The Deathly Hallows

I have been a fan of JK Rowling ever since Harry Potter happened. Having read all but the 7th book of the series, reading The Deathly Hallows had been long overdue. I wish I had let it remain an omission so I could have remembered the fantastic treat the series had been thus far. Even after starting off on a high note as Rowling did with her Sorcerer's Stone, she had managed to build on the excitement and anticipation with each book that followed it. The pace of the stories never flagged, the characters added value to the plot instead of distracting from it by their sheer numbers.

Unfortunately, things haven't quite ended well. Rowling seems to have lost her magic touch with The Deathly Hallows - it is as if she forced her self to write this book contrived, rambling plot and all when all the other books read like the stories told themselves and she merely played the scribe. The effortless quality of her prose is completely missing in the 7th book - sometimes I have a hard time believing it was written by Rowling.

Maybe she needed more time to conjure the crowning glory of the series, maybe she should have left it unfinished because it was far more perfect that way than it is now and what's worse another sequel will likely not undo the damage. Rowling has essentially taken away from her final Potter book almost everything that made them so special. I won't go into a litany of what ails the book, many other have done an outstanding job of it. In short, I am a deeply disappointed Harry Potter fan - especially because I waited this long to enjoy the treat without having succumbed to the temptation of reading any spoilers or having someone tell me what the story was.