Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Not a Destination, but a Journey…

The End of an Era.

For some time now I have had the date of the 21st July circled in my diary. Not another midwife appointment, or a reminder to myself of how many weeks to go till my baby puts in an appearance. No. The golden day that the final instalment of Harry Potter was due to hit the bookshelves of bookshops and music shops and ...
...of piles and piles of Harry Potter books. If you were a visitor from Mars, I’d take a guess that you’d be seriously thinking that the human translation for WHSmiths was, in fact, Harry Potter Book Store. Apparently, 15 Harry Potter books every second were sold by WHSmiths alone on Saturday 21st July 2007. Wonder if that’s a world record on book sales…?

We trotted over to the nearest pile of said books and stood beside an older couple ... more

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Not a Destination, but a Journey…

The End of an Era.

For some time now I have had the date of the 21st July circled in my diary. Not another midwife appointment, or a reminder to myself of how many weeks to go till my baby puts in an appearance. No. The golden day that the final instalment of Harry Potter was due to hit the bookshelves of bookshops and music shops and green grocers (yes…green grocers…) the world over. My plan was to get into town early, but having stayed up half the night reading a baby book (Stand and Deliver, review to follow!), I snored my way past 11 o’clock, and so we had a bit of a late start. Himself came with me, to carry the brolly and the bags (books are heavy, after all!), and in the spitting rain we bused it into town and made our way straight to WHSmiths. To be fair, I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my life.

The shop was full not just of people, but of piles and piles of Harry Potter books. If you were a visitor from Mars, I’d take a guess that you’d be seriously thinking that the human translation for WHSmiths was, in fact, Harry Potter Book Store. Apparently, 15 Harry Potter books every second were sold by WHSmiths alone on Saturday 21st July 2007. Wonder if that’s a world record on book sales…?

We trotted over to the nearest pile of said books and stood beside an older couple who were curiously examining the cover of one of the children’s editions – the lady was querying with her husband as to what the difference was between the two books. I explained that the scary cover was for grown ups, and the colourful cover was the children’s edition – same book, different cover. She seemed relieved not to have to work out which one to buy, and went off with one to find a queue. I couldn’t help hoping she had read all the others first, or she’d be terribly confused by this one!

I picked up my copy (grown up cover, very stylish!) and a few other bits and bobs, and Himself wandered off with them to find a queue and pay the pennies. £10.99 for the book, though we’d seen it elsewhere for a couple of pounds cheaper.

At Home, with My Book.

As soon as we arrived back home, I plonked myself down on the sofa in the front room, while Himself put the kettle on. I found myself quite restless, and ended up going upstairs to change, into the kitchen to get coffee and sustenance, and just generally wandering round, unwilling to start reading. It was very strange, knowing that this was the end, and that once I had finished the book, there would be no more. I ended up with my feet in a foot bath and a baby magazine in front of me, which I read cover to cover before I picked up Harry, so it was early evening before I got past the first page. I wonder if other people have been feeling that same sense of wishing to put off the inevitable. It came as quite a surprise, considering I’ve been waiting for the book with sweated brows since the moment I finished the last one!

Eventually, curled up on the sofa, and then later, propped up in bed with a thousand pillows, I immersed myself in this magical world I’ve been visiting, off and on for years, and began to learn Harry’s final task, his final development, his final days and weeks and months.

Did JK Write a Good One?

Did she ever. I have to say, and I know I said this about the last one, but this book is by far and away the best of all the Harry books. It moves so fast, it keeps you on your toes, and it keeps you guessing, right until the very last page. Usually in a book review, I would include a little plot detail. A kind of “he does this, she does that, wonder if that will happen, well read for yourself,” kind of thing. But I’m not going to do that here. There is too much to give away and the last thing I want is for any of you who have not read Harry’s final instalment to be pipped to the post and informed of the ending before you travel the journey yourself. And it is a journey worth travelling. In all my years of being a bookworm, a devourer of printed pages, I have always read the last page first, wondering what the end will be and spending glorious moments throughout the book trying to work out how it will reach the conclusion I know to be true. Not with this one. This is the first book I can ever remember reading where I didn’t skip to the end first. It seemed very important to me to take it a page at a time and to follow the journey, to follow the clues and to let the story tell itself, instead of trying to second guess it. Somehow I think I enjoyed it all the more for that.

Does Harry Die?

Well if you think I’m going to answer that question, you’ve got another thing coming! There are deaths in the book, shocking ones, sad ones, right from the beginning of the book. So don’t think you’ll be waiting till the very last page to be touched by death. There are characters too- both good ones and bad ones, who you think you know so well, who change as the story progresses, and these too, in a way, are small deaths. There has always been that struggle between good and evil, light and dark, in JK’s stories, and this one is no less a collection of opposites – life and death, good and bad, love and hate, or simply love, and lack of love. Death is part of life, and it is the only constant, but so is darkness and so is evil. I have no idea who said it, but someone very wise once said that it is by the shadows that we see the sun. There will always be bad people in the world, but if we seek to see the good in people, we are more likely to see it because it is there. Everyone is good and bad, both at the same time, and it is the knowledge of that, and the rejection of one or the other that makes us who we are. And somehow, I think this is what the message is. For me, anyway.

Will JK write Another Book?

Well you know what, I don’t really know. I think she could, if she wanted too. But I don’t know if I would want to read them. That will probably sound very strange, I know, coming from a self confessed Harry Potter Fan. But the story has finished. The tale has been told. The journey has come full circle in every sense of the word, and if there is more, if there are more stories to tell, it feels somehow like I would be ear wigging to hear them, and there’s something not quite right about that. There were stories in the news this past week about how Potter Fans would be distraught, bereft, bereaved after finishing this last book - as much because there would be no more as because of what happens within the pages. But I didn’t feel that. I felt it BEFORE I read the book, that whole no-going-back-this – is-it kind of feeling you maybe get before falling into a bungee jump or something. But not afterwards. There were tears, I’ll not deny that, but there was this peaceful sense of completion, of acceptance, and of graceful acknowledgement – a sort of honourable nod to the characters and their journey and to the author who gave them life and let them live for a while. I say three cheers for JK Rowling, who has united so many people, all over the world, with the story of a boy wizard and his journey to fight dark forces.

My Opinion

Do you need it? My guess is that whatever I think doesn’t really matter, as you’ll have the book already and be itching to get reading it. My only advise is to read every page as it comes, to pay attention, and enjoy it. I did, and I can’t imagine anyone being anywhere close to disappointed by it’s pace, the way it keeps you on your toes, the way it has you guessing. If I had to pick my favourite book from all the Potter fare we’ve had over the years, this would be it, without question. It reminded me that there is always good to be seen in people, that we should only every second guess our own motivations for our own actions, and not everybody else’s’, and that finding truth and joy and peace in life, with all it’s glorious mystery, is a journey, not a destination.

If you do nothing else this year, read this book. Just make sure you’ve read all the others first or it won’t be quite the same…

Thank you for reading, Kate x

Final Instalment of Harry Potter finished at 21.30 hours, 22nd July 2007. 

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