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I read fast. Hysterically fast. Always have. Part of having a picosecond-long attention span, I guess. But I gave up on Deathly Hallows a few hundred pages into it. And you know me -- I love spoilers, I love knowing how it's all going to end...but this book just baffles me.
Reading Deathly Hallows struck me as an entirely joyless enterprise. Of course there was going to be death; can't have a proper ragnarok without it. But I'm just a little bit baffled at the body count, at the capricious dispatch of so many characters. Maybe I'm just an ol' softie, maybe I'm just an alien to this universe (a reminder: it's not my goddamn fandom, understand, monkey boy?). But it wasn't a diversion, nor entertainment. It felt like work. Certainly didn't feel like a narrative unfolding. Did feel more like a housecleaning. Or like stage directions for Titus Andronicus (or, if you prefer, Total Recall) -- anyone else we can off for dramatic effect? I'd hate to think that JKR is surrendering to a mathematical illusion of body count lending to gravitas, but it's rote and it's not even properly tense. Part of me was wishing for a Moby-Dick ending -- a battered, bleeding Harry alone on a patch of scoured earth that once was Hogsmeade -- but that's too far, indeed, too easy.
Maybe longtime readers will get more out of it than I will. I sure as hell hope so. There was only one moment that struck with me that I truly liked, something I'd hoped for but didn't expect, in the third chapter. The rest...well, your mileage may vary.
Edit: Okay, finished it. It did pick up some steam midway through, but still, underwhelming.
Reading Deathly Hallows struck me as an entirely joyless enterprise. Of course there was going to be death; can't have a proper ragnarok without it. But I'm just a little bit baffled at the body count, at the capricious dispatch of so many characters. Maybe I'm just an ol' softie, maybe I'm just an alien to this universe (a reminder: it's not my goddamn fandom, understand, monkey boy?). But it wasn't a diversion, nor entertainment. It felt like work. Certainly didn't feel like a narrative unfolding. Did feel more like a housecleaning. Or like stage directions for Titus Andronicus (or, if you prefer, Total Recall) -- anyone else we can off for dramatic effect? I'd hate to think that JKR is surrendering to a mathematical illusion of body count lending to gravitas, but it's rote and it's not even properly tense. Part of me was wishing for a Moby-Dick ending -- a battered, bleeding Harry alone on a patch of scoured earth that once was Hogsmeade -- but that's too far, indeed, too easy.
Maybe longtime readers will get more out of it than I will. I sure as hell hope so. There was only one moment that struck with me that I truly liked, something I'd hoped for but didn't expect, in the third chapter. The rest...well, your mileage may vary.
Edit: Okay, finished it. It did pick up some steam midway through, but still, underwhelming.