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I'm the kind of person who likes to read reviews of movies and books before I watch/read them. I can't say why that is, but something about hearing praise for a book/movie gets me hyped up about it. And so far, I haven't been feeling the Harry Potter hype.

For anyone who has started/finished the book, without revealing too many spoilers, what do you think of it? Does it live up to the hype? Is the ending meaningful, or a typical kids-book ending? (Knowing Rowling, that question shouldn't even be necessary.)

I guess my question is: as a college student, and not the little kid I was when I started the series, do you think this book is worth spending my entire weekend to read?

Very satisfactory book, for me. I read it in six straight hours, and was quite captivated by it thed whole time. The ending I liked, but I have a feeling plenty of people aren't going to like it...Great book though.

Quite awesome book, except the shitty epilogue.

It was pretty good. Rambles on a bit for the first couple of hundred pages, but once the plot finds it's legs it carries on at a fair old clip.

There were no major surprises in the plot, everything panned out pretty much the way I was expecting it to. Some of the secondary characters could have used more closure, but on the whole it wraps the series up pretty neatly.

If you've read any of the other books, you should know what to expect from this one.

Personally, I found it to be tripe. Pacing issues, "questing", yadda yadda. I'd call it no worse than HBP, though, which I also thought suffered massive, massive flaws.

That's just my opinion, though. If you like 4-6, you'll probably like 7.

Honestly aside from a few pacing problems and the odd loose end (suprisingly fewer than most authors would allow for) I thought it was an excellent book. The pacing problem would be more noticeable if you haven't gotten into books 4-6 because they take that starting point and then work a crapload more on top of it. Basically if you aren't already firmly grounded in the Potterverse then you'll both be scratching your head at what is going on and wondering why it is taking so long for anything to get done in the core plotline.

That said I thought the character presentation was amazing and the world of the books was well and truly fleshed out, quite possibly in the greatest depth of any of the books which is amazing given it is shorter than at least two and also has to carry the plot to its conclusion. Moreover a lot of things just FIT. Even if you do see them coming as soon as the plot points present themselves I think you can still acknowledge that the story really does unite all of the previous books and makes each of them an important (if not neccessarily critical) component of everything that occurs at the climax. I think its that moreso than anything else which caused me enjoyment because it was inclusive to everything that had happened to Harry before, everything led up to this book and none of it was a throwaway even the stuff that just seemed like excessive silliness in books 1-3 was still important when we come to the end of 7 and I think that is both incredibly difficult to achieve and also remarkably well exected on the author's part throughout the series to ensure that everything remained important (well with the possible exception of Quidditch but that's my opinion in the role the sport played throughout).

Again the downside is that the book can't really stand entirely on its own. Although there is some effort to sort of double back over ground already covered (usually in an effort to provide new insight) it would be damn difficult to keep up with if you haven't read the previous six, or at the very least three, books. Aside from that a damn fine read.

Honestly, if the book could really stand on its own (without reading the other 6), it would nullify them and, on top of that, be a real drag to read. (If I recall correctly, books 2 and 3 both did this to an extent by summarizing the books before them...good for new readers, but very redundant if you take it as one long novel instead of 7 separate ones.)

Glad to hear the mostly positive feedback. I did enjoy books 4-6--each book (except 5) moreso than the one before, in fact. So hopefully this will be the same. It isn't even my enjoyment, so much as just hoping Rowling finishes the series as strongly as she started. A graceful ending to a great series...like Seinfeld's.

Looking forward to reading it tomorrow!

I quite enjoyed it. The beginning was a bit slow, as I think it usually is, but then it gets going and is very engaging. Books 4 & 6 are my two favourites, and I think this one sits up with them in similar feel and style.

I enjoyed most of it the first read through, and as I'm reading it through a second time now (although I've read some other bits, including the ending, already a second time), I'm liking it even more.

I liked this one very much. Aside from a couple of slow sections, a very good book compared to some of the earlier volumes in the series. On the whole it was great.

I know I'm bringing up a semi-dead thread, but I finally got to read this book after waiting for two siblings to finish.

Wow! Much better than I expected. The ending was very satisfying to me, and I thought she did a great job tying in as much of the old books as possible. Even the parts that were predictable, fit together so nicely that I wouldn't have changed them if I could. And the chapter before King's Cross? (Trying to be vague since my thread says "No Spoilers") Very emotional. I really felt it for Harry, which is something the series has rarely made me do. I loved how she manages to make you cast so much doubt in the book.

Even the epilogue, while cheesy, was better than hearsay had led me to expect. At least it didn't end with a kiss.

I just finished it. Absolutely loved it. When something entertains me enough, I am quite forgiving of 'flaws'. I could probably be critical, but there is no such thing as a "perfect" book, or a perfect series for that matter.

It was a masterpiece of a series in many respects and kudos's to the woman for envisioning and finishing this extremely influential, and literary beneficial, enterprise.