HP Review from a pop culture perspective
Almost Perfect: A Review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
If you love action, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the novel for you. The book is as action-packed as any John Grisham or Tom Clancy thriller. War, mayhem, and death haunt every page – unfortunately, sometimes the death of a character we really care about.
Speaking of character, readers who relish character development, what writers call “arc,” will be happy as well. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have grown and matured since we first met them in volume one.
However powerful the characters, however superb the suspense, the action, the tension, I do have two problems with this the alleged last book in the Potter series (I just can’t help but suspect yet another sequel).
The first problem I had was with the neat wrap up, the here’s-their-lives-for-the-next-couple-of-years ending. I expected a writer of J.K. Rowling’s caliber to be more subtle, most sophisticated, more masterful. A young reviewer for The Telegraph, Mimi Newman writes, “By the final chapter Rowling has created the perfect balance of sadness and triumph. But then she ruins it...by summing up the entire future of characters in a few pages. It seemed like Rowling cared more about finishing the book rather than finishing it well. This cheesy conclusion ruins the atmosphere of the entire book and the hurried manner it is done in only angers me more. The final segment of the book feels added, as if joined on at the last minute and really should never have been there.” I quite agree.
The second problem I have is with what I like to call the “info dump” that occasionally appears in the Rowling epic. As New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani points out, “Getting to the finish line is not seamless…[the story] has some lumpy passages of exposition and a couple of clunky detours.” Indeed. In her effort to tie up loose ends, Rowling loses a feeling of what I can only describe as "the organic wholeness" of some of her other books.
I might also warn parents of younger muggles reading this text. The Deathly Hallows is a dark and dire and desperate book. Some of the supporting character arcs are not for the better, and the pages are laced with maiming, torture, and death. Beware of putting these pages into the hands of your youngest unless you want to be up all night soothing away nightmares and scaring away bogey monsters lying in wait in closets and under the bed.
All that being said, I have no doubt that Rowling’s series will live on with such immortal master works as the C.S. Lewis series, the Tolkien series, even the Star Wars franchise. I also suspect a spin-off series of books involving the children of our heroes. I must admit I'd be the first in line to see that. A liitle Hermione junior. Are you kidding me? I can hardly wait.
August 2007
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