STEPHEN FRY

I have to agree about the epilogue though. I liked it, I should say, but it was desperately lacking in details. Some things are best left to the imagination, but I felt that this was a bit too much. Was Teddy Lupin left with any werewolf traits? What were everyone's careers? What became of Luna? How did George cope without his twin? Did Neville ever get married? Did Lav-Lav really end up as a werewolf, seeing as Greyback bit her during the final battle? And it goes on.
Exactly, that would have been the real interesting questions. Besides, wizards, even more so when they are friends, seem to breed only periodically, or is it coincidence that Harry's/Ginny's, Ron's/Hermione's and Malfoy's children happen to be exactly the same age and enrol at Hogwarts the same year. No, she should have spared us that.

Oh well. Despite all that, I really, really enjoyed this book. It may even top Order of the Phoenix as my favorite.
It certainly does for me.

Oh, and the backstory on Dumbledore was AWESOME! And Snape's too. *cries*
Yes, poor Snape. Crying over Lilly's letter *sob* For me the Dumbledore story was the icing on an already excellent cake and it was great to see how in the end all added up. The chapter with Snape´s memories had me glued to my sofa.
By the way, were any of the spoilers you stumbled over during the past weeks accurate?

but it mostly spared me from the shock when some guy at the release party starting reading off a list of all the character deaths! In front of a bunch of little kids, too, it was awful.)
I would have killed him, well not really, but... Seriously, do those people think at all?
I'm happy to say the whole book was unspoiled for me. The only thing I read somewhere were some of the chapter headings which didn't trouble me too much. "The life and lies of Albus Dumbledore" - I was hoping for something that would bring him back into the game but that background story came quite unexpected. Rowling twisted the plot in so many ways that I wasn't sure until the end whether we weren't betrayed in him after all...
I would have been angry if I had knewn beforehand which of the characters is going to die. Lupin has always been one of my favourites, so were the Weasley twins, but I was sure that this big family won't come out of it without casualties.

Yay for staying up until half three this morning reading it.

I thought it was pretty good. There was a lot of pointless "Moan moan moan, we're in hiding" I think, the ending was cool. I cried somewhere...

But bloody hell! I saw in big letters "Nineteen Years Later" and I thought "Oh Christ..." But she did it. It would have been so much more wonderful if she'd just missed out that bloody end part! It's not like it resolves anything important anyway, that was already done. And Oh the cheese. Albus Severus?? No bloody subtlety.

I was pleased with myself for a) figuring out the R.A.B. thing on my own, and b) figuring out the Harry is a horcrux thing on my own. I give myself too much credit - it crossed my mind then I thought Nahh.

I really laughed at Mock The Week, when in Scenes We'd Like To See they were doing "unlikely lines in the final Harry Potter book", and Mark Watson went up and said "Harry said something, Hermione said something... Who cares? I'm minted!" X-D

have just finished... been reading for two days straight (didn't have a possibility to drown in it without breaks - have to work somehow...)

I KNEW IT!!!!
I knew that Severus was not as evil as everybody thought!!!!
He has always been my favourite character....I'm sooooooooo happy that J.K. Rowling didn't dissapoint me there.... Terrific book, the best one (though there were flaws, especially the last chapter, though my heart felt warm when Harry told that Severus was the bravest man of all... )
The chapter with Severus memories... his death... made me cry I also felt very bad about Moody's so early death.

about spoilers - Lithuanian TV news last Saturday told some!!!! they told that at least one of the favourite teachers is going to die and that Harry will beat Voldemort me and my two brothers were angry as hell...if we had known they were going to spoil, we definitely wouldn't have watched the news that night... we thought they would only announce that the book is out, how the fans were eager to purchase it at midnight and so on... yep, they told that too.. But WHY spoil????

anyway...
the book although made that up for me. what am I talking about - I'm extremely happy now and all because of Severus in this book I was afraid all the time that J.K. Rowling didn't intend to make those tiny nuances, that she didn't make them on purpose, the nuances which made me see more in that character...but she did, she DID!!! Especially after the sixth book I was desperately reading it over and over, the place where Severus took the Unbreakable Oath (I don't recall its original name, sorry, read that in Lithuanian), where he killed Dumbledore... and earlier books looking for signs that everything isn't like it seems, that there was something more hidden in Dumbledore's murder... and I KNEW it!!! ) I'm so relieved and so happy now, although he died... but he is my HERO :-//

hehe, I know, I'm over-excited, but can't help it
though I also would love to know about Luna, Neville and others more. The last chapter seems to have missed some important material, maybe at least one previous chapter that's the main flaw of this book.

P.S. Noticed those similarities to LOTR at once
ehhh but who cares? I don't My favourite character is wonderful and now everybody sees that! yey!!! :D
(bit childish for a twenty-four year old... but really, who cares? I don't!!! )

indeed, Britannicus, indeed it's nice afterall...

*finds the first book and starts to read the whole series again*

welcome aboard to this slightly mad boat, Odora that makes I think more than two of us here... good, good the more of such people, the better

BWAH HAH HAH!!!