35) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

Well, it was a fiver from the local ASDA; so although I tried to think of something else, I bought it and read it.

I liked it more than I expected to. I thought that, with the exception of the very last expository section of What Snape Was Really Up To, Rowling kept up the narrative pace very well. With the first significant death so early in the book (never mind Mad-Eye Moody, I am referring to poor Hedwig), it becomes clear that we are playing for keeps, and that the body count is going to soar; as indeed it does. If you have managed to avoid the spoilers, there is a real suspense about who is going to live and who will die. We know this is the last book; how final will the ending be?

While this is not Great Literature, it would be churlish not to acknowledge that the characters have matured and deepened as the books have gone on. The Harry/Ron/Hermione dynamic is particularly attractive; but we also have a fair amount of parenting going on – the Weasleys, the Malfoys, Lupin and Tonks – of course, much less of this book was set in Hogwarts than the previous volumes, so there is more scope for it.

claims that many of the plot elements had been done before and better in fanfiction. Perhaps I should read more fanfiction. This will, of coutrse, remain the canonical version.
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