This is a casual review of the seventh Harry Potter book, and to a lesser extent the entire series. Spoilers herein, so don't follow that "read more..." link unless you've read it.

First I'll say that I have enjoyed reading the books and watching the movies. They're good entertainment. I remember as a kid reading some childrens books about (good) witches and wizards at school—basically the same premise as this series. I don't remember what they were other than the protagonist was a little witch with chronic bad hair or something. (Gee, no matter what I do I can't seem to describe this without implying that Rowling lifted the idea, which even if she had doesn't reduce the originality or legitimacy of the Potter series in my eyes). It was and still is a wonderful premise. I think that I like the premise so much because what I love in a story more than anything else is new and complicated familiarity. Magic school: new. How the magic world and the real world coexist: complicated. School kids with normal school kid problems: familiar. Oh, and I'm a sucker for anything British.

On the other hand, there were a number of things about the Potter series in general that just did not work for me. I found the constant abuse of literary devices tiring, annoying, even insulting. Snape good, Snape bad (but over the entire series the Snape line was excellent). Lupin bad, Lupin good. Sirius bad, Sirius good. Perhaps the most sickening instance of this is the shrieking shack scene where Sirius and Lupin are talking about Pettigrew but Harry thinks they're talking about them. This is not how people do things—even people as distracted as Sirius and Lupin were are not going to say things that sound so blatantly threatening to Harry in front of his face without at least mentioning in passing "Oh by the way, Harry, we're not talking about you. We'll explain later." This came off particularly badly in the movie. I do not like my chain being yanked for emotional effect. I like emotional responses that are earned. That's my biggest beef with the whole series.

That said, I can happily report that chain-yanking has been kept to an absolute minimum in this book. Although there are several reversals, there is very little chain-yanking. Reversal itself is not to be abhored, just its abuse. The one exception is some gratuitous killing. I accept that fighting evil can have casualties, and not every agreeable character can or should survive. But I think the members of the Order would be more likely to survive in an all-out battle situation like we had in this book, yet many die. Disproportionately many, I think. But really, I'm just mad that Fred had to go, probably because the Weasleys, and Fred and George in particular, are my absolute favorite characters, and killing Fred is in essence killing both Fred and George. George goes on alone (and monophonic), but he would have to completely reinvent himself without his twin. Had he died doing something important, or even something characteristically Weasley, it might have been ok. But he just keels over in impersonal crossfire, and you know that it's just Rowling yanking chains again. That's not the kind of emotional response you want—you don't want your readers blaming you for killing off their favorite character; you want them mad at the villains for doing it.

Now you know what I like and don't like about the series in general. I found this book to be a very good read. I missed Hogwarts and the other children and teachers, and seeing them in battle at the end did little to assuage that. But I can't really kid myself into thinking Harry could go to Hogwarts and be safe, so it's fine. Ron leaving was silly, doubly so when the chain was yanked that he'd have come back right away if it hadn't been for those pesky bounty hunters. Harry wasn't as insanely stupid as he has been in the past, though there was a bit of that with the attempted chain yanking about Dumbledore. The whole Dumbledore thing was interesting, in spite of knowing she was trying to yank Harry's chain, if not our own. Character depth and motivation can be very interesting, and it's nice to see some more depth to Dumbledore.

I might be cynical, and of course I recognize this is a children's book, but can we really be expected to believe that Ron and Hermione would be together 24/7 and sleeping in the same tent and never so much as tell the other his or her feelings for several months? I was glad to see them finally figure it out, and I know teenagers can be confusing and confused about that sort of thing, but in my experience if you throw any 2 teenage boys and a girl in a 24/7 alone situation for a few months, someone's going to fall in love (or get a crush, or whatever). Still, I felt it was handled well, with Ron implementing what he learned in the book and Hermione crying and being mad when he returned. Aside from the slow pace it was fully believable and a good culmination of the romance. Harry handled the Ginny situation pretty well, too. At the end of the last book his decision to cut it off felt dumb and pointless, but it made sense in this book (and could have been left for the birthday scene here, but she probably just couldn't resist yanking that chain at the end of book 6). I wish they would have wrapped it up at the end though. 19 years later, "Oh by the way they're married" doesn't have quite the same drama.

I still remember when I first realized that Star Wars was really about Anakin, not Luke (before the prequels). The whole thing instantly took on a new and deeper meaning, and it was thrilling. In a similar vein, this whole series may almost be as much about Snape as it is Harry and Riddle. The reversal in Chamber of Secrets where Snape was supposedly the bad guy but ends up being the good guy was dumb, but otherwise the complexity of Snape and never knowing what his motivations and loyalties were was very interesting. It all comes to a heroic and satisfying end in this book, and all in all I'm more pleased with the Snape storyline than any other. However I do wish we'd had more Snape exposure in this book. He, even more than Hogwarts and the kids, is just a backdrop. So much more could have been done with him, but as so much already had been in previous books, it's not so bad.

So there you have it. A few days after I finished reading it, and the most salient thoughts that come to mind are that I enjoyed it, I plan on reading the series again (probably with my kids), and she really shouldn't have killed Fred off.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I really despise the Americanization of these books. Next time I read them, we will have bought the original British edition.