Harry Potter Withdrawal

So I finally finished the Harry Potter series last night. I held it off as long as possible! But it had to end eventually didn't it? Wow, what can I say about this series.... (WARNING! If you haven't read the Harry Potter series there are major spoilers ahead!)

First and foremost J.K. Rowling is a GENIUS. The way she wrapped up the series was just amazing. One of the best, if not the best ending to a series I've ever read. I wasn't disappointed with anything. It was all just brilliant.

I was surprised by how few deaths there were and actually by who died. Okay I take it back, a lot of people died, but honestly I thought even more people were gonna die. And unfortunately just about every death had already been spoiled in some way so I wasn't really surprised by any of them. The one person I thought for sure was going to die but never did was Hagrid. Wow that guy is resilient. Even when attacked by a swarm of giant spiders he still manages to survive! The one death that really got to me was Fred. WHY DID FRED HAVE TO DIE?!?!?! WHY?!?!?! I have a soft spot for all the Weasley's and I was just devastated that J.K. Rowling would kill one of them. HOW COULD YOU??? And one of the twins too! They need each other! I was just waiting for there to be some sort of tender "Oh my gosh my twin is dead!" moment for George but that never happened. And I don't really get why Fred had to die. My cousin was saying "Oh to give incentive for Mrs. Weasley to go crazy and kill Bellatrix" but honestly couldn't she just as easily have gone all crazy on Bellatrix for other reasons like maybe one of her kids was injured but NOT DEAD. As you can tell I'm not even close to getting over Fred's death yet. :( Oh and Remus and Tonks? Yeah, why did she have to kill both of them? And leave behind poor Teddy to be an orphan? SO SAD. I was in such shock when I found out they both died that yeah, I didn't even believe they were both dead at first. TOO MUCH SADNESS!!!
 
Oh goodness Ron Weasley. I always liked him as a character but then Deathly Hallows made me absolutely adore Ron. I don't know what it was about that book but Ron is now like my favorite character. Next to Hermione of course. I just LOVE that pairing! Hermione and Ron are definitely my favorite couple of the series. That scene where they finally kiss? Yeah, I loved it. :P

Which brings me to another funny thing about the Harry Potter series. Normally I don't enjoy romantic angst in books, but I just ate it up in Harry Potter. Harry's angst over Ginny?  Loved it. Ron's angst over Hermione? Ha I REALLY loved it. I think its because it was just so real. It didn't feel contrived.

Last but not least Snape. Severus Snape. I really don't know what to think of him. I always thought he was evil. Then it was proven he was evil in the Half-Blood Prince. Then it turns out he really was good and working for Dumbledore? But wait, not because he wanted to be good, because he loved Lily. And what's that? Snape has really loved Harry all along? I just can't wrap my mind around it.

Overall Harry Potter is officially one of my new favorite series of books. Its just so amazing and I'm so sad that I wasn't able to read it sooner. Fortunately I'm not SO late to the party that I can't still enjoy the release of Deathly Hallows Part 2! :D

If you got to the end of this post thanks for stumbling through my crazy mind meanderings! I don't really have anyone to talk to about books here in California so the blog is basically my "vent out my bookish thoughts" place right now. Especially helpful when one is going through series withdrawal. >.<

Julia :)