Cultural practice suggests that I should open this with a Spoiler Alert, or an assurance that there are no Spoilers, a Spoiler Lack of Alert if you will. Spoiler Alerts are a somewhat useful tool which, like so many things, we’ve managed to take to asinine extremes. I’m not interested in telling you so much about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that you won’t want to read it, but how do I know what you will find too much information? This is a review, not a play by play. Personally, I don’t read reviews of things I’m really anticipating, so if I were me, I wouldn’t read this. Well, I’d read it NOW, because I’ve finished the book, but if you’re still worrying about spoilers, what are you doing here? Go read the book already! Shoo!
It’s hard when you write about Harry Potter not to get swept away into the phenomenon of it, rather than the story. The phenomenon part is wacky. The 17 billion articles about it (of which the world does not need one more but is getting anyway) are wacky. Lead stories on the national news about a fantasy fiction novel are wacky. Treating plot points like secrets vital to national security is wacky. Setting up help lines to offer support and counseling to kids potentially devastated by the end of a book series is wacky.
I went to Florida last weekend, which meant lots of time spent on planes and in airports. Not surprisingly, Harry Potter was everywhere and, in particular, I noticed it being read by lots of men in the publishing industry's most coveted demographic: 18 to 30. Men aged 18 to 30 are like the Holy Grail to booksellers. The industry waffles between shrugging them off with "eh, they don't read" to desperate attempts to woo them. This is how we end up with such unfortunate marketing decisions as "Lad Lit", perhaps because the industry wasn't brave enough to dub it the obvious choice of "Dick Lit", a decision which only proves how out of it they are trying to reach this mysterious tribe. When publishers find a book that even young adult males will stand in line for, it's perhaps understandable that they would lose their heads and go, well, a little wacky.
It’s nice to discover then that the book itself is very fine. It is fine both in and of itself as an adventure, and it is a fine and noble end to the series. Rowling faced some real challenges with this book. She had to wrap up six books worth of details and unanswered questions, encase those answers in a plot that was new and fresh enough to stand on its own, and provide an ending which was both honest to what had come before and also a satisfactory reward to those who have stuck with the series for ten years. In short, she had to nail the dismount.
Article comments
1 - Brad Schader
I have a question as someone who has not read any of the books. There are seven books because the school was supposed to be seven years I had heard, but now I am hearing Harry did not finish his seventh year. Did he graduate anyway or is there going to be an eighth book to cover his seventh year?
2 - Kati
Rowling based Hogwarts on the British secondary school system, in which what Americans consider "high school" can last five or seven years depending on the student's choice.
In the books, at the end of their fifth year, the students took their "OWLS", which I believe would be the equivalent of A-Levels in the Brit school system. Depending on the results of the OWLs, students could continue on in certain subjects to get their NEWTS (equivalent to the British O levels I think?), but they would not have to, they could leave school with just their OWLS.
So Harry left after his sixth year, before completing his NEWTS, but there's nothing requiring him to go back and get them. This was established in the books when the twins, Fred & George, left during their 7th year to start a joke shop, rather than continue on to get their NEWTS.
So the short answer is no, assuming Harry survives, there's no need for an 8th book to show Harry continuing his education
3 - Kate C. Harding
Nice review. I completely agreed on the bit about wandlore being a bit extraneous and it most definitely needed a second reading.
I would add, though, that the 7th book is not actually the longest. It is a little over 100 pages shorter than Order of the Phoenix.
Brad, he did not return to school nor was the subject of his graduation addressed. There is a 19 years later epilogue, but it did not touch on this either. However, Rowling was interviewed recently about what she perceived happening in those 19 years and it sounded as if he had received enough education to (SPOILER ALERT) take a job at the ministry of magic.
4 - Brad Schader
Thanks for the answer. I think she might have left it slightly open so others can pick it up one day, yet did that 19 years later thing so she can give Harry a proper ending in the end.
5 - Laura
hey i'm reading your book and i think it is wonderful and i actually read this one and the other book;s i used to get i never read them i like reading this one cause i liked it and i;m also do a book projected and a project on it so well just writting you because i liked your book
6 - Laura
hey i'm reading your book and i think it is wonderful and i actually read this one and the other book;s i used to get i never read them i like reading this one cause i liked it and i;m also do a book projected and a project on it so well just writting you because i liked your book