BOOK: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

This book is critic-proof.

Even if the damning truth was that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the biggest disappointment this side of Spider-Man 3, it would make not a jot of difference. Already, the seventh instalment of the boy wizard’s adventures has become the fastest-selling book of all time. This review is almost virtually redundant because chances are, you’ve read it already or worse, someone told you what happens in those final few pages.

Harry’s legion of fans had every right to be slightly concerned. 2003′s Order of the Phoenix was a bloated mess, in desperate need of an editor not so fixated on her publisher’s profit margins. The general view in Hollywood was that no-one was going to need to fret over what to cut for the cinematic outing, virtually the whole book could go because scarcely anything actually happens outside of a major character’s death. After such a crushing return following a three year hiatus (the previous four Potter books were released in a rather rapid annual succession), surely Rowling wasn’t about to ruin all that carefully laid groundwork?

In retrospect, Order was a canny move. It remains as frustratingly poor as it was four years ago but it marked a sea change in Rowling’s writing. Gone was the wild-eyed innocence of the first wave, in came a far darker central protagonist, now a brooding adolescent with little respect for authority. As ham-fisted in terms of structure book five was, Rowling was ultimately road-testing her prose and getting her audience used to the sharp shift away from stand-alone books seeded in a subtle fashion with future narrative towards the conclusion of a sprawling epic which would force a re-evaluation of those earlier efforts in lieu of new information.

Lucky then, that The Deathly Hallows finishes the Potter series with a flourish. It is perhaps the most radical of the seven; Hogwarts is barely seen until the action-packed, free-wheeling fight to the finish, and the focus is on Harry, Ron and Hermione like never before at the expense of the vast cast. Inevitably, your favourite is in there but glanced almost fleetingly. In that sense, Deathly Hallows also feels like a fond farewell, something that becomes obvious early on. Thankfully Rowling avoids turning Potter’s swansong into a greatest hits compilation.

However, the book is not perfect. There’s still a worrying amount of superfluous material and Rowling haphazardly advances time swiftly. Much of the middle chunk of this weighty tome is spent with Harry and friends on the run from the Death Eaters but there’s no sense of urgency. After the giddy glee of those first few chapters, much of the momentum feels lost and only a few key set pieces salvage what is otherwise a rather dry patch. Before Rowling knows it, she has to wrap it all up and so what follows is a motherlode of exposition which will be satisfying only once to those gagging to know everything while leaving everyone else quite exhausted.

Bearing that in mind, though, Rowling is a smart author. It’s obvious there’s always been a plan for her cast and she has wisely chosen to write for a growing audience, rather than taking the George Lucas approach and aiming at the same demographic all along. The Deathly Hallows is also undoubtedly the most cinematic of the set, taking some of its cues from the earlier films. On this evidence, it will be a rather exhilarating movie full of duelling wizards having been afforded the luxury of being able to slice much of the middle out.

How does it end? The only way it could. There is a short coda, which neatly puts a bow on that treat you’ve been waiting so very long for. By finishing with such a flourish (and it could easily have come across as clumsy) Rowling ensures that our only memories are fond ones and after all that effort, that no one comes away feeling cheated is a real accomplishment.

If you were going to buy this, you surely would have done by now. On the off chance that you haven’t though, click here.