Thursday, June 30, 2011

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 :)

8 comments:

  1. Awesome! So glad you liked the series!

    You're a little behind the hype of the 7th book but I remember reading it and thinking the exact same thing "How can she kill off so many of my favourite characters?! Especially Tonks and Remus! Gah!"

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  2. I just finished re-listening to all 7 audiobooks last night! Jim Dale makes the books a million times better than they already are. The first time I read the 7th book I remember I was freaking out a bit from all the awesomeness.
    I wanted to cry whenever someone died. JK Rowling decided to kill off all my favorite characters! I'm glad you've decided to join us Harry Potter maniacs!

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  3. Remus and Tonks's deaths were the most tragic to me. And to be quite honest, I really am not a fan of Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione. Ick! :P Super ick!


    But Severus Snape has a place in my heart! Despite the fact that Albus Severus is a HIDEOUS name, I do like the fact that Harry chose to honor ol' Snivellus.

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  4. Dobby? Totally cried my heart out, and after that it was Fred :'(
    Ron/Hermoine are soooo amazing <3 And SNAPE! It took me a while, but I seriously love him now. ahhh i need to reread this series, it's been too long! I can't believe it took you so long to read this series!!! :P

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  5. SO MUCH SADNESS! But I guess I understand why she needed to do it. It was a war after all. Still sad :(

    Heh, love the romantic angst! I had been literally waiting seven books for Ron and Hermione to FINALLY kiss already!

    Snape is such an amazing character. Well, all of Jo's characters are amazing IMO; they all have such depth and are never simply black or white, you know?

    Anyways, it was ever so much fun reading your reactions to the series as you read it for the first time. I would recommend reading The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the complete set of wizarding fairy tales that Jo wrote for charity a while back. They could honestly pass for real fairy tales, that is how brilliant they are!

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  6. Oh no don't get into withdrawal!! HP Withdrawal is the worst! I feel the same. Partake in my Month Long Harry Potter Celebration - reviews, discussion posts, themes, and giveaways!!!

    http://patriciasparticularity.blogspot.com/2011/07/let-harry-potter-month-celebration.html

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  7. I totally agree with everything you said! Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood. I grew up reading the books, going to the book stores at midnight for new releases and going to the movies. I just can't believe all of this is ending in like a week. :( But as Daniel Radcliff said: Harry Potter will always live in the people who read the books and watched the movies (totally agree with that, if i should ever have kids they're so gonna read Harry Potter! xD) I was so lucky to get tickets to see the movie next Saturday and I'm definitely going to take some cleenex with me because I just know I'm gonna weep my eyes out an just like you I'm still thinking: WHY FRED???? And why Lupin and Tonks? :( Also Snape's story broke my heart I never had a soft spot for him because he always was such a meany but now I get why he was the way he was. Ok enough ranting lets all get excited for the movie :D
    now excuse me while I go and buy a pack of extra strong cleenex

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  8. I'm not sure you can say that Snape really loved Harry from the begining. It's juste that he couldn't let him die, because he was precious to Lily, so it was kind of his duty to protect him, even if he was not fond of him because of his Potter side.

    Anyway, I think it's cool to have wait till june 2011 to read the last one. This way the story will have last longer for you !

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