Customer Reviews
Stephen Fry is amazing !! - By: Teresa Thomson, 03 May 2008 
I knew the story was fabulous but it was made even better by Stephen Fry. He is amazing. He brings alll the characters to life & uses so many different voices - excellent - give the man an oscar.
Brilliant!!! - By: Ms. S. King, 01 May 2008 I have to say that I actuallly bought this & read it on the day it come out & it was well worth the wait! The twist with snape & dumbledore was magnificent & things are tied up in this book that have left us wondering throughout the last ones! Why do people slag this book off I dont know - I think its because people werent actuallly expecting the books to end & were hoping she would keep them going- you could write more off this book though as we could start having books written about harrys parents or children so its not closed off yet! Definitely recommended!
Now the hype has died down a bit... - By: Summerfox, 29 Apr 2008 
...it's time to take another look at the book.
The things that still upset me the most about the last book in the series is that firstly, compared to the first five books, it's so poor, & secondly, the character assassination. The Snape, Harry, Hermione, Lupin & Tonks would never behave in the shalllow, nasty way they were portrayed to in DH. I never liked the idea of Snape-loved-Lily & hoped so much JKR would not take this cliche route, not least to have it as the SOLE reason Snape was a 'good guy'. Let's face it, he reallly believed in blood superiority for every other person but some girl he had a crush on. Regardless of cruel upbringing, that's just not a nice trait. He was always vindictive, spiteful & bitter rather than a complex anti-hero who made the right decision in spite of suffering.
Lupin, a good, brave, caring character, suddenly chooses to abandon his wife & child. The whole relationship set-up was shoddy anyway, making the strong Tonks into a clingy, moping waif. Like many other Harry Potter relationships, it seemed based more on lust (or resignation in Lupin's view, perhaps) than genuine love.
Hermione's potential is wasted on a boy who's mocked & misunderstood her the whole series, & in a job she previously thought unworthy of her. Talk about lowering one's ambitions. If JKR was insistant on pushing the relationships, they should have been made realistic & the partners made equal. Instead Ron becomes a whiny, spoilt child who encourages Harry to seduce his sister, & Ginny, after 'giving herself as a birthday present to Harry' (you couldn't make this up...oh. Wait.), vanishes from the story almost entirely. Given the Weasleys are apparently JKR's favourite characters, many of their reoccuring characters at the last read as so flat, impetuous, needlessly nasty & unpleasant that it's near-impossible to like them. Percy might get redeemed, but the 180 flip his character does in order to do so is almsot as annoying as if he'd turned out to be evil. Molly is a murdering harridan. The only vaguely likeable Weasleys either barely appear or pointlessly die.
Gratuitous torture & deaths (don't tell me Hedwig's death 'represented Harry entering adult life' or some such nonsense, & as for Fred...name out of a hat, much?), Unforgiveables being fine when the good guys use them (Harry? Molly? Oh, it's OK for them!), unresolved plotlines (Scrimgeour? What was the point there? The Veil? Fawkes?), historical comparison & metaphor carried FAR too far, the strange & frankly unnecessary epilogue which obviously covered so little of what was intended that JKR has to keep issuing further information regarding the characters' futures (so much for leaving something to the imagination), chapters of pointless exposition & leaps of illogical madness: such is the end to the series.
Admittedly the Harry Potter series was intended as a children's series, but many of the earlier books involved such interesting charcaters & plots that adults enjoyed them too. To be so let down in the final chapters is disappointing & irritating, when it could have been so much better. I have genuinely read better fanfic than this. Perhaps the saddest thing of alll is that there the size of the book could have covered alll the things that needed to be covered. It just didn't.
Not that there weren't a couple of good points, in a way. Neville was good, & gained some development & heroism. 'Potterwatch' was cute. Narcissa Malfoy, interestingly, was about the only character I personallly came out of the book with any respect or liking for. The wedding was sweet, & Fleur & Bill a likeable couple...but these were just too few & far between.
Ah well, it was good while it lasted...until book 5, perhaps.
Really Bad ending - By: Fatty, 27 Apr 2008 
The ending was so bad i could have died. No idea what tht was about. The begining was good. Overalll it thought it was a bit stupid but entertaining. I would probs read it again & i recommend it. xxx
Best of the lot - By: Mr. Stephen J. Yates, 23 Apr 2008 When I read the book (when it came out), I REALLY enjoyed it alll! Shame the series has had to come to an end, but it had to end one day. I'm not much of a reader, but I enjoyed this book & the previous 6 in the series. Would recommend this to any HP fan, (if they have read alll the other 6 books).
