Took me six hours, but I've finally finished the damn book.
First thing first: I spent the whole time wishing for Draco to die but, hey, better luck next time, right?
So, yeah, I liked it. I didn't expect to -- I positively loathed OotP and only ever really enjoyed GoB -- but this was more than fine. Too long in some places, of course, particularly everything that took place before Hogwarts (as it always is save for in GoB) and in Dumbledore's private lessons, but it was really nothing compared to OotP. And we learned stuff, a lot of stuff, and Harry wasn't the sniveling little bitch he was in the last book or the naive boy he was in the ones before, so that made it a lot easier to read.
The only thing I didn't like and would really give anything to make disappear is the part were Draco lowered his wand. I'm in the minority, here, but I just can't stand that character, can't stand the hundreds of 'Draco turns good!' stories and I just really, really wanted for him to be 100% BAD, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And even if that couldn't happen, I at least wish Harry hadn't thought about it later on and reminded anyone that poor Draco could be good and doing all of this just to avoid dying and was now suffering and blah blah blah. Which, yes, is very true -- but I just can't stand most villains and almost-villains in these books. (Believe me, that came as a surprise to me, too).
Apart from that, I was pleasantly surprised -- especially by the Harry/Ginny stuff, which got me to groan in disbelief a few times, but found rather funny later on. The fact that they broke up and that there was really little of the actual relationship helped, of course, but it wasn't as boring as the Cho thing, and though I still don't like Ginny, it didn't make me nauseous like most Ginny/Harry fics do. The Ron/Hermione stuff (including the Ron/Lavender affair, which, squee!), I of course loved. Yes, I know, again in the minority but, squee!
And of course, as pleased as I was by that, I was even more so by the fact that Snape turned out to be bad. And, as Dumbledore bored me to death, I am especially ecstatic that we found this out for certain when he killed the old man. Sweet, sweet justification. (I didn't, however, guess that he was the HBP. Naive me, I thought it was Voldemort and didn't think more about it, too busy trying to get to the end and see if/who had died).
Mostly, though, mostly I'm in love with the whole Horcruxes idea and the prospect of the final book. Usually the last ten or fifteen pages bring nothing but filler, and this time I was more elated with each one -- from the break-up to Harry announcing that he wasn't going to come back to school to Ron and Hermione standing there with him and declaring that they would follow him -- *happy sigh* I've never been truly excited by HP before, just read it to not feel left out, but this last book, this one I think I'll get at midnight.
Seriously, I'm sure a lot of people will hate this book because of Draco, of Snape, even of Lupin and Tonks (and oh, but how I laughed, remembering the Tonks As Sirius fics and awaiting the reactions of S/R fans) or Dumbledore, but for me, the simple fan who only reads the books and wants to see Voldemort die and Harry, Ron and Hermione live and be happy? This is the best that I could hope to get. And it makes me want to hunt down Trio-threesome fics.
And a last note: we all agree that OotP didn't serve any purpose, then, right? The Prophecy doesn't matter, the order itself doesn't matter much, the Cho kiss has been forgotten and -- well, that's pretty much everything that happened, isn't it? Save for killing Sirius and making Harry and millions of fans desperate, of course. So let's just all forget it ever happened, then. I know I almost already did, and it'll save us a lot of Sirius angst.
And I'm an awful fan, but SGA will have to wait until tomorrow. Avoiding flist until then because I don't want to be spoiled for that either.
First thing first: I spent the whole time wishing for Draco to die but, hey, better luck next time, right?
So, yeah, I liked it. I didn't expect to -- I positively loathed OotP and only ever really enjoyed GoB -- but this was more than fine. Too long in some places, of course, particularly everything that took place before Hogwarts (as it always is save for in GoB) and in Dumbledore's private lessons, but it was really nothing compared to OotP. And we learned stuff, a lot of stuff, and Harry wasn't the sniveling little bitch he was in the last book or the naive boy he was in the ones before, so that made it a lot easier to read.
The only thing I didn't like and would really give anything to make disappear is the part were Draco lowered his wand. I'm in the minority, here, but I just can't stand that character, can't stand the hundreds of 'Draco turns good!' stories and I just really, really wanted for him to be 100% BAD, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And even if that couldn't happen, I at least wish Harry hadn't thought about it later on and reminded anyone that poor Draco could be good and doing all of this just to avoid dying and was now suffering and blah blah blah. Which, yes, is very true -- but I just can't stand most villains and almost-villains in these books. (Believe me, that came as a surprise to me, too).
Apart from that, I was pleasantly surprised -- especially by the Harry/Ginny stuff, which got me to groan in disbelief a few times, but found rather funny later on. The fact that they broke up and that there was really little of the actual relationship helped, of course, but it wasn't as boring as the Cho thing, and though I still don't like Ginny, it didn't make me nauseous like most Ginny/Harry fics do. The Ron/Hermione stuff (including the Ron/Lavender affair, which, squee!), I of course loved. Yes, I know, again in the minority but, squee!
And of course, as pleased as I was by that, I was even more so by the fact that Snape turned out to be bad. And, as Dumbledore bored me to death, I am especially ecstatic that we found this out for certain when he killed the old man. Sweet, sweet justification. (I didn't, however, guess that he was the HBP. Naive me, I thought it was Voldemort and didn't think more about it, too busy trying to get to the end and see if/who had died).
Mostly, though, mostly I'm in love with the whole Horcruxes idea and the prospect of the final book. Usually the last ten or fifteen pages bring nothing but filler, and this time I was more elated with each one -- from the break-up to Harry announcing that he wasn't going to come back to school to Ron and Hermione standing there with him and declaring that they would follow him -- *happy sigh* I've never been truly excited by HP before, just read it to not feel left out, but this last book, this one I think I'll get at midnight.
Seriously, I'm sure a lot of people will hate this book because of Draco, of Snape, even of Lupin and Tonks (and oh, but how I laughed, remembering the Tonks As Sirius fics and awaiting the reactions of S/R fans) or Dumbledore, but for me, the simple fan who only reads the books and wants to see Voldemort die and Harry, Ron and Hermione live and be happy? This is the best that I could hope to get. And it makes me want to hunt down Trio-threesome fics.
And a last note: we all agree that OotP didn't serve any purpose, then, right? The Prophecy doesn't matter, the order itself doesn't matter much, the Cho kiss has been forgotten and -- well, that's pretty much everything that happened, isn't it? Save for killing Sirius and making Harry and millions of fans desperate, of course. So let's just all forget it ever happened, then. I know I almost already did, and it'll save us a lot of Sirius angst.
And I'm an awful fan, but SGA will have to wait until tomorrow. Avoiding flist until then because I don't want to be spoiled for that either.