Don’t click through if you a. thought the book/series was flawless or b. haven’t finished Book VII yet.
Why does all the action take place in one small country? I guess that shows its roots in the mind of its author, but if the threat is to the whole world, why not include magical persons from other parts of the world? African magicians, Chinese wizards, American/Canadian shamans all could have played roles.
Odd there are no references to Dumbledore’s family, even in passing, in the earlier books. There were passages when people were casting aspersions on him, and it would have been easy (and interesting) to sow some doubts about him through the series.
Why didn’t Voldemort know that Harry wasn’t really dead? Why would he take the word of a Malfoy for anything, especially one who had reason to tell him what they thought he wanted. regardless of the truth?I would have liked to have seen the use of some spell or magic where one would store one’s life outside the body and arrange for its return (see Gaiman’s Neverwhere for an example). That would have been perfect for a magician from the Caribbean to bring to the story, for example.
And the King’s Cross bit is still strange to me. Perhaps the idea was to throw in doubt whether or The Boy Who Lived was dead, but that could have easily been done in a scene where the two walk through a tableau of the scene right after the spell was cast.
And who are the two major characters who die, as cited all over the place? I have to guess Snape and Riddle (love how he reacts to being called by his real name), but they were hardly characters anyone will miss. What Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Dobby?
And the Pensieve stuff with Snape somehow rang false to me. I suppose seeing the action as a third party is part of the way it works, but it would make more sense to me if you saw the action in first person, through the eyes of the person whose memories you’re reviewing. Better that way to get the feelings that go with those memories which would make them more complete, more immersive. It’s a bit late to try to make him sympathetic or likable: his motivations are explained but his attitudes — his refusal to see through his hatred of HP’s father to see the boy as he is — are too ingrained to change that easily.
More as I think of it. I may have to re-read those last page-turning sections in case I glossed over some stuff in my haste to get on with it.
And as I explained to the Ten Year Old this morning as he picked it up and tried to prise some details from me, it’s not important how it ends but why it ends the way it ends. I think Rowling nails that in the “do you feel lucky?” scene.