Just finished
Deathly Hallows after it finally arrived in the mail a couple days ago.
Jeez, from the number of dead characters, Rowling could have just cut to the chase and dropped a nuke on Hogwarts. I was pretty surprised at the number of casualties and some mild profanity, considering this is (or was) essentially intended to be a children's book.
What amused me, though, was how -- after the hissy-fit the Bible-thumpers were having over Harry Potter originally -- Rowling (who by the way is Anglican -- I can't resist pointing that out ;-) ) put some pretty overt Christian themes into the final book. Hell, she practically could have tattooed "JESUS CHRIST" right onto Harry's forehead. "King's Cross", eh? Sacrificing himself so others could live? Making Dumbledore into a God the Father-type figure? Being resurrected? And lots of smaller things, like making a cross for Mad-Eye and burying his eye, visiting the little church, and so on?
Bless her, though, for pretty much nuking any chance of a prequel or sequel. I enjoyed the series capitally, but I think if I see any sequel or prequel or additional books, I will scream.
All in all, I enjoyed the book. And I shed a tear for Snape -- I knew all along that he'd turn out to be a good guy (it just had to be that way), but seeing it turn out that way was very satisfying. Paradoxically his death made it that much better -- having him reconcile with Harry would have made it corny, and Rowling found a way to make it work better IMO.
I also have to say I was disappointed, but maybe also relieved in a way, that
BoE's theory about Dumbledore turned out to be false. It was such a perfect theory that it was maybe too good to be true, but at the same time in hindsight it was perhaps also corny to bring back Dumbledore -- too Hollywood. So compliments to Rowling for letting dead people stay dead.
There is only one major glitch in the story AFAICS: Why didn't Harry see the one Death Eater on his Marauder Map when he and Luna got surprised by her? That totally floored me.
