So the saga ends at
last! Got the book on the morning of the 21st and finished it on the
same day (good thing I did so – all the stupid news channels were blaring out
plot spoilers before the end of the day!!!) Generally I would have written a
review immediately but this time I felt waiting a little for my euphoria to
subside would let me be a little more objective (just a littleJ)
in my review.
Before I begin my
review let me make it very clear that I do not consider this book a literary
classic (I tend to get bored by themJ)
For me this is a children’s book which can be read by all ages.
This is the last of
a seven book journey and the last three books had left a lot of questions
unanswered and plot twists unexplained – all of which were to be answered in
this book. In many ways the book has been a success in this respect. As far as I
can see most plot points have reached logical (as logical as a fantasy world can
be) endings. In this respect it leaves one feeling satisfied. The caveat here is
that this book is pretty much useless if one has not read the preceding tomes.
One could pick up “The Prisoner Of Azbakan” and enjoy the book even if they had
not read the first two books. This is not possible with this book, and rightly
so, after all it was not intended to be read in exclusion.
I found the speed
of the book interesting. Days and minutes pass by very quickly and are full of
action, almost like an episode of “24”. However I felt that the story itself was
not moving at a very fast rate and did not feel taut. While I did find the story
interesting it was not epic. There were many times during my reading when I
could easily take a break with no hurry to get back to the story. This is one
reason I am still ambivalent about how to rate this book.
Central characters
have been fleshed out well but only to a limit. The focus has been on action and
events rather than people. Everyone does get a speaking part though and there
are deaths galore for one to weep through. Harry, has thankfully, moved on from
being a whining character that he was in the last two books. After a long time
Harry, Hermione and Ron have a large share of the story and I was happy to see
that this has been handled in an admirable manner by J.K.Rowling. In this aspect
it felt more like the earlier books than the latter ones of the series.
The story itself is
quite involved and complicated. However I would not rate it as the best of the
seven books. The saving grace was that it was not a dud, and as I had pointed
out earlier it brought the series to a good landing, so I guess I should be
happy about it. If we were to compare this book to movies the first half would
be like Indiana Jones while the latter half would be like a Die Hard movie. I
cannot really say more without giving away the plot details. The ending of the
book itself was well handled for a children’s book and left me very content.
One might get
irritated that I keep harboring on how I appreciate the way this book provides
closure for the series but I cannot stress this enough. There have been many
runs of creative serial outputs like movies, comics and books where the series
starts with a bang, branches into complicated by-lanes and loses the whole plot.
This book does a stellar job of tying in all other books of this series which
will make the Harry Potter franchise everlasting.
So for people who
have not yet been frustrated by my rambling on and on, the short review is:
Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows is not the best Harry Potter book there is, yet it is a very
good book in its genre. What makes it indispensable to Harry Potter fans is that
it provides the right closure to the tale of an orphan that we all had fallen in
love with.
Go and buy itJ
P.S: The book is
too pricey in my humble opinion.