And I finished....
I finished HP 6 over the weekend and thought it was the best so far for two reasons. 1. It was the most obviously adult book of the series and 2. It was the romanciest. I have to say that I don't believe that 'The Killer Who Shall Not Be Named' who killed 'He Who Was Killed Who Shall Also Not Be Named ' is not truly bad. I think he's a tortured character and I think we'll see him making a big, bad choice in Book 7. An absolute choice between good and evil. And I think he's going to choose good (this is why I write romances).
Loved the romancey stuff, although I HATED the Spiderman moment at the end when Someone who Shall Not Be Named broke up with She who shall not be named because "it would be too dangerous for her." PUH-LEASE!!!! Can you say 'cliché'? I knew you could. Didn't buy it, didn't buy it, didn't buy it. Buffy took her role as battler against all evil, still had time for a little sommin-sommin' on the side. And she's a GIRL!!! Anyway, I still loved the book, and if parts made me yell, well, that's a good thing.
I loved the newer opening in the Prime Minister's office, it was a wonderful setup to the changes of the world. A colorful, very active way to incorporate backstory into the book. Also, I liked the way she colored in Draco. I think authors have a tendency to just plomp a black hat or a white hat on a character and think that's enough, but the characters that come to life are characters who are multi-faceted, that contain both good AND evil.
One fascinating thing I noticed was that HP6 was a conversation-starter wherever I took it with me. My daughter swims and I sit and watch in the stands while she's in practice, and no less than five people (absolute strangers, all five of them), pointed to the book and asked if I liked it, and then shared their own comments: "I'm in the middle," "Just finished it last weekend," "The ending was a SHOCK," etc. The most notable comment was the 20 year old male cashier at Panera Bread, who told me he cried buckets at the end. All these people were adults and pretty much an even split between male and female. Book-reading became a shared experience that overcame the normal boundaries that strangers keep. A shared camaraderie based on an abstract object. So question for the readers here. If you saw a stranger carrying a book that you loved, would you comment? What if the stranger was scary, or does the inherent fact they're reading HP6 make them "unscary?"
Loved the romancey stuff, although I HATED the Spiderman moment at the end when Someone who Shall Not Be Named broke up with She who shall not be named because "it would be too dangerous for her." PUH-LEASE!!!! Can you say 'cliché'? I knew you could. Didn't buy it, didn't buy it, didn't buy it. Buffy took her role as battler against all evil, still had time for a little sommin-sommin' on the side. And she's a GIRL!!! Anyway, I still loved the book, and if parts made me yell, well, that's a good thing.
I loved the newer opening in the Prime Minister's office, it was a wonderful setup to the changes of the world. A colorful, very active way to incorporate backstory into the book. Also, I liked the way she colored in Draco. I think authors have a tendency to just plomp a black hat or a white hat on a character and think that's enough, but the characters that come to life are characters who are multi-faceted, that contain both good AND evil.
One fascinating thing I noticed was that HP6 was a conversation-starter wherever I took it with me. My daughter swims and I sit and watch in the stands while she's in practice, and no less than five people (absolute strangers, all five of them), pointed to the book and asked if I liked it, and then shared their own comments: "I'm in the middle," "Just finished it last weekend," "The ending was a SHOCK," etc. The most notable comment was the 20 year old male cashier at Panera Bread, who told me he cried buckets at the end. All these people were adults and pretty much an even split between male and female. Book-reading became a shared experience that overcame the normal boundaries that strangers keep. A shared camaraderie based on an abstract object. So question for the readers here. If you saw a stranger carrying a book that you loved, would you comment? What if the stranger was scary, or does the inherent fact they're reading HP6 make them "unscary?"
posted by Kathleen at 8:59 AM
2 Comments:
Kathleen, I've been waiting for your post on this!
I have a feeling the break-up ending is a red herring (bless you for the Buffy comparison). Surely, she's too smart for that! If they don't end up back together at the end of HP7, all my HEA nerve endings will be torn.
I'm in two minds about TKWSNBN. I really want redemption but...I'm getting a bad feeling that he's...bad.
I've been noticing all the train commuters reading HP books. I'm rereading HP1 and again, I'm amazed at how good it was.
My favourite past-time last week was reading JKR interviews and looking for HP7 hints. :-)
I'm absolutely sure the break-up is a red herring, but it pisses me off to know end that JKR did it, because it's SUCH a cop-out. A better thing would have been to have She Who Must Not Be Named suffer some bad injury and THEN Harry pulls his Tobey Maguire moment. However, this is not my book. :)
After reading the JKR interview on Book 7, it sounds like she thinks TKWSNBN is bad, too, which is sad. He's the cliff-hanger in the book. I don't know if she intended it that way (I suspect she did), but that's what happened, and that's what everyone is wondering about.
I waited about 6 days before I started HP6. With HP7, I just might be one of the people standing in line at midnight. :)
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