reduced and recycled

I was planning on getting in line at 7.00am sharp in Carrefour, but I had other responsibilities (namely, pubbing of sorts) with a few pals. So it was at 5.00am yesterday that I thought I’d be able to get my copy of the seventh book in a month or two. I woke up twelve-ish and thought, why not give it a go? See if there’re still copies of the book for sale? So I made my way down to Carrefour, and there were still copies for sale! Got mine, got my mum’s godson a copy and rushed back home.

I finished the book at about 3.00am today, and then re-read the final few chapters again, not believing what I was reading. Was that all?! I’m not going to include spoilers, of course, but I must say, lots of loose ends get tied up. Lots. Stuff revealed in the Order of the Phoenix and in the Half-Blood Prince, and even stuff way back in the Philosopher’s Stone, get resolved. Lots of stuff. And for a book weighing in at 600+ pages, that’s a lot of stuff to squeeze in while including new plot points and such.

But it was rushed. The last few chapters were really rushed. I got the feeling that there could’ve been more exposition about a number of things. The climax was sudden and somewhat contrived, and the denouement that followed was quite unsatisfactory - there was, I felt, more to be said about what happens to everybody in the end.

Also, you know how books have an internal logic to them, right? Cause and consequence, that sort of thing, but quite a bit of that is missing in some parts, so that the explanations given appear to come out of nowhere. The plot could have focused more on the.. choices (and I’m flirting with spoilers here). I wish Rowling had developed that over the course of book six and seven, but sticking to the strictures of following school years sorta killed that.

Do characters die in the book? JK Rowling has said she’d be pretty ruthless about wiping them off, so.. well. There was this anonymous commenter going ’round leaking spoilers. So how right were the spoilers? I had a look again now that I’ve read the book and.. well. Hmmm.

So briefly: exciting in the beginning, bloody boring in the middle, super rushed toward the end. Leaves you wanting more. Or maybe that was the point.