The Potter

I pulled an all-nighter to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Saturday night, and I still a bit hungover from it. I won't say anything here to spoil the book for those who haven't read it. For those who wanted a more tragic, more avant garde kind of ending, I will say that I think it's been obvious all along from the story J.K. Rowling was writing that it was going to end the way it did. There were intriguing snippets about what was going on elsewhere (where Harry wasn't) that I would have loved to know more about. If I felt the book sort of wandered in the middle, this was a reflection of Harry's being without the guidance of a wise adult and having to make the important decisions for himself. I also thought the epilogue was inadequate in that I wanted to know more about what the characters did with their lives after Hogwarts.

But really, it's hard to come up with decisive thoughts about the book. Because how it ended doesn't matter to me half as much as the fact that it is over. It feels, appropriately, like the mixed feelings you get at a graduation. We won't be waiting for Potter again.