the book gets a 3 from me just because i was one of those people that always thought Dumbledore was a manipulative douche, and it made me cheer to see JKR actually make him that way, well except for that whole Kings Cross thing.

it wasn't spectacular but it managed to hold my interest for a better portion of the book, thats more than I expected.

3/5

 

3.5/5 for me, that rounds up to a 4/5 on the poll.

I detested a few pieces, such as Ginny and that ever accursed epilogue, but on the whole I found the book to be slightly surprising. I thought one of the 'Trio' would bit the bullet for one, but instead Dobby died.
The Hallows themselves were a bit cliche but I didn't expect them so thats a plus, I seriously thought she would have Harry go out in a blaze of glory and have both Harry and Voldemort die off. Or if Harry didn't die, at least lose his magic abilities. That ending was a bit unique for the typical British fantasy, at least from my experience.
Neville was far from the blubbering mess he was in the first book, I found that to be an improvement. I don't usually like J.K's work but she at least developed Neville nicely over time.
I think that reading fanfiction spoiled the books for us a bit, so many people kept coming up with these same but irritating ideas, and then we find that those same ideas are actually in the books. Still perfer fanfiction though.

 

You know that it's bad when the romance between Ginny and Harry isn't even the worst thing about the entire story.

It's a 2/5 for me.

Redeeming factors are few but I especially liked the Death Eater's taking over the entire Ministry though it makes you wonder why Voldemort didn't do this earlier. I liked that they used past characters or minor characters a bit more like Neville, Umbridge etc.

And as for the bad... Well basically everything that I have to say has been stated already.

 

No, you're not. While it's true I've read far better things, and the earlier books were better, I enjoyed it too.

 

...my god. He named his kids James, Lilly, and Albus Severus Potter. The fuck is wrong with her. Has she been reading the fanfics written by fangirls all this time and decided to write one of her own.

I gotta thank you cucio for that review link. rep for you. I'm not gonna touch the book at all. Hell no. Since my sister just bought the book i'm gonna burn it on my back yard with a friend laughing in glee...after she finishes reading the book. Don't want to get in trouble ya know. lol.

 

An excellent idea, too. After Dragonlance pretty much everything will appear well-written

 

Ok, not quite what i was expecting but on reflection the best we were probably going to recieve from jk. She still considers it a kids book so while we would love harry to get totally bad ass and torture all the death nibblers into insanity you know deep in your heart it wasn't going to happen.

Now its out we can all bitch about it and go away and write better endings.

Cheers,

NLK

 

I'll go 2.5/5 and round down to 2/5 for the poll because I actually had some expectations and it was woefully short.

Instead, all I found was cliched mediocrity. At least she didn't go the route of leatherhotpantsDraco, so there are a few saving graces.

The action scenes lacked any punch. Forget H/G and R/Hr! The only 'ship' this thing really resembled was the Titanic. Far to much exposition and back story in the final chapters and not enough climax.

I will thank JKR for creating this world and introducing us to it - much like Hagrid introduced Harry to the Magical World. She showed us her brilliant idea and as time wore on and the books got larger and larger it seemed that she had hit her peak somewhere about the end of book 4. It seemed to go all downhill from there.

Jim

 

Was anybody else wondering how Neville was able to get the sword from the hat? I thought Griphook had it and he's unlikely to leave it lying without protective spells on it that prevent summoning of all things.

The fact that it just tumbles out of a burning sorting hat was far too convenient.

 

For a fanfic, I'd probably go 3-3.5.

Since this is the real thing, I'll go 2-2.5.

I wonder how many Portkey.org folks are already starting on their book 7 correction stories starting with Ron going awol... Harry and Hermione alone for weeks . . . Maybe that was her way of making things up to the folks on that site?

I didn't like the Ministry going out with a whimper. It was worse than those scenes where someone runs into #12 and tells everyone that they broke everyone out of Azkaban. The scavenger hunt thing has been done better in several stories. I'd have rather seen some of all those pages dedicated to filling in the backstory to justify the actions of SS and DD, redirected to a better battle scene for Hogwarts.

There were a few good scenes that I've seen so far, but not enough to really overcome the tedious nature of the rest of the book. The plot holes were far too numerous.

The only thing I've really enjoyed so far was Kreacher.

Jim

 

I gave it a 3/5.

It would have been 1/5 if it wasn't for McGonagall casting an Imperius curse...

 

The hat of Gryff, the sword of Gryff, snake-killer extraordinaire. It has happened before in book 2, so I see it consistent. Much better than Ron beatboxing parseltongue. Wonder if a soft fart would do the trick too?

 

I hate Ginny-Sue, and this book gave me no reason to think otherwise. So much for JK's posit that Ginny is a powerful witch. It's called SHOW, not TELL.

Ron, of course, continued to be a complete waste of space. I don't think there's a character in this fandom I hate more than him.

Harry, didn't deserve to win. Hell, he didn't deserve to live. I hate the complete lack of magical talent and skill that he has exhibited. His only true ability is massive massive luck.

But there are kudos for showing Dumbledore to be a manipulative douche. And at least we didn't get the fangirl Harry is Snape's son, bullshit.

Oh, and fuck Molly Wobbles.

Edited to add, that review, is the best thing ever. That person should write for TelevisionWithoutPity.

 

I think your being to harsh on it, after reading through fro 8 hours straight I don't feel any less slighted for it. Parts of it made me wince, Kretcher, the whole prince chapter and the epiolog. Then the rest of the story was fairly interesting and rewarding. I think that after reading so much otherwise wonderful fiction, and not so wonderful, we were looking for something that was perfect, and JKR seems to have written much of her stories before the fans got a hold of them, we smelled out the final ending as soon as Mr. Lovegood, awful name by the way, mentioned them. Its a fun and well written story, that fact that you can't get any enjoyment out of it is unfortunate but then again she wrote it for a 12 year old.

 

I gotta agree on that. Kreacher was awesome.

 

Okay, I am only about halfway through the book and I am already thinking about burning it.

I pains me to read it knowing that Harry will beat the most powerful wizard in the world in some bullshit manner. And then I have that wonderful epilogue to look forward to.

The person I hate the most in this book is Hermione. If I see one more fucking time her say to Harry "You need to close the connection, you must learn Occlumency" I am going to go insane. She has ultimately took the place as the most nagging, repetitive person in bookdom.

Another thing about Hermione, is it me or does the bitch has a fucking spell for every situation they get into? We need warding spells, she knows them; we need to charm a bag to hold a shit load of stuff; she knows them; Harry can't untie the chains on that lady; she can do it. It seems every time they get into some jam or need something done she has the answer, while Harry sits back and looks impressed.

The only thing I look forward to is the backstory of Dumbledore.

So, yeah, 0/5 as the real thing. If it was a fanfiction I would say 3/5 possible 4. I am really disappointed with JKR, you have no idea how much I want to write to her and just rant about how much bullshit she shoveled in the last 2 books.

 

2/5
I think JKR copy and pasted everything from all of the shittiest plotlines she could find, fixed the grammer, and made this book. Everything in this book has been done by so many FF authors that everyone with a brain, meaning people on this site, could spot where almost everything was going as soon as it was mentioned. And now for the list of crappy things:

1. Harry's only magical powers are those of luck
2. Half the time he was pining for Ginny, wheres a sick icon when i need it?
3. Ginny. Enough said.
4. He can't spend any of the year or so it took to find all the horcruxes to learn a decent spell or two, hell even Crabbe new a more powerful spell than Harry did!
5. Again WTF he kills the most powerful wizard of the century with a fucking fourth year spell, did he learn nothing else. Yes he did use two unforgiveables whoo .
6. Ron. Enough said.
7. Molly Weasley kills the best dueler on the Dark side??? Riiiiight
8. Talk about anticlimatic final duel, I half expected Voldemort to off him while he was talking.
9. Wow in the headmasters office I half expected the pictures to nominate Harry next headmaster of hogwarts, just to finish off all of the cliches.
10. I ran out of things, but there are more I'm sure.

 

Meh. I'd like it as fanfiction but I expected more, for some stupid reason, from the actual seventh book. 4.5/5 when I thought it was fake, 3/5 now. This is including the epilogue.