back all of the best loved characters, like Oliver Wood, into the final Hogwarts frey. Loved the turnabout of Kreacher, and of the Malfoys, and admittedly the redemption of Snape. Ah, the power of love is alive and well in book 7. Loved how Harry continued to be shocked and surprised by the amount of support all the way through the end. Really loved the fleshing out of Dumbledore in all his flaws - nice twist there near the end, and I felt my heart drop when I thought "oh my god she's really going to kill Harry off! I hate her!"
What kinda sucks: Some of the beloved characters she killed off, including Hedwig (so messed UP!) and unbelievably, Fred. She proved her balls when she killed off half the twins. Also, the plot did get a little confusing, and while I think I followed her logic in killing but not killing Harry off, I'm not sure if I might have just injected my own two cents into it or not. Some of the middle parts, where HR & H were off on their woodsy adventures, dragged a bit. And then some of the parts that was supposed to shake off their draggedness where they got ambushed again and again were too similar, too cookie cutter. I was expecting her to do more with Ginny than just keep her as the muse. Why indicate the girl's extraordinary powers then shove her into the maiden in distress box? Oh, and hated the last epilogue chapter. Hated it. I can understand more now of why it was put in, but it sounded more like fanfic than Rowling herself. Too many jumbled names, I couldn't keep track of who belonged to who.
Leftover Thoughts: Entirely and surprisingly satisfying ending. Harry's story is nothing less than the counterparts to those of Luke Skywalker and Frodo Baggins, yet contributes a set of unique characters and imaginary worlds.
And like the Star Wars and LOTR universes, it's been left wide wide open for a plethora of stories to emergy, whether from her or from the millions of worldwide fans. I hope she comes out with an encyclopedia.
