A review of Deathly Hallows that (more articulately) mirrors my thoughts.

[amanuensis1]

(Uncut as per my "not cutting for spoilers any longer" warning, but not that spoilery.)

From The Atlantic's review of DH by Ross Douthat:


(Rowling's) genius is for crossing genres, mixing the sword-and-sorcery tale with the boarding-school novel, and merging both with the intricate plotting of an Agatha Christie story. And this is the first problem with her saga’s grand finale – it’s more of a straightforward high-fantasy novel than any of its predecessors, and Rowling isn’t quite up to the task. She needs the Stover at Yale structure, it turns out, and the Ten Little Indians plot mechanisms; without the “something fishy at Hogwarts” framework, her story sprawls and meanders through a baggy quest narrative. The more time Harry and Ron and Hermione spend hopscotching around England, the more the reader misses the familiar rhythms of a school year at the wizarding academy...


I'm more enthusiastic about Rowling's work than this reviewer is overall (he's liked the series but feels the last book compromises the series' ability to hold together as a classic-to-be), but he describes a lot of my dissatisfactions with DH.

But! I am on my second go-through of it, via audiobook, and I'll see how it feels to me this time through.

Comments

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

I agree. I particularly liked his point about the things JKR pointed to and then never followed up on. He cited Ron's jealousy of Harry and Draco's foreshadowed redemption, and those were two of the things I was particularly frustrated that she didn't pursue. Not because I like them as plot points (though I do) so much as the fact that she made gestures in those directions and just left them hanging. It's unsatisfactory. And yeah, I felt like she chickened out of Hagrid's death, too. The "huh, a children's book after all" reaction just about summarizes it for me. I feel like she could have gone so much further into many of the points and just didn't, for whatever reason. Too many plot threads to keep up in the air? An inability to focus on plot vs. interpersonal stuff and sort of leaving both a little incomplete? I liked the book a lot. I liked the series a lot. But yeah, there were things that should have resolved more, or gone more deeply in before resolving. So much felt like it wasn't quite done. All that, and then the epilogue to add insult to injury. :/