This morning I got up at 4:30 am (I know. 4:30 am. Ridiculous), and, together with jezzabe and stick_around, made my way to Borders in the city. We met up with Dee there, and spent the next few hours laughing, eating too many McDonald's hash browns and trying to avoid those pesky television cameras (I don't really want my workmates to know how I spent my Saturday morning, kthnx).

We walked out of there, clutching our copies of the last book in our sweaty little hands at 7:10 am (no love to the guys outside who shouted spoilers at us as we left), then we came back to Dee's place, and we've been reading ever since.

The other three are still going; I just finished.


Many people have said things far more eloquently than I could ever hope to. Firstly, though, I enjoyed this book. I thought it was a great read, and she finally got her pacing sorted out. I disliked Half Blood Prince - it was very much a 'wait-and-see' book, with all the real action happening at the end.

The epilogue. Well. I can see why she put it in. Did I think it was unnecessary? Yes. I dislike being told what to think. I hate it even more when an author does it in that way, by tagging something on in a manner that seems like an after-thought. I'd rather be left to imagine on my own what happened next, kthnx. (Although YAY for Neville becoming the Herbology teacher!).

I'm still not dealing with Snape's death. It seemed horribly sudden, although it became clearer as you read further, and I could see how she set up for it. (Randomly, the Snape/Lily shippers must be doing dances of glee right about now - and we finally realise why, exactly, that memory was so important to Snape that he didn't want Harry to see it). So, although I didn't agree with it, I can kind of understand why she felt killing him off was necessary.

But Remus and Tonks? Jesus, woman. We get that war is a terrible, terrible thing. We get that there is senseless violence and that innocent people die, and that people we have grown to love and genuinely care about die. We get it. But to kill them like that? That was very uncool and not on. Why Remus? That was Harry's last father figure there, that was. I was so astonished by their deaths that I didn't even pick it up on the first read - I had to flip back and reread it to make sure that what I thought had just happened had actually happened.

That makes me angry.

There was a lot about the book that I liked. I liked Ron a lot - he seemed to have grown up a fair bit. And the twins are always love (I cried over Fred. Fred and Snape were the two deaths that I cried over). McG. Even though we only saw her briefly at the end, and even though she was only a tiny part of the Hogwarts defenders? I fucking love that woman. Wormtail not being fully redeemed. Neville!! The radio program, with "Rapier". The registry for Muggle-borns and all it implied.

On the other hand, though, I disliked the sudden character changes. Mrs Weasley taking down Bellatrix? Percy suddenly becoming redeemed and coming home to the heaving bosom of his family to fight on the 'good' side in the final battle? Can someone hand me a bucket, please? The sword suddenly appearing when it was needed most (Can anyone else say "It fell through the gaping plothole!"). Draco and his henchmen knowing instinctively where Harry and the others were going. Dumbledore. What the fuck did she do to Dumbledore? Even his explaination at the end didn't do much to make me feel much better about it.

Anyway. Generally, I liked it. I thought it was a pretty good ending to the series, and certainly much better than the travesty of fan-fiction that was Half-Blood Prince.