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

After my disappointment in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I decided to get the misery over and read the final installment of J. K. Rowling’s mostly excellent series. The first six novels followed Harry Potter and friends as they attend Hogwarts, a school for witches and wizards. Although exciting, the stories became formulaic and predictable.

Fortunately, Rowlinbg dispensed with the step-by-step routine in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The seventh and final novel is easily the best of the series and the most exciting.

Following the death of his beloved mentor, Professor Dumbledore at the hands of Severus Snape at the end of Half-Blood Prince, Harry sets of on the quest Dumbledor charged him with friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in tow. They have chosen not to return to Hogwarts for this final year, mainly because the school is watched closely by the Dark Lord Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters. His loyal disciple Severus Snape is now headmaster and the school has the feel of a concentration camp.

Potter and company stay on the move, changing their hiding places daily while desperately trying to complete Dumbledore’s quest which should destroy Voldemort for good. However, the Dark Lord always seems one step ahead, but the three teenagers are cunning enough and manage to elude his grasp.

Along the way, Potter and his friends argue, fight, break up and make up. There have always been disagrements among them but in Deathly Hallows, they are more impassioned and emotional to a point never approached in the previous six novels.

And this last novel is packed with more action than ever. The battle at Hogwarts is one of the most exciting scenes I’ve ever read. In my posting of Half-Blood Prince, I complained that Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood were all but ignored but now they are back and on the front lines. Rowling presents a good retrospective in Deathly Hallows of characters from the previous six novels in fierce battle. And it’s good to see professors fighting bravely and aggresively to save Hogwarts.

The novel’s seven-hundred and fifty-nine pages are a formidable length but the fast pace make it an easy read. It is certainly the crown jewel of the series.