Having just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I am to a certain extent at a loss for words. Relief flooded me when I turned the last page and the future of some of my favorite characters had been decided.  

I can sum up this book in one word and that word is: WOW.  

I had not expected the high body count, when in all reality I should have. Thinking only of J.K. Rowling’s warning that two of her main characters would die I gave no thought to the supporting characters that I had come to love or loathe as well. Looking back now I realize how foolish that was. But when all is said and done I love the book still and the Harry Potter series will be one I read time and again.  

With this final chapter I believe that J.K. Rowling has cemented her books as modern classics. These books will sit on shelves for years to come and be recommended by people the world over. I can imagine future generations asking each other ‘Have you read Harry Potter? You haven’t? But you HAVE to!’ Just as I have asked my friends if they had read the Oz series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings.  

Within the first few chapters you are hit, and hit hard, by the almost constant action. Harry is finally leaving the Dursley’s home for the last time; with his seventeenth birthday looming the protection given to an underage wizard is about to be broken. Voldemort is ready in the wings to take advantage of this fact along with his bloodthirsty Death Eaters whose ranks have swollen.  

Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend the majority of the book together and secluded from their friends and family. The skills that they had sharpened in the previous six books come into play as each character is forced to use their strengths to keep the weaknesses of the others from destroying them.