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Jul. 23rd, 2007 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phineasjonesfinally finished the book.
generally, i loved the book. she handled the story well, i thought, and it was amazingly intense and dramatic right from the get go. jkr's not always been good at that, so i think she deserves some props.
a lot of people died, huh? the most shocking was hedwig. that set a tone that had me on edge for the whole book. i was most surprised by my own reaction to dobby. i never thought i'd find myself sobbing over the death of such an annoying character, but there it was.
the worst for me, by far, was snape. the story i never wrote about him, the one that's lived in my head for years, turned out to be remarkably close to what we learn about him in this book. and his life is, i think, the greatest tragedy in this whole story. i really, really, really didn't want him to die. i wanted him to have one little chance at a real life of his own.
one might have expected that lupin's death would be the one that hurt me most. but... there are several reasons it's not. the first is that, well, long ago i figured lupin would be in less pain dead than alive. and we even got a little glimpse of that. i didn't really want him dead, but once sirius had gone, it almost didn't matter so much. not if he wasn't finally going to have a meaningful relationship with harry, anyway. the second reason is that i've come to understand that jkr's lupin really isn't my lupin. i think she missed her own boat, here. the man she created in PoA is not the man who appeared in later books. and the one in PoA is the one i love. in my mind, he lived on in another world. the one she killed off is a sort of AU lupin and i don't mourn him as much as i would the other. the lupin who fights harry at grimmauld place is the lupin of hbp. it makes sense if i think of it that way, and don't expect him to be my lupin. it was even interesting an enjoyable to watch his arc from that perspective. i could be happy for him and tonks.
it was still hard to feel it coming. when we see dolohov still standing after they dueled and just know what was to come. except the tonks part was still a shock. and... if she was going to do that... create another war orphan and leave harry as his godfather... why did she drop that ball? the tiny mention of teddy in the 'nineteen years later' was not enough. not at all enough.
harry heading off to sacrifice himself was more emotionally painful than i ever would have predicted.
i didn't really like the 'nineteen years later' part much at all. partly because it was so incredibly predictable. harry&ginny, ron&hermione. of course. like we didn't see that coming? i choked up at the 'albus severus' bit, bc i'm that way and i can't help it. and i was pleased to see a nod to malfoy being there. but. eh. could have done without it for the most part. would rather have had the next day or the next year. more open doors for interesting fic.
but i don't mean to keep complaining. i really did like it. it could have been much worse. i feared much worse.
generally, i loved the book. she handled the story well, i thought, and it was amazingly intense and dramatic right from the get go. jkr's not always been good at that, so i think she deserves some props.
a lot of people died, huh? the most shocking was hedwig. that set a tone that had me on edge for the whole book. i was most surprised by my own reaction to dobby. i never thought i'd find myself sobbing over the death of such an annoying character, but there it was.
the worst for me, by far, was snape. the story i never wrote about him, the one that's lived in my head for years, turned out to be remarkably close to what we learn about him in this book. and his life is, i think, the greatest tragedy in this whole story. i really, really, really didn't want him to die. i wanted him to have one little chance at a real life of his own.
one might have expected that lupin's death would be the one that hurt me most. but... there are several reasons it's not. the first is that, well, long ago i figured lupin would be in less pain dead than alive. and we even got a little glimpse of that. i didn't really want him dead, but once sirius had gone, it almost didn't matter so much. not if he wasn't finally going to have a meaningful relationship with harry, anyway. the second reason is that i've come to understand that jkr's lupin really isn't my lupin. i think she missed her own boat, here. the man she created in PoA is not the man who appeared in later books. and the one in PoA is the one i love. in my mind, he lived on in another world. the one she killed off is a sort of AU lupin and i don't mourn him as much as i would the other. the lupin who fights harry at grimmauld place is the lupin of hbp. it makes sense if i think of it that way, and don't expect him to be my lupin. it was even interesting an enjoyable to watch his arc from that perspective. i could be happy for him and tonks.
it was still hard to feel it coming. when we see dolohov still standing after they dueled and just know what was to come. except the tonks part was still a shock. and... if she was going to do that... create another war orphan and leave harry as his godfather... why did she drop that ball? the tiny mention of teddy in the 'nineteen years later' was not enough. not at all enough.
harry heading off to sacrifice himself was more emotionally painful than i ever would have predicted.
i didn't really like the 'nineteen years later' part much at all. partly because it was so incredibly predictable. harry&ginny, ron&hermione. of course. like we didn't see that coming? i choked up at the 'albus severus' bit, bc i'm that way and i can't help it. and i was pleased to see a nod to malfoy being there. but. eh. could have done without it for the most part. would rather have had the next day or the next year. more open doors for interesting fic.
but i don't mean to keep complaining. i really did like it. it could have been much worse. i feared much worse.