A Mostly Unbiased Review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

For the last installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, author J.K. Rowling has written a much darker book that takes place in a much crueler, much, much, much more violent world. Gone are the giddy discovers of mystery and wonder at Hogwarts. Gone are the often annoying, but humorous spats with professors. Gone, into the shadowy unknown, are all of Harry's paternal figures and the sense that everything is going to be ok. In its place we get a wizarding world at war, and even if it is a world distinctly of Rowling's creation, it's nearly impossible not to draw connections to World War II. And perhaps the clearest indicator of just how dark this world has become, is that Rowling was only able, in 759 pages, to work in one reference to Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and in that sad, solitary reference, the bean was bogey flavored.

The action begins quickly, speeding through the compulsory pages dealing with the disagreeably dull Dursleys, and into what is essentially a military operation (All it really lacked to complete the military feel were cool code names like Broom-Squad and "Operation Lighting Head). Since it was decided at the end of the last book that Harry is not going to return to Hogwarts, and the protection charm on the Dursleys' house is going to expire when Harry turns seventeen, the Order of the Phoenix needs to move Harry to a safe location. So they set into action a plan employing much of the humor and whimsy that has made the Harry Potter series so loved." Then things took a turn. (Spoiler starts)

There is a saying in writing, coined by Mark Twain that you have to "kill your darlings". This simply means that in the editorial process you have to be willing to cut out sentences and paragraphs, even if you love them, to better the story. However, apparently some one told this to Rowling and she took it quite literally. In only the fourth chapter, in a sequence that has all the charm of a Lassie episode where Lassie accidentally swallows a frag grenade and then unceremoniously splatters Timmy's young, innocent face with steaming bits of collie shrapnel, we experience our first death. While in an airborne chase with the Death Eaters, Harry's owl Hedwig is struck by the feared killing curse. While reading this passage you can't help but pause, and ask yourself, "did Rowling really just kill the fucking owl?" But Hedwig's death alone was not enough. No, in an attempt to escape the Death Eaters, Harry shoots a spell at the motorcycle sidecar containing Hedwig's cage and corpse, causing it to explode. That's right, J.K. Rowling didn't just kill the fucking owl, she killed it and then blew up the remains. And while Hedwig was angry with Harry none the less. I mean I can't fathom why she might have been angry, except maybe because she realized she was an OWL and could FLY, and would have been much better off in the open sky then crammed between Harry's legs in a motorcycle sidecar piloted by a semi-retarded semi-giant.

While I felt Hedwig's exploding was a little unnecessary, and dare I say it -- I dare! - overkill, it did a great job of setting the tone for the rest of the book. As readers we found out very quickly that no character was safe, nothing was sacred, and that darlings most certainly would be killed. (Spoiler ends)

With such a fast paced beginning it was hard for even me, surely one of the most cynical readers, not to get at least a little excited. There were horcruxes to find, obstacles to overcome, and all the difficulties of being on the run from a terrifying establishment that has unmistakable similarities to the Nazi regime (mudblood registrations, control of the news outlets, endless propaganda, and a desire to further the "pure" race, etc, etc.). In short, there was a mission at hand and only one elite squad that could pull it off.

(A-Team theme music playing) A crack squad of young wizards was entrusted a top-secret mission by the now deceased Albus Dumbledore. These wizards promptly set out on their quest, hunted by Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic. Today, still sought by Lord Voldemort, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you need to find horcruxes, or overthrow evil wizards, then maybe you can hire the P-TEAM!

So what did they do? What was their grand plan of action? Find ways to establish lines of communication while on the run in order to glean valuable bits of information about Voldemort's movements and thus learn his sinister plans? Seek out older and wiser wizards or who might be able to point them on a path towards the elusive missing horcruxes and a means to destroy them? No, they went camping. In a frustratingly long section of the book that resembles the Diary of Ann Frank much closer than it does a Harry Potter story, the trio holes up... in the woods. Instead of a dynamic squad of special-op wizards hell-bent on completing a mission, they end up being little more than, "three teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead." Wait, yet? Yet? Foreshadowing much, yeah, you don't scare us J.K.!

Even more frustrating was the fact that a lot of the plot development occurred because of mysterious interventions, which brings me to the one serious problem I have with all the Harry Potter books. There is something called "deus ex machina". No it's what Hargrid says when he gets drunk on fire rum and wants to know if some one stole his good dished, it's a literary device that literally means "god out of a machine". It's used to describe an unexpected or improbable event, character, or device that is suddenly thrust into the story, thus solving problems or unraveling the plot. An example of this would be when the eagles show up at last moment in the Lord of the Rings to save Frodo from becoming an ungainly hobbit smear on the side Mount Doom, or I don't know, ever third chapter in a Harry Potter book. It's also a literary device that is naturally week, because it doesn't flow from the story. However, if used it's more sparingly Professor Snape's dating guide, "How To Be Sex in Black" and isn't central to the plot of an otherwise engaging, well written story, it's very easy to forgive. But through the course of the Potter stories Rowling has gone to it time and time again. Just think about how many times Harry has been astonishingly saved at the last minute by something totally unexpected, be it a magical creature, or miraculously pulling a sword out of his...hat. Granted, it's easy to fit unexpected occurrences into a world rife with mystery and magic, but she simply does it too often.

That being said, I'm not trying to bash Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I recognize that it does have its flaws, and is not a perfect work of fiction. There were of course the aforementioned occurrences of deus ex machina. I thought the middle dragged worse than Fang's butt across Hargrid's carpet. Harry passed out so often (it happened like a dozen times), that I began to think they should forget about the horcruxes and start searching for some enchanted smelling salts. There were many gratuitous deaths in an effort to amp up drama that was already thicker than Crab and Goyle after the time they smoked Professors Sprouts secret herbology stash. And, at the end, there was an exposition filled climactic moment that, to me at least, was unsatisfying. They talked for six pages, and when then end finally did come, it came swiftly and with what Rowling described in the book as "mundane finality." Still whatever failures The Deathly Hallows might have had, its successes were even greater.

Rowling succeeded big in the areas she has always thrived in, and I'm not talking about merchandising and her credit line. First she continued to flesh out a world that is rich, immersive, and completely her own. From book one readers have been thrilled to vicariously become part of the wizarding world. In some cases maybe a little too thrilled, but if you're over 31 and want to walk around dressed up as a wizard that's your business. It is a fantastical world that is so well crafted that it almost feels like it could be real (something that is much more difficult to do than construct a well crafted plot), and that puts Rowling in the category of fantasy writers like J.R.R. Tolkien.

Her second, monumental success in The Deathly Hallows is the continuing development of her characters. Unlike Tolkien, Rowling has done a truly amazing job fleshing out the people in her stories and brining them to life. Not a single central character, of which there are many, is one dimensional. Even if the situations they're in aren't perfectly constructed, the characters are. We've anguished in their defeats, rejoiced at their triumphs, and in some cases wanted to smack them silly of being almost unbearably annoying. And in the Deathly Hallows we finally learn the back story of Albus Dumbledore, who falls from wizarding grace back into realm of humanity, even as other characters are built back up. It's this loving, painstaking attention to her characters that is Rowling's greatest success, and we finally see it come full arc in The Deathly Hallows, an ending that was final book that was really everything Potter fans could hope for.

So ends an era. Sure there are a couple movies to finish off, and probably a few crappy videos games to play for the hardcore fans. But it's over. At least until a new generation of kids learn to read, pick up their first copy of a Harry Potter book, and are subsequently made fun of for being huge dorks.