I just finished the book right now. The story was very simple. I was very dissapointed the way in which Harry triumphed over Voldemort. There was too much pointless diologue between them. It was about as sickening has "you can never feel love, and I envy you" from the most recent movie. I also didn't appreciate how the minor characters such as the professors played in a fight against Volde. Dumbledore is portrayed much differently then he ever has. Dumbledore is portayed the way Harry sees him (which is the authors new view on him). He is now seen as selfish, weak, doubtful and also even as an antigonistic character. Harry's mentor was planning for him to die throughout the entire story (although it is a nice twist). Dumbledore forces Snape to sacrifice him so that he would not be "played around with" before they killed him, a very selfish act, just has he has always planned Harry to sacrifice himself. He is seen as a great man in the earlier books to this asshole in DH.

I thought it was a simple story beautifully and carefully written. Lord Voldermort could never have won because he had never felt the love Harry had from all around him and was therefore scared to die! Harry never was...

Harry did not die in the forbidden forest, he had a near death experience and chose to come back instead of continued following the light to a new dimension!

When a person approaches very close to death as Harry did, he/she can choose whether to go further to other realms or to return back to earth. I guess all of you heard of clinical deaths when persons go from their bodies and then return. (I myself know well a person who survived after that.)
So why do you get surprised so much? Of course there're different points of view about this issue, but that's another topic.

JK Rowling herself said that she thinks Harry was at some middle point between life and death, so he wasn't actually dead nor was he alive (some people might find that part difficult to understand). I would try and find the interview for you being the nice person I am, but at the moment I have a ton of work to be getting on with so if someone else could I would be extremely grateful.

Otherwise, great article!

i can't believe some people. all anyone can say know is, "the epilogue was corny" or "it was useless". i think the epilogue was one of the best chapters. and i don't care about them just hopping from feild to feild. some important things happened in those feilds. it was a very good way to end the series.

WOW great reviews of a great book. I found the 7th and final book to leave me dazed, almost as if I had lost a friend. I cried, I laughed, I cried some more. Still crying but only when I let myself. The way this series ended could not, in my humble opinion, been done better. Rowling has created an absoloute masterpiece unequaled by few but Tolkein. The Magick weaved is a tapestry I will hang on the wall of my mind and NEVER take down. Universal Life lessons as Gifts were bestowed upon millions of readers by the darling Rowling, and all I can say is THANK YOU!

On the Today show this week, JKR revealed a little more about what happened to Harry and everyone after the end of the book.

Harry and Ron are working as aurors at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is now the department head. 'Harry and Ron utterly revolutionised the Auror Department. They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.'

Meanwhile, Hermione, Ron’s wife, is 'pretty high up' in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, despite laughing at the idea of becoming a lawyer in Deathly Hallows. 'I would imagine that her brainpower and her knowledge of how the Dark Arts operate would really give her a sound grounding.'

Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at odds with for years; they revolutionise it and the ministry evolves into a 'really good place to be. They made a new world.'

'I think that Luna is now traveling the world looking for various mad creatures. She’s a naturalist, whatever the wizarding equivalent of that is.'
She comes to see the truth about her father, eventually acknowledging there are some creatures that don’t exist. 'But I do think that she’s so open-minded and just an incredible person that she probably would be uncovering things that no one’s ever seen before.'

There is no chance, however, that Neville’s parents, who were tortured into madness by Bellatrix Lestrange, ever left St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies. I know people really wanted some hope for that, and I can quite see why because, in a way, what happens to Neville’s parents is even worse than what happened to Harry’s parents. The damage that is done, in some cases with very dark magic, is done permanently.'

She said Neville finds happiness in his grandmother’s acceptance of him as a gifted wizard and as the new herbology professor at Hogwarts.

Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the school for witchcraft and wizardry is led by an entirely new headmaster ('McGonagall was really getting on a bit') as well as a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That position is now as safe as the other teaching posts at Hogwarts, since Voldemort’s death broke the jinx that kept a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from remaining for more than a year.

Although JKR didn’t clarify whether Harry, Ron and Hermione ever return to school to finish their seventh year, she did say she could see Harry popping up every now and again to give the 'odd talk' on Defense Against the Dark Arts.

She added that she may eventually reveal more details in a Harry Potter encyclopedia, but even then, it will never be enough to satisfy the most ardent of her fans. 'I’m dealing with a level of obsession in some of my fans that will not rest until they know the middle names of Harry’s great-great-grandparents.' (An early draft of the epiloge had every member of the Weasley clan born in the intervening years named.)

I thought the book was really good but did get a little bored with them wondering from field to field in the tent and also the lack of other characters in the book because of it (especially missed Professor McGonagal who is my favourite character... although she had quite a big role at the end).
I cried quite a lot at Dobby's death (especially with the clothes) and probably most at the point when Harry realised he had to die and all the thoughts that he was thinking were exactly what I thought I would be feeling if I took my final steps into the Forbidden Forest!
But I think the thing that really shocked me was that Snape was actually a goodie as I couldn't see it coming after he killed Dumbledore! I also found it so sad that he ended up dying and when he was dying, Harry didn't know that he was on their side and had tried at such a high personal risk, to keep him safe and carry out Dumbledore's plans! I wanted Harry to say thanks to him or something, but then there is that nice bit at the end where he says to Albus that one of the bravest men he ever knew was a Slytherin.
Wasn't particualy impressed with the slur on Dumbledore's character with regards to him being in the same line of thought as Grindelwald in his youth or with what he kept from Harry as I always believed he was whiter than white!

Also does anyone know whether Harry was invincible when he faces Voldermort in the Great Hall because Dumbledore tells him that he is not dead because the same protection that Lilly gave him in his blood is also in Voldermort and so whilst Voldermort lives, he will also because Voldermort is keeping the protection alive. So when he comes back from 'the dead' (....Kings Cross) although that bit of Voldermort's soul has gone from him, Voldermort himself is still alive and so surely Lilly's protection is still active so another Killing Curse would also see him coming back from the dead again and again until Voldermort dies?????
Or was it the soul that Voldermort had in Harry the part which kept Lilly's protection going so that when he was hit by the killing curse and Voldermort's soul seperated from Harry so too did that last bit of Lilly's protection which meant that another killing curse would kill him this time????

Another question.... why did Snape hate Harry so much and taunt him in class when he was secretly protecting him all along? Was it because he hated his dad and Harry looks so much like his Dad and he was only protecting Harry out of his love for Lilly even though he didn't like Harry? So although he is protecting him he can't help but give him detention etc

One last question...... when Dumbledore writes to Petunia (think it's in book 6) 'remember my last' which makes Petunia change her mind when she is thinking about throwing Harry out of the house, J.K.Rowling said on her website that he meant his last letter (so he had written to her more than once) and she also said that was very significant and Petunia plays a significant role in the last book, what was her significance??? Because in Deathly Hallows the only letter you know Petunia was ever sent from Dumbledore was the one in which he tells her she can't attend Hogwarts but then that doesn't fit in with him saying 'remeber my last (letter)' in book 6 because all he would be reminding her of is the fact he turned her down for Hogwarts which is hardly a reason to make her change her mind and let Harry stay in the Dursley's house a little longer.

hmmmmmm...... if anyone knows the answers to any of these questions, post a message as they've been bugging me for ages!!!!

i am not dissapointed i am just amazed to see the intelligence of the author i am extremely sad for the dissapointment of rons death at the end

I can't begin to say how disappointed I am. Look, after 43 years of life, two kids and two divorces I know when someone is pulling my chain and I hate when an author tries to do it deliberately and clumsily. Fred's dead? Of course, he's a favorite character of many and we can all get a good cry. Remus AND Tonks? Of course, so that Teddy can be a little orphan and need a godfather like Harry needed Sirius. Clumsy and ham-handed, quite frankly and don't get me going about Snape. Dumbledore used the guy mercilessly and what happens? He gets a seriously cheesy death and he does it all because he loves Lily...who quite frankly treats him miserably. If someone bullied my best friend, I'd hardly date the guy. Wouldn't it have been cool had Snape and Dumbledore cooked this up from the beginning and everybody had to eat their words about Snape? What about Snape actually getting a break, just throw the poor bugger a bone , make him Headmaster after. Would that have been so bloody hard?
The 19 years later thing was just too corny to be believed. Albus Severus? I wanted to vomit. I feel sooo let down, I loved the other book. Loved Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, was blown away when I read the first one and got drawn into that wonderful world but this one left me cold. Ya know, I feel almost betrayed.

Agree that the epilogue is corny but loved the little aside Harry had with the young Albus.
Confused by why his parents died in 1981? Mention of things in this book and others that are very much nOW - e.g internet, computer games. Why 1981 - that makes Harry 27.
And why did Lily marry James???

Really pleased Ginny + Harry finally got together and that Molly showed she was powerful - but had expected Neville to kill Bellatrix. Would really like to have known what happened in the aftermath - the remaining Death Eaters etc?? Shocked but Fred, Snapes, Lupins and Tonks deaths but needed a funeral almost to really make it real.....cried more at Dobby's death. And what did happen to Moody's body - was waiting for him to come back as they never found his body.
Loved the box and had some really interesting tie ups and conclusions but left so many questions unanswered... Is there now an opening for Albus Potter, Rose Weasley etc stories. I want more!

I liked this book. I feel that a lot of people complaining about various things, simply haven't thought about them very carefully.

For example, the Gryffindor sword falling out of the Sorting Hat... Neville was in desperate straits, he was in dire need of help, he was on Hogwarts grounds, he was wearing the Hat, and he's a true Gryffindor -- hence the sword teleports into the hat, just as it had done in book 2 for Harry: makes perfect sense. Or take the complaint that Harry didn't accomplish enough on his own: well that's why Dumbledore was so certain that Harry would need his friends to help him (duh!) -- after all, love and friendship are some of Harry's greatest powers. The "ugly baby" at the "train station" was a vision of Voldemort (or rather, the bit of Voldemort that was inside Harry, and "died" together with Harry): after his death, he is doomed to perpetual agony, and would never be capable of 'taking the train' and 'moving on'; he'd be perpetually stuck in the in-between place, woefully miserable and incomplete -- a fate truly worse than death itself. And why Harry didn't truly die: he had two souls in his body, and so even though the Killing Curse expelled a soul from that body, it wasn't Harry's soul (but the bit of Voldemort's soul) -- thus undoing the unintentional Seventh Horcrux.

And so much symbolism behind the scenes... Harry on a meandering journey into the wilderness, searching his soul and the world around him, like so many biblical figures before him. Harry choosing the road to self-sacrifice, rather than seeking power for "the greater good" (i.e. the Hallows.) Harry returning to Hogwarts, unintentionally helping people around him rally their inner hope and strength that was always there. Harry coming to a realization of ultimate self-sacrifice, like a true Chosen One should, and becoming the true Master of Death and the consummate wielder of the Hallows. Harry in apotheosis, then returning to redeem the world... What a complex, yet so simply conveyed, gracefully classical character arc.

So much love, and so much loss; joy and sorrow interwoven. Even Grindelwald has deep lessons to offer: a Dark Lord can still find redemption in the end, if he chooses to seek it. The book is bitter-sweet, and I like it all the better for that. That the epilogue is saccharine, is hardly of any importance: it is good to see a ray of light at the end of such darkness.

I just finished reading the book last night and to tell you the truth... I think the book was the worst out of the seven. Every other book I couldn't wait to get through, but this one - I found myself wanted to take a nap after reading a few pages.
I think it is absolutely agreed that the "19 years later" bit was pretty corny, and not to mention useless.
The frollicking around in the woods for 3/4 of the book got boring really fast. There were way to many loopholes and I found myslef getting angry about the lack of passion she wrote this book with.
Way to many "I told you so's" etc. I hope to god some other gifted writter can fill in some of the gaps in some non-author sequals.
All in all, I am sorry to see the end of the series, but I am even more sorry that it ended the way it did.

I cried several times throughout the book, but most of all when Harry was faced with sacrificing himself, his thoughts and emotions were so sad, i'm wondering why he didn't really die. Over all, a wonderful story. I want to know how Neville got the sword of Griffendor to kill the snake! It doesn't make sence to me, i thought the goblin had it!
I want to know more about what happened between Dumbldores office and 19 years later though- i mean come on! There had to be atleast one more chapter to link the two. Wasn't Harry the godfather of Ted? Did he raise him then or not? What did he end up doing for a career? When did he and Ginny get maried? I needed more details, but it was still the best one yet, i loved the darker side of things!

Total crap.

No standoff with Malfoy. The Percy issue was handled poorly "Gee, I'm sorry I was a jerk.". The multiple clamaxes were dull, to say the least. Snapes death was hardly worthy of a character of such prominance.

She should have stuck to the juvenile style that worked.

Oh well.

I walked away feeling a little let down. I think it was the Epilogue, rather than finishing the buzz, it just cut it short. Also I think I read it way too fast, so I'm having another go. I was so excited about getting to the end, I didn't take time to savor a lot of the emotional ups and downs (I didn't let myself start to cry or really think about the impact of it all because I wanted so badly to know what was going to happen next and who was going to die or turn out to be good, etc). I also felt there was no twist. Why couldn't one of the Aurors have been leaking information. I always thought Snape was working for the Order, but I didn't see why he had to be the catalyst to all of Harry's problems and solutions. And the nice tie-it-all-together chapter with Dumbledore was a little too ordinary for me. And of course, Hagrid (my favorite of the Hogwarts teachers) was barely there, which was a bummer. Either way I am happy to have read it. And I am already liking the second go better.

I thought that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was an amazing finale to the Harry Potter series although the last chapter "19 years later" was pretty lame. The whole Severus Snape thing was pretty suprising. Who new he was good after he killed Dumbledore!!!! The Deathly Hallows (the cloak of invisability, the resserection stone and the elder wand) was very clever. It was also a very sad book. Fred Weasley!!!!! I loved him, and he died. That was so sad!!!!!!! and Dobby Lupin and Tonks!!!! They were all good characters and they died!!!! I LOVE FRED WEASLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am more disappointed than i have been in along time. I just would like to know what J.K. Rowling has been doing for the past 3 years? She has done a poor job of answering all the questions that had remained from previous books and i have to say she has made Harry pretty much useless up until the ending of this book. To me Harry is that student who has a team project, yet is unable to do this part and still gets credit for it at the end. Plus, i have to say Harry is the most annoying character in this book with his temper, certain flair that he is always right just because Dumbledore confided in him and his righous anger at Dumbledore not sharing his past with him, even though Harry himself never took a step towards finding out himself. I hereby sentence this book to the greatest disappointment in Harry Potter history since movie number 5! Maybe a little harsh, but honest nonless!

i loved the book, i am currently reading it for the second time, i need more though, i need to know what happened between harry and ginny, ron and hermione, what they did after it all, i would like at least one last book explaining all this, and also if harry did go on to be an auror then it could still continue the magic in finding and defeating all the remaining death eaters, a book of short stories, or even the adventures of what became of Ted Lupin (the same situation as harry but brought up in the wizarding world from the beggining) i just want more because im greedy and selfish.

was the best book by far!!

for me i wasnt like any of the her other books
if the dealthy hollow would of been her first book it would of certain been the only one i would of purchased
too hollywood for my taste
all the other books in the harry potter series were unreal
why fred the weasley family were rocksolid they represented everything that was good in the magical world
the death of a family member with the terrorists sneaking around and killing our love one to much like the real world
reality go and break into someone else house not mine
the magic had died

I think that the epilogue was extremely corny and there were so many things that could have been answered but were'nt (e.g.his parents profession). Another thing that was slightly dissapointing is the lack of Snape in the book. I mean he is only actually in 3 chapters in the whole book as opposed to being in pretty much over half of the other books. I know this may sound slightly stupid but I kind of missed Hogwarts in the book. That is where the other 6 books were based and really the woods don't hold the same charm as Hogwarts. I did however thoroughly enjoy the book and would recommend it to anyone

Yeah I was disappointed at the "nineteen years later" part... If I knew she was going to end it that way, I would've stopped reading at the previous chapter, and left it to my imagination. I mean, even Dumbledore himself said, that even if it exists in our minds, why on earth shouldn't it be real?" :)

It was anticlimactic... but still worth the journey. :)