#156 J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[bellinghman]

J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hardcover: 607 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury; Children's edition (21 Jul 2007)
ISBN-10: 0747591059
ISBN-13: 978-0747591054
Category(ies): Fantasy

Is there anything else that can be said at this point? Probably not. After some thousands of pages, the Harry Potter series finishes. Most of the plot points get wound up, though even with just over 600 pages, not everything gets tidied away. There's an epilogue which seems tacked on as much as anything, and could have been left out entirely for all the good it does.

And that perhaps reflects the problems with the series. JKR managed to ignite a phenomenal following with the series, somehow coming up with a perfect mixture of fantasy with the everyday world of school. But an everyday that was itself fantastical. In the end, the whole plot arc mostly works - knowing what was going to happen right from the start helped - but her ambition perhaps surmounts her abilities. A more experienced writer would have better understood economy in the telling. I do rather hope that her readers will now start to look for something else, and stumble over those lesser known but better writers who will properly challenge them. If that happens, then JKR's legacy will one to envy.

The series finally concludes.

Comments

[k425.livejournal.com]

I think the epilogue was a good idea. Without it, she'd've spent the next 20 years fielding the same HP questions - what happened to Hermione, Ron and Harry? Did Hermione and Ron get together? What happened to other characters? Did they live happily ever after?

It's a children's book, and children often want the ends tied up. That's what she did.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I dunno.

The end of the story had worked quite well. The epilogue deflated any remaining tension, and felt lame and clunky. Sure, kids will want to know what happens afterwards, but this? It just didn't work.

Meh - it's pointless getting too wound up. HP isn't awful, it isn't genius, it's something in the middle that just happened to end up in the middle of a hurricane of hype.