Lynne Kiesling
Very good. Lots of action, plot twists and resolutions. Does justice to the Arthurian and hero themes, without overdoing it (to my taste). Not perfect. But well worth the price of admission.
I’m sure I’ll think of more later, but these are my initial thoughts. More below the cut, with spoilers …
I am saddened, but not surprised, by the body count and the identities of the dead. I had expected Ron and Hagrid to die, and am very glad to be wrong.
That Molly Weasley is something else! I knew she had it in her.
Neville too.
I had finally decided that Snape had to be good, and I had worked out a lot of what we learn about his arrangement with Dumbledore, but I expected the final dénouement between Harry and Snape to be more direct, and to require more acceptance/trust of Snape from Harry before the end of it. I knew it would be Snape’s love of Lily that was the linchpin.
Dumbledore ends up being less didactically categorizable (as my friend D. says, more grey), and more manipulative, than you typically get in a heroic protagonist. But that’s also consistent with the fact that all of the protagonists here are flawed, including Harry.
I wasn’t reading exceedingly carefully, but I missed how it was that Snape evaded all of the Grimmauld Place enchantments against him to get in to ransack and take Lily’s letter to Sirius. I thought Rita Skeeter did it, but I was wrong, but we get no explanation of how he achieved it.
Kreacher’s transformation is great, as is the role the house elves play in the final battle.
Fawkes didn’t play as much of a role in the plot as I anticipated. Nor did the goblins, although the role they do play is quite exciting.