I was quite surprised that people were making such a HUGE deal about the release of the final Harry Potter book. The day before it released, it was splashed over all the newspapers and every major news channel on TV - not to mention the thousands of blogs and web contests. Unfortunately, as is usually the case - the final product fails to live up to the hype.
I borrowed a copy the moment it became available and dived right in. While it is true that J K Rowling ties up the loose ends quite neatly, she does tend to assume that all the readers are avid fans of the series. What I mean is that ever so often, there are offhand references to obscure events that might have taken place 5 or 6 books ago. I know there are several people who swear by the series and have re-read all the books to prepare for the finale but I’m not one of them and I sometimes found it irritating that I was frequently expected to refer back to previous events to make sense of what was happening. However, having said that Ms. Rowling does weave an extremely compelling tale and I did find the book hard to put down.
I found the ending a little disappointing though. A little too sugary, given the dark tone of the 2 preceding novels. Perhaps J K Rowling found herself succumbing to public demand a bit more than was absolutely necessary. In any case as I finished the last page, I was left with a sense of relief that the saga was finally over. I say this without meaning to put down the Harry Potter series in any sense. It’s great but I would have enjoyed it better if I didn’t feel compelled to be a Harry Potter scholar to fully appreciate it.