i must say i found it all a bit disappointing. being a huge fan throughout the series, i felt that book 7 came as a sort of an anticlimax. most of the important parts of the mystery were already figured out by a lot of people - myself included (snape and lily, harry being a horcrux). ah well, i guess it had to have been that way, because, when there are so many avid fans and so much time for speculation, there's no way to come up with something completely unexpected and yet plausible.
as for deaths, didn't anyone else feel cheated? i was terrified about who was going to die in 7, i dreaded the possibility of harry's death but i thought that it was a likely ending. and then, i finish the book, and who dies? hedwig, moody, dobby and fred. and then you also hear that lupin and tonks died offscreen so to say. i mean as much as i love these characters, they're hardly essential. wouldn't you expect that in a war against someone as unscrupulous as voldemort more people would have died, and at least some of the crucial characters? i'm not sure how to explain this, it's not that i would have enjoyed anyone's death, BUT, from a literary standpoint, i really feel that this way the story lost a lot of its force and plausibility. she said in an interview that she wanted us to feel that "everyone is up for grabs". but, in retrospect, don't you think she cheated a bit?
after such powerfull deaths as those of sirius and especially dumbledore, i honestly couldn't feel much grief for the minor characters in 7. the only big death, i think, was snape's.
also, i would have preferred it if she had left out the epilogue. honestly, albus severus? could that have been any more corny??
but, i don't wanna give the wrong impression. i really liked most of the book, though. and the part in bathilda bagshot's house was TERRIFYING, didn't you think?? i think it'll look wicked in the film!
